Perhaps inevitably, the Coal Camp Schoolhouse drew a lot of us. Both adults and kids fixated on the lists of punishments. Among them:
- for boys and girls playing together, 4 lashes.
- Telling Lyes, 7 lashes (common trust!!)
- For Waring Long Finger Nails, 2 lashes
- For Coming to School with Dirty Faces and Hands, 2 lashes
- For Misbehaving to Girls, 10 lashes
- For Making Swings and Swinging on Them, 7 lashes
But the adults also got a kick out of the rules for teachers which were, to say the least, gender-biased.
From "Rules for Teachers, 1872":
- Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed
- Men teachers may take one evening a week for courting purposes, two evenings if they go to church regularly
- After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books
Hmmm!
No comments:
Post a Comment