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Age of Empathy

We publish high-quality personal essays, humor essays, and writer interviews. Our goal is to provide a place for experienced writers to share authentic stories and connect with others, collectively celebrating a common passion, striving toward an age of empathy.

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A School District is Bringing Back Spanking, and Parents Love It

4 min readSep 20, 2022

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Painting by author (Ira Robinson)

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, there was one thing we students feared most.

“Old Yeller.”

Nah, I don’t mean the book or movie, though that damn story devastated me the first time I read it in school.

What I’m referring to is the large paddle that hung in the principal’s office. Resting against the wall in all of its horrific glory, Old Yeller was a yellow-painted hunk of wood that he’d use to discipline any students he felt went “out of line.”

The thing had holes drilled into it, just so it could swing through the air faster with less resistance, and that man made prodigious use of it.

Getting out of line, by the way, could be as little as not paying enough attention in class, or asking to use the bathroom outside of hallway moments. Yes, that’s right. If you had to go, and you were one who went “too frequently,” you’d have to face down Old Yeller as a deterrent.

I was torn up with that thing on more than one occasion, making my time at school just as terrorizing for me as being at home with my whiskey-drunk of a father who took his belt and fists to me.

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Age of Empathy
Age of Empathy

Published in Age of Empathy

We publish high-quality personal essays, humor essays, and writer interviews. Our goal is to provide a place for experienced writers to share authentic stories and connect with others, collectively celebrating a common passion, striving toward an age of empathy.

Ira Robinson
Ira Robinson

Written by Ira Robinson

Published author of over a dozen books and dozens of short stories, Digital painter, and streamer, and blind. Contact me at ira@originalworlds.com

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