Creative detention in school

Hi Sammy,

What you suggest would be embarrassing but sounds more like routine pranks any teenage guy might do with friends rather than a corrective punishment, which I would think detention was intended to be. Maybe because I was raised by parents who did not find it necessary to include embarrassment/humiliation as a factor in punishment, I can't see why that element plays in. It would also be a punishment for the parents who would likely be out the expense to clean, if not have to replace, the uniform.

I expect parents would likely punish once home when they saw the uniform in that condition & heard about what you had done. Do you think your parents would've punished you for such detention?...and if so, how?

Just my thoughts.

Sammy, I think there is merit in your argument, but I see unnecessary damage to the uniform or whatever clothing the boy would be wearing and that would embarrass the boy and make it uncomfortable to face your parents and explain your behavior, but a more expensive punishment for the parents than the boy since they would have to clean or supervise the boy as a chore to clean the clothing or even replace it. I may be just old fashion in my thinking since I was in school several decades ago, but it still seems more a prank than corrective to me.

Even for guys in my school years, detention was disliked just for the reason you mentioned...your friends were out of school socializing & having fun while you sat in school supervised for an hour by a staff person. Rather than a letter home if you were assigned detention, the boy had to carry home a detention notice for parents to sign and so you faced parents sooner & had to explain yourself. That note usually got you punished at home without messed up uniform or clothes.

You mention some home punishments as being: loss of pocket money; assigned home chores; grounded a week or two. Is this how you think your parents would punishment you if you detention under your suggested method? Do you really think that the cane or a parental lecture (you call it shouting) is violent or abusive? If I did some serious misbehavior as a boy and was caught, yes I got talked to by my parents & was expected to explain my behavior. After the lecture, it was often a spanking I got from dad too. It wasn't violent or abusive but admit my bare rear-end was sore & red for awhile. Have your parents used spanking as a punishment with you or used more the alternative you suggest (i.e. chores, grounding. etc)?

Most of my detentions in high school involved just sitting in a classroom after school studying or taking a nap. Not very creative.

A few times, the dean got more creative. One time I had to scrub desktops clean for a long time after school, and another I had to set up a couple of hundred chairs in the gym for an assembly. And a few times, I had to write lines or punish assignments while I served my time.

I don't know about anything more "creative" than that. Ruining clothes seems a little over the line, though clothes could get dirty doing a work detail, especially one that is outdoors.

I think there's a difference between clothes getting dirty in the course of something else, and deliberately destroying clothes. I wouldn't deliberately destroy a kid's clothes, but if they get wet or dirty during a work detail that's imposed as a punishment for misbehavior, I don't see that as a problem.

I can't remember if my clothes ever got dirty during any work detail that I did as a form of detention. I did a few, mostly indoors but 1 or 2 outdoors. I imagine my clothes probably got a little dirty from the outdoor work details but it really wasn't a big deal. I just washed them.

What about compositions on inane topics? I once had to write a composition of "Life Inside a Ping Pong Ball" during detention and couldn't leave until it was finished. My friend had to write about "A Day in the Life of Cold Oatmeal." Those are actually good intellectual exercises as well as punishment because they force you to really think to be able to write a long essay on such a ridiculous topic.

The most creative punishment involved a friend who was in detention all the time, so the dean decided something more creative was needed. He picked a number randomly out of the phone book, closed the book, and told my friend he couldn't leave until he found the name associated with that number. He sat there for about 2 hours trying to find it, with no success. After a while, the dean left him alone in the room. He ran out, went to a phone, called the number, explained his predicament to the person who answered, and got the name. Only then did the dean cut him loose from that long detention. I'm sure he was back again before long.

That looks like fun! I think I might enjoy that.