A downside to being a student at U.S. Grant Jr. High was the strict controls over behavior. Bear in mind, U.S.Grant.....Springfield, Illinois, home of Lincoln. They played "Marching Through Georgia" before morning announcements!
Detention was for scofflaws, those students who couldn't cover their tracks or were too stupid to get caught.
Interestingly, after lunch, everyone went to the gym. DO NOT RUN UP AND DOWN THE STANDS. What did I and a friend do? Just that. In front of the gym teacher. we were showing off for the daughters of then- Governor Kerner, who, surprisingly also got detention.
Detention meant that 1 hour before school, 1 hour after school and all during lunch you were confined to a room lined with chairs. Hands on knees, look forward, backs straight- no talking. Lunch meant going after everyone else had gone through the lines and you and the rest of the inmates would walk "chain-gang" fashion through the lunch room and eat. How humiliating in front of the Gov's hottie daughters. Often your friends would say, "Hey, Ken, what did you do?" You would attempt to answer and POW! This lasted one week and was burned into kid memory.
Whatever happened to good old corporal punishment in schools?
I think corporal punishment went into permanent retirement at St John's Northwestern Military Academy......where it lives to this day!
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