Historic Hood River
“Rule No. 1”
9-18-2026
Notes
These minutes from the October 24th 1885 school board contain the “Rules and Regulations to Govern School”. They get right into it with Rule No. 1:
Teachers are required to keep the strictest order in the school and to resort to corporal punishment if necessary to enforce this rule.
There were twelve rules in total, covering everything from loitering to profanity to tardiness and absences. They also lay out the procedures for processing complaints about the teacher’s enforcement of rule #1.
L.E.
Wow….how times have changed.
I am wondering how, in 1885, a teacher was suppose to “…at once notify the parents…” if the pupil left school to avoid punishment.
My husband started teaching in 1970. Corporal punishment was still in use, but on its way out. My father in law was hired to teach in the early 1940’s. He was hired because he had been a boxer.
Thorn
Huh, that’s funny. Corporal punishment is now considered abuse. Letting your kid walk alone is considered neglect. Profane and obscene language and imagery are commonplace. Yet, handwriting in cursive no longer exists.