Donkey riding
Donkey riding is a method of punishment through humiliation that was used in some European schools up to the early 20th century.
Method
The classroom featured a "wooden donkey" on which a child could be sat for punishment. The child thus punished was often additionally humiliated by having to wear a donkey cap or a donkey board that was hung around his/her neck. The donkey symbolized stupidity, which is why it was chosen for this type of humiliating punishment. The other pupils were encouraged to laugh at the child thus punished, adding to his/her shame.
The "donkeys" used for this type of psychological punishment should not be confused with the birching horses, birching ponies and birching donkeys which were designed and used for corporal punishment. They can also not be compared to torture devices such as the Spanish horse which were designed to make sitting astride them a painful ordeal.
- Donkey riding
Langenhäuser Schuldisciplin (1795) shows a boy punished by donkey riding, wearing a donkey cap.
"Schulstrafe" (school punishment), 1896: wooden donkey, donkey cap, and donkey board for maximum humiliation.
See also
Links
- Illustration (unknown artist, from Switzerland)
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