School
A school is an institution for teaching. Usually in schools children are taught by adults who do teaching as their profession; these are called teachers.
For practical reasons the schoolchildren are grouped in units which are called classes. Usually the children in one class are about the same age and have a comparable educational background, so they can be taught the same lessons together.
School corporal punishment
Main article: school corporal punishment
Traditionally teachers are expected by society to fulfil an in loco parentis role; i.e. they should educate the children not only in knowledge but also in good behavior. Teachers were permitted and expected to punish children under their supervision who showed undesirable or unacceptable behavior such as laziness, inattentiveness, rudeness or disobedience.
From the first schools in Antiquity up to (and in some countries including) the 20th century, the usual method of punishment at school was some kind of corporal punishment. In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, schoolchildren were usually birched (on their bare bottoms) for correction. The birch was so vital to schooling and education in general that it became the symbol of the teacher's profession in medieval art.
In the 18th and 19th century, canes were imported from the colonies to Europe and gradually replaced the birch both in schools and homes. See for example the schoolroom paintings of Albert Anker (1831-1910).
South Asian teachers prefer the cane to the present today. In US schools, on the contrary, the most popular spanking implement was and still is the paddle.
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