Abuse and Context

[Amanda]

Kethryn -

I was originally going to post this over on the main group forum but 
didn't due to the lack of canon involved in the question (although I 
certainly think the answers will shed some light on a couple of 
ongoing arguements over in the other forum).  So, new poster to this 
forum, here goes...
 
I have a couple of questions about context here because I think that 
I for one have some different ideas about what is actually considered 
abusive behavoir in terms of a teacher and a student.  Just so you 
all know where I am coming from, I am a 28 year old college student 
who grew up in America's deep south (ie. Georgia).  Back when I was 
in elementary and middle school, the rules were way different than 
they are now and those rules were totally acceptable.  Children were 
allowed, under certain circumstances, to be paddled.  Is that abuse?  
I didn't think so then and I don't think so now.  There are some 
people in this world that won't get it unless it is applied with 
physical force.  Teachers were allowed to rule their classrooms as 
they would, the only exception to that was that teachers were not 
allowed to pick solely on one person.  That basically meant that when 
one person got into trouble, everyone got into trouble, which is 
grosly unfair.
 
So, my question is actually directed at the British people on the 
boards.  What is the current (and even during JKR's time at school) 
acceptable punnishments for school children?  If Snape came to your 
school and did this to you, would there be recriminations on Snape 
(nowadays, there would be here in the US...back when I was in school, 
there would not have been)?  I have heard stories from friends who 
either went to Eton, for example, or had been friends with people who 
went there and, from those stories, I can tell you that their 
schooling experience was vastly different from mine in certain ways.  
Just like we have all heard the stories coming from Catholic schools 
about beatings and monstrous beratings from the nuns, I have heard 
the same coming from private schools (in the US and otherwise) and I 
think we can all consider Hogwarts to be the most private of private 
schools.
 
So, when you boil it down, are the British schools less liberal than 
American schools?  Do they hold to the older standards of behavoir?  
Is what they consider to be abusive behavoir to be the same as what 
we hold true here in America?  
 
Kethryn
 
PS.  Please note, also, that I am not saying either way is better, I 
withhold judgement on that on the basis that I do not have kids and I 
know better than to think my own rotten experiences in school are in 
any way large enough a data sample to form a hypothesis.  Of course, 
I was bullied mostly by other students but there was one or two 
rather memorable teachers that were bullies and thugs as well, namely 
my Chemistry teacher and my World Government teacher, both were in 
High School.