A Former Schoolmaster Tells How to Spank a Teenage Boy Successfully [Revised and Updated]
INTRODUCTION
Recent talk on the subject of the need for increased discipline in the home to curb juvenile delinquency, has drawn to my attention the number of people in this era of so-called "progressive education" who actually now favour a return to the woodshed for those teenage boys who seem unable to learn otherwise.
There may be a great many people who contemplate taking up "woodshed" action but who lack the experience and know-how set up and spank a teenage boy to insure ultimate effect.
That's all very well, " you may say, "but Jack is a big boy at 17. How would I go about spanking a boy who stands six feet in his socks, with shoulders on him that look like football pads? I don't want to make a flop of it. "
And you would be quite right. Corporal punishment is a serious business in the education of a teenage boy. No one should undertake it who is not able to finish properly what they begin. Fortunately, these things have been tried many times before and among some of us, boys are spanked all the time and with the results obvious in their further behaviour. Believe me, nothing is easier to do than to spank your boy thoroughly and successfully if you know how to go about it. As a life-long educator of the young, for many years Headmaster of an English Public School, I may be able to help you.
TO SPANK OR NOT TO SPANK
If you are still in doubt whether to spank or not to spank your boy or not, then I ask you to consult your conscience and see whether you have done all in your power to prevent his delinquency. Have you sat him down and talked with him carefully, listening to his point of view? I am sure you have tried. You have given the youngster of today the best education, the best opportunities, the best money can buy within your means. Then why does he go wrong? Because, dear reader, you have not given him the one thing he needs most -- authority. Every young boy likes to follow the leader. Have you been a leader to him? Do you fully realise that authority involves a certain unpleasant duty to enforce obedience and respect by means of discipline?
It is a well established fact that as the chastisement of teenager boys has declined in our homes and schools, so the incidences of teenage delinquency have increased. For the truth is that the older the youngster becomes, the greater the temptations that lie in his path. Never before have these temptations in the form of licensed bars, drugs, gambling dens and houses of prostitution been so great as they are today.
It is to protect him from these temptations and to insure he focused on school accomplishments and obeys you that the strictest discipline is needed, today more than ever, until the minor comes of age morally and mentally as well as physically.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JACK
In order to illustrate our problem, let us get down to a concrete case. Jack is a big boy. At 17 he is already in the flower of young manhood. Tall, athletic, handsome, he considers himself already grown up. But there he is mistaken. At 17, a boy is still highly immature mentally and emotionally, however well developed physically. Due to his manly appearance he gains access to places normally forbidden to minors. He picks up bad companions and easily falls prey to lustful temptations. Jack is not a bad boy at all. Far from it, in fact. But he only needs your help to keep him on the straight path.
There are many attempts to solve this problem... the problem that is at the core of juvenile delinquency...the problem of the boy who looks like a man but still thinks and often acts like a child. In the Old Country, the problem is partially met by keeping boys in short pants as long as possible, often until 17 or 18 years of age. This is hardly practicable in this country due to the climate, but can be tried, especially in the summer months.
Youth is very impressionable. Put big, handsome Jack in a pair of extra-brief, tight shorts and he will soon begin to act his age. Let him wear a zoot-suit and he will soon take on the airs of the juvenile delinquent.
But sooner or later you will have to face the question of punishment. There is absolutely no substitute for spanking. Sooner or later his shorts will have to come down and Jack will have to face the fact that a strap applied to his bare bottom is just as unpleasant at 17 as it was at 7. He needs to know that. I have always said that no boy is "too big" to spank. There is only MORE of him to spank! Of course, it will come as a terrific shock to young Jack now, who thinks he's an adult. Give him time to get used to the idea. He will come around in the end. There are many things a young man likes less than a good spanking over your knees. Take away permission to use the car. Ground him. Forbid him his fashionable clothes. Cancel his "heavy dates" an his credit card. He will soon prefer to submit to a strapping or a good spanking over your knees, in order to have his other privileges restored. And, that strapping or spanking or both will do him more good and give you the results you seek in his behaviour.
CHOOSING THE STRAP
The first requirement of a successful disciplinarian is a proper instrument of correction for use on errant bottoms. You simply must have a strap in your house. In the Old Country the cane is much favoured on account of its pliant stinging quality. However, a proper cane is not easy to obtain in Canada (the cane MUST be pliant, as a beating with a hard cane might possibly be injurious). Various other substitutes have been tried with varying degrees of success. There is much to recommend the wooden paddle, be kept around somewhere where Jack know you have it when you need to use it, as well as the hairbrush, but even the bare, cupped hand can work wonders in educating young Jack. But personally, I lean to the strap, especially in the case of a big boy like Jack. It is noteworthy that the official instrument of punishment in Canadian reformatories for young men of 18 to 22 years is, I am told, a broad leather strap, mounted on a wooden handle, applied to their naked buttocks.
The best plan is to consult your neighbourhood saddler. Do not hesitate to tell him what you want it for. Far more punishment straps are made and used than you possibly realise. In fact he will probably be able to show you several types and sizes to choose from. Be sure and give him the exact dimensions, or better still, bring the boy along himself and let the saddler see for himself what is required. After all, it will only do your boy a lot of good and afford him ample warning of what you have in mind if he does not mind you!
For Jack I would recommend a 12" length of leather, at least 1/4 inch thick and about two inches wide. Generally speaking, the broader the buttocks the wider the strap, although certain authorities recommend a narrow, cutting strap when the buttocks are rather plump. Direct the saddler to cut four tails in the punishment end of the strap to a depth of 1 inch. The leather should be well worked so that the tails are supple and follow the contours of the bottom that is to be strapped. It is well to soak the strap in saddle oil for 24 hours before using, to make the leather soft and pliant, thus increasing the sting.
JACK'S BOTTOM BARED
The strap is to be used ONLY on the young man's BARE bottom, something that he'll come to recognise over time. Many people may wonder why I place such importance on this point. Young Jack, himself in particular, is likely to object strenuously to this. He is sure to tell you he's much too old to be spanked like a small boy when you mention this point, but as he stands there stamping his feet in his heavy Levi's, you'll immediately recognise why he's objecting! I would not have you think that I am callous or indifferent to Jack's feelings on this point, at least at one level. I know only too well how mortifying this little ceremony is to his feelings. Alien hands unfasten his belt, unbutton his fly, peel down his trousers and shorts, slapping his young, fully bare buttocks that are up and over for all to view openly without regard for his "grown-up" pride. No wonder he feels embarrassed and deeply humiliated as you slip down his jeans and shorts and bare his bottom and see him in ways you haven't seen him since he was a small boy and you used to bath him. He's truly humiliated and horrified, to be sure.
And I submit, that is just how he SHOULD feel. A little humiliation is very much in order for the _c_o_c_k_sure youth of today. Whenever I see one of these overdressed, arrogant youths, with his tight pants showing all he has, sitting down in the street-cars while his elders have to stand, I long to be able to take him home, and to administer a little humility where it will do the most good! After all, humility is nothing to be ashamed of. It is the foundation of good character and citizenship.
This then, is the first good reason why Jack's bottom MUST be bared for his spanking. But there are others of more practical nature. It should be perfectly clear to the reader that he will achieve his objective more readily if no impediment, such as thick trousers or underpants, lies in his path. Let us be quite frank and quite open about this and you should be with Jack The objective of corporal punishment is to cause pain and to insure his spanking is an experience he won't want to repeat too soon or took often. And I can assure you, Jack's experience will be far more painful if you strap his bare skin rather than several layers of pant-leg, shirt-tail and cotton underwear.
Lastly it is in Jack's own interest, too, to "grin and bare it." For every boy has a different punishment characteristic. That is to say, some cry easily when their bottom's bare and that first crack lands and some will not flinch under the severest penalty while you spank them. Some have soft tender flesh, and others require very thorough discipline indeed. You have to be able to give him what he needs fully If Jack's young bare bottom is covered up it is impossible to gauge accordingly how much punishment a boy requires each time, and how much he should take. Excessive punishment is far less likely if the punisher can see the welts he inflicts. In fairness to the boy himself, I beg, LET HIS BOTTOM BE BARED!
THE ART OF CHASTISEMENT
I have called spanking an art, with good reason. Like any art, it requires constant patience and practice, and should not be undertaken without careful thought and study. Successful spanking requires a sound knowledge of fundamental principals.
The first of these principles is good posture.
This means placing the recipient in a prone position suitable for maximum contact between strap and his now very bare bottom. The spanking position, with your boy bare up and across the knees, is recommended strongly by the present writer, who has used it for all ages and sizes of boys. It is by far that preferred position for spanking your boy and the one he will come to appreciate the most.
Where impracticable, however, due to obesity on the part of the parent or in the case of a very big boy, another posture may be used, such as the kneeling" position, upon a bed or chair with the buttocks up and exposed. Or place the boy lying down on his stomach across the bed, with his bottom pointing towards the ceiling.
The procedure to follow is this. assuming the punishment takes place in a bedroom, place a hard chair against the bed, the left side to the bed. While sitting in the chair, draw the lad across your knees from right to left, so that the full weight of his body rests on the bed, and his posterior is across the knees, but well forward so that there is maximum play for the right arm wielding the strap. With the left arm, encircle the boy's bare waist, so as to hold him firmly in your grasp. You must hold him firmly to help him understand that whether he likes it or not, he is going to be spanked. Force his head down firmly. Make sure his bare bottom is right up on your lap where it is fully visible to you and where you can spank it best.
Do not make haste. It will do the boy no harm to spend a few moments of anxious anticipation in this ignominious position, awaiting your pleasure. It is now your task to spank him well. He knows he is offering up to you his bare bottom for his spanking. For your pleasure. Do not permit any impertinence at this point. Explain that it will only result in a more painful strapping. Or you might choose to spank him more than once or several night's in a row if he objects or struggles inappropriately.
Let us now examine the field of action carefully, while he hand there like this waiting for you to do your duty. In designating the area to be chastised as the "bottom", I use the word in the widest possible sense, to include not only the BUTTOCKS but THIGHS as well. It is a fact little known to laymen that strokes on the thigh are far more painful than strokes on the buttocks themselves. For this reason the expert punisher chooses his ground carefully in order to get the most value out of his strokes.
If short pants are worn, it is good to remember that marks from your spanking your bon on his thigh will remain for some time after the punishment and, if they occur below the "pant-line" may attract the notice of outsiders. You may naturally wish to spare Jack this added humiliation, but some authorities actually advise a form of "dress discipline", emphasising the childish character of the punishment. According to this theory, a teenage boy who misbehaves is told he has behaved like a child and he must therefore be punished like a child. A sound spanking immediately follows, in which particular attention is paid to the fleshy portion at the back of the boy's thighs, after which the culprit is put into short pants, like any small boy who has been naughty. If these shorts have been in dis-use for some years, they will be exceptionally brief and tight, thereby revealing the marks of his spanking clearly for all to see. Jack won't require more than one.
A young man disciplined in this way will certainly keep out of sight and out of trouble until the evidence of his having been freshly spanked fades from his thighs or until the discipline is relaxed and he's once again given permission to wear his jeans, as young men favour today.
The best plan is to choose a pattern of chastisement and follow it rigorously. Thus, strokes may be given in the following order: TWO in quick succession upon either bare buttock separately, followed by ONE on the back of each upper thigh and repeat in that order. After two or three repetitions, the entire area should be thoroughly red and sore-looking, but the skin should not be broken or bruised. As you slap or strap his bare bottom, he'll jerk and react verbally as your begin his spanking. Spank him well and soon he'll be asking you to stop and promising you better behaviour. Keep going. The boy needs this spanking, remember. Spank him thoroughly. After a short pause when you rest your hand or strap across his now red bare bottom, to give the pain time to "build-up", the youth should be admonished for his fault. He will probably be quite ready by now to make a full confession of his wrong-doings and promise to reform. Let him talk it out or cry it out, which is more likely. Keep your hand on his bare bottom. If he's not crying or promising things will be different in a way that you sure he means, then you need to give more and greater attention to that bare bottom over your lap. Spank him for real, or apply a paddle or hair brush to his bare bottom to really get him going. It is normal for your boy to try to plea his way out of his spanking long before he has really learned his lesson. When he tries, simply realise he's acting normally and trying to end this predicament in which he finds himself. At this point, you will know he really now needs his spanking from you. Do your duty and spank him. The punisher must not be bought off, however he cries and pleads for forgiveness. Spank him thoroughly until he has truly broken down and you will find it will be a truly rewarding experience for you -- and for him!
When you spank your boy, and take the time to do it right, you must always make it meaningful if you are to be helpful to him. A few taps are a waste of time and something he might find funny and actually disrespect you for. Rather, spank him and spank him well, very well! You can start and stop as many times as you wish. Just make sure you spank him solidly enough until you break him down and he knows, without a doubt, that you are serious about correcting his errand behaviour.
Following a heart-to-heart talk with his crying now or pleading seriously over your knees, the punishment MUST always be resumed, however briefly. You will choose to inflict only a few very strong and stern parting reminders where the young man will remember them best. Or you may wish to teach him a REAL lesson, my recommendation based on my experience spanking teenage boys. In this case, reverse the pattern given before: strap the BUTTOCKS ONLY ONCE each, and the Thighs TWICE OR MORE, repeating until well satisfied and he is howling painfully once again. Depending on your boy, you can pause and start as many time as you find helpful. It is difficult to say at what point the limit is reached (although you'll get some clear clues by his tears or reaction and the redness in the way his bare bottom is responding), but it is safe to assume that the staying power of your healthy teenage boy is capable of sustaining forty to fifty solid strokes of the strap altogether. Of course, you will gauge the punishment to the crime accordingly. Most often you will find that you have stopped too soon until you really gain good experience at spanking your boy. Risk spanking him too much rather than too little and he'll come to respect your for it and ultimately will thank you for it, albeit that will be sometime in the future. Your boy should not be allowed up without due regard for the strap and your own right arm, which means that his bottom must be fully reddened and without breaking the skin.
Spank him well. It will be extremely rewarding and if you have spanked your boy well, you will see an immediate improvement. If you don't, spank him again but do it right now!
At this point, if you have followed my directions above, you will have a very red faced and teary boy over your knees right now. He may still be sobbing quietly. Let him cry it out for as long as he needs to. He will no longer be so concerned that his bare bottom is exposed and over your knees but it will be extremely hot to the touch of your hand now and very, very red.
Look at him lying there over your knees. If the above is how you now see him, you have begun to learn the true art of chastisement and how to spank your own teenage boy for his best benefit.
"MAN ABOUT TOWN" WITH WEAKNESS FOR LADIES
Let us now return briefly to this teenage boy, Jack. and examine his feelings under punishment, to ascertain how he may best be taught the necessary lesson. It is not difficult to imagine how he feels while you remove his jeans and take down his briefs to take him across your knee while awaiting chastisement. Here I am, he thinks, a grown-up young man, with my pants and shorts taken down like a little kid for a licking. He feels humiliated, anxious and perhaps a little resentful of the proceedings. His resentment will be heightened if you have previously been neglecting your duty and have just not re-instated discipline into his young life. At the same time, Jack is a mature, intelligent, teenage boy. He was warned of the consequences and he has only himself to blame. Come on, he says to himself, let's get it over with. He had not yet comprehended the seriousness of your intentions to educate him properly from now on. He does not understand, yet, that spankings on his bare bottom have re-entered his young life and this will be just the first of many to come. At this moment, the deliberate slowness of your movements, positioning the buttocks over your knees, slapping them patronizingly with your bare hand, will be particularly galling to the handsome young "man-about-town." Take your time. These feelings in young Jack are necessary one and good in him at this moment.
JACK LEARNS HIS LESSON
At last, the punishment begins. The young boy is finally over your knee and going to get his bare fanny spanked like he should have been getting anyway all along if you'd been doing your duty. Don't fool yourself. He knows you are finally now going to assert your authority and he's wondered a lot why you never did before. Still as his spanking begging, it comes as a definite shock to the recumbent lad, bare now over your knees. That strap lands sharply and all of a sudden he feels it for real. He knew it would hurt but had no idea of the blazing throb which would be left by each stroke of the strap across his bare fanny.
The effect, too, of your now spanking him is cumulative, causing the pain to build up to a point where it quickly becomes unbearable. The stripes overlap, causing new and redder stripes, until before very long the lad your spanking now begins to reach the breaking point. At this moment, Jack is aware of only one feeling - surrender. You are about to break him down as he needs to be. He forgets his pride, his "grown-up" arrogance, his sense of superiority. He will fight this as much and as hard as he can, but as you spank him effectively, you will reach him and he will surrender in collapse, his young bare fanny over your knees. For this arrogant nonsense is only skin deep in adolescence and the real boy, simple, affectionate, emotional is soon revealed through his tears underneath it all. He will do or say anything right at that point that might stop the stinging fires that are engulfing his burning bare bottom.
"Please Sir, please.. .he pleads. I know I did wrong. I promise never to disobey again. I am sorry...truly, deeply sorry. Please don't strap me anymore ! ! ! " He certainly sounds sorry and genuine now.
And why shouldn't we believe him at this point? There is no reason to doubt his sincerity, simply because you hold the "whip-hand." You and you alone decide. He has done wrong and he had paid the penalty and found it very painful indeed. For the moment at least his promises of reform come straight from his young heart. It is unfortunate though that the memories of the young teenage boy are so short and it is necessary to teach them lessons that will be long lasting.
Talk it out with him now and make sure he understands clearly what he must now do to avoid causing you to repeat his punishment and spank him in the days to come.
His brief respite over, the boy finds himself repositioned for punishment once more across your knees. Spank him solidly now and do not be moved by his immediate tears and further pleas. Now he has to learn the lesson that justice is inexorable in this world and even a change of heart cannot save us from the consequences of our own wrong doing. This is but one of the fine lessons chastisement teaches us. Others are obedience, respect, courage and humility - all qualities sadly lacking in the youth of today.
Jack's experience over your knees today will certainly stand him in good stead in the years to come as he faces his own personal and business challenges, perhaps even when he has cause to discipline his own boys. But Jack has no time to understand or even to think of these things right now. His mind instead is filled with the sound of that swish in the air and the slap of the big leather strap in your hand as it caresses his bare, quivering flanks. Of course he's afraid now that you are reinforcing your just completed conversation by spanking him. This time though, he's not so _c_o_c_k_y and with his youthful arrogance now gone, his emotions are more quick to come to the surface as you spank his young bottom. Now young Jack puts his face on his arm and sobs unashamedly into the bedclothes as you spank him. Make sure you spank him very well this time too as it's crucial to his education.
The punishment over, what remains? All things come to an end, however unpleasant. This too, Jack learns, left alone in the darkened room, sobbing quietly to himself while wondering if the sting and throb in his backside will ever subside. Give the lad some time to himself. He need to adjust to the fact that things have now changed, haven't they?
After the storm comes the sun, after punishment, forgiveness.
Thus, through judicious and repeated chastisement, Jack, like all teenage boy who are spanked, arrives at a philosophy of life which will make for success and happiness instead of failure and misery, which awaits many of our spoiled teenagers.
One brief ceremony is left, but it's an important one. Jack expresses his gratitude to you for what you have done for him. This is best done immediately after the last and hardest stroke has been delivered and the pain is still at its peak and, of course, he is not standing in front of you. Young Jack's more concerned about wiping his tears away and rubbing the pain in his bare bottom that to worry about how he's now exposed to your view. By now he's aware, if you've spanked him in the way's I've just explained to you, that this is not likely to be his last spanking and you're going to be pulling down his jeans and shorts and spanking him from now on, maybe even sooner than he thinks if he doesn't behave himself. Your own boy's attention is now going to be focus on avoiding a repeat trip bare bottom up over your knee, rather than worrying about what you're looking at.
He stands to attention, pantless and smarting, his face burning as red as his hinder cheeks and says simply and sincerely: "Thank you!"
A whole world of importance lies in those simple words. By them, Jack signifies his knowledge that you are his friend as well as his punisher and he affirms the new bond that is established between you. This may be accomplished by a swift hug or a manly handshake. Some who spank teenage boys make this an emotional moment for the boy's benefit.
The next day will be time enough to talk. Then, in the quiet of your office or study, you may invite the boy in for a friendly chat. Get to know him better - his ambitions, his problems, his hopes.
No further reference on subsequent days should be made to what has passed. It will do no harm, however, to warn him from time to time that a repetition of his experience across your knees may be expected if he is disobedient and breaks the rules further. It will help to keep him on the straight path and bring him home at the appointed hour, thereby saving him from a far more painful interview later.
There will, of course, be other spankings, from time to time, and plenty of them to be sure, but, I hope, they will occur less and less frequently until Jack, like your own teenage boy, goes out into the world a happy and healthy man, to bring up a good family of his own. Each time you spank him, however, follow the same procedure above. Always take your time and spank your teenage boy correctly. Never spank him lightly or in a rush. His spankings should always be moments he personally dreads. Soon he will learn to recognise even the look on your face when he's getting close to getting one and his behaviour will immediately snap to improvement.
How long should you continue spanking your teenage boy? Certainly for as long as he's pursuing his schooling. Less then exemplary grades should always bring him a good long spanking session, even if he's just home for the holidays and his latest girl's on her way over. Give your teenage boy a good spanking no matter how old he gets. Give him one when he needs one.
You will find in the long run that the strap can be a good friend to a teen-age boy, just like I have found it still is with my own boys.
A former schoolmaster [Revised with the help of a man who spanks his own teenage boys]