Old School Classroom Management

I just finished a book about the Gilded Age in American and how bad it sucked. Even thought the writer (now deceased) lived in New York and wrote like an elitist (surprised?) it did have some interesting anecdotes from the past. In one part of the chapter on Education, the writer discusses how there was no discipline and cites a case of a young school teacher who was stoned to death by some of her students. In another part of the chapter, the book discusses how school teachers would beat the students for the slightest offence, such as, falling asleep in class. I have to ask myself, which is it, was there no discipline or was it excessively abusive?

Anyway, this leads me to a story that my late Uncle Bud would tell when he was growing up in rural Oklahoma circa 1920. I could never tell it as well as he could but here goes: The local school was having a hard time keeping a teacher employed because they kept quitting. Why? Because a few of the strong willed farmboys did not like "larnin" and would get in fights with the teacher and beat him up. Well, this went on for a while and a number of teachers quit. Finally, they found a new teacher who knew how to solve the problem. On his first day at the school (are you listening Harry Wong?) the new teacher walks into the classroom carrying a large leather satchel. He sets the satchel down on the teacher's desk and proceeds to unpack assorted papers and other items. He hasn't said a word to any of the students yet, but they all have their eyes fixed on the satchel waiting for him to speak. Finally, he pulls out a .45 caliber revolver and quietly sets it on the desk. He then starts class business as usual. Needless to say, the new teacher went through the rest of the year without any trouble from any student.
True story.