I can name a few of the punishments I received.

• Our school had a rule about hair. Boys shouldn’t let their hair grow more than half an inch. If it was more than that school staff would know by sliding their fingers in your hair and grasping it firmly wiggling your head around. If the fingers slipped you are good to go but if not they would grab a hand operated trimmer and cut a big patch of your hair in visible parts like the front of the head. It was a punishment that students called “branding”.

• If students were caught fighting the principle would arrive with a garden variety watering hose and whip both the kids in the back, the legs and the arms until they could no longer stand. If kids wanted to fight they would hold back until they were outside of school grounds.

• Not greeting a teacher when you passed them in the hallway ranged anything from a few minutes of yelling to 2 back handed slaps across the cheeks depending on the teacher’s mood.
• If you forgot to do your homework you would be beaten in the back of your hands and the palm of your hands with wooden ruler, if the ruler broke a student had to lend the teacher his (metal rulers were preferred). If there was nothing in the classroom to punish with the student was required to go to the principle’s office to borrow a ruler or a garden hose or go to the yard and pick a fresh thick branch from the tree, whichever he preferred.
• If a student was being loud during class and distracted others he would be forced to come to the front of the class, get on all fours and lick the dirty concrete floor with his tongue for as long as the teacher ordered.
• If a class as a whole was being bad the top three students ( I was in third place) would be brought to the front of the class and whipped by a leather belt until they collapsed and the next one would receive punishment. This was meant to show the students that not even good hard working students are immune if a class was being rowdy so everyone should straighten up.

Update 1: For those of you who are wondering this is a typical middle school in Afghanistan.