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A switch is a flexible rod, typically used for corporal punishment of the birching
Birching

Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders....
 type, called switching after it, especially when using a single branch: multiple branches are rather called a rod, a less flexible single rod is rather called a cane
Caning

Caning is a physical punishment consisting of a number of hits with a wooden cane#Disciplinary implement, generally applied to the bare or clad buttocks , shoulder, hand or the soles of the foot ....
, an inflexible one a stick; a paddle is broader but hard and flattened.

ches are most efficient (i.e., painful and durable) if made of a strong but flexible type of wood, such as hazel
Hazel

The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.Hazel plants prefer a nice warm, mild,moist climate nothing more nothing less....
 (also use for a very severe birch
Birching

Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders....
) or hickory (see hickory stick); as the use of their names for disciplinary implements, without specification, and as verbs for lashing, indicates, birch and willow
Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere....
 branches are time-honoured favorites, but branches from most strong trees and large shrubs can be used, often simply nearby from a garden, an orchard or the wild.






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A switch is a flexible rod, typically used for corporal punishment of the birching
Birching

Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders....
 type, called switching after it, especially when using a single branch: multiple branches are rather called a rod, a less flexible single rod is rather called a cane
Caning

Caning is a physical punishment consisting of a number of hits with a wooden cane#Disciplinary implement, generally applied to the bare or clad buttocks , shoulder, hand or the soles of the foot ....
, an inflexible one a stick; a paddle is broader but hard and flattened.

Punitive switching


Switches are most efficient (i.e., painful and durable) if made of a strong but flexible type of wood, such as hazel
Hazel

The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.Hazel plants prefer a nice warm, mild,moist climate nothing more nothing less....
 (also use for a very severe birch
Birching

Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders....
) or hickory (see hickory stick); as the use of their names for disciplinary implements, without specification, and as verbs for lashing, indicates, birch and willow
Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere....
 branches are time-honoured favorites, but branches from most strong trees and large shrubs can be used, often simply nearby from a garden, an orchard or the wild. In the southeastern United States, fresh-cut, flexible cane (Arundinaria
Arundinaria

Arundinaria, commonly known as the canes, is the sole temperate genus of bamboo native to the New World . The genus is endemic to the eastern United States from New Jersey south to Florida and west to Ohio and Texas....
) is commonly used. The usage of switches has been hotly contested in North America and Europe.

Making a switch is simply called cutting, as it only involves cutting it from the stem and removing twigs or directly attached leaves as those would lessen its sting (hence deliberately left on for sauna use). For optimal flexibility it is cut fresh shortly before use, rather than keeping it for re-use over considerable time. Some parents decide to make the cutting of a switch an additional form of punishment for a child by requiring the disobedient child to cut his/her own switch. The practice of switching is banned in the United States School System in 29 states and no longer occurs in public settings. In 21 states including Mississipi and Texas, corporal punishment is still practiced in schools and is called licks or paddlings. Many adults from rural areas still vividly recall being switched as children.

Parents in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 (where the wider paddle
Paddle (spanking)

A spanking paddle is a usually wooden instrument with a long, flat face and narrow neck, so called because it is roughly shaped like the homonymous piece of sports equipment, but existing in more varied sizes and dimensions, used to administer a spanking to the buttocks; it would be too hard and heavy to use safely on the back....
 is the most common spanking
Spanking

Spanking is a form of corporal punishment that generally consists of striking the buttocks. The recipient is most often a child or teenager. In some parts of the world, and at some times in history, women were also typical recipients, but this is no longer common in most of the world....
 implement) are reputed to threaten disobedient children with gifts of utilitarian coal
Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
 and switches for Christmas
Christmas

Christmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts Twelve Days of Christmas....
 should they not reform their behavior, although the actual practice of this is rare to the vanishing point, especially as most people live in urban areas where less suitable wood is easily at hand for the old-fashioned woodshed treatment and most modern educators consider such severe physical discipline cruel and it is often banned by law as child abuse.

  • The tamarind switch (in Creole English tambran switch) is a judicial birch-like instrument for corporal punishment made from three tamarind
    Tamarind

    The Tamarind is a tree in the rank Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic . It is a tropical tree, native to tropical Africa, including Sudan and parts of the Madagascar dry deciduous forests....
     rods, braided and oiled, used long after independence in the Caribbean Commonwealth island states of Jamaica
    Jamaica

    Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....
     and Trinidad & Tobago.
  • The Gilbertese tribal community at Wagina in Choiseul province (Solomon Islands
    Solomon Islands

    For the group of islands rather than the nation, see Solomon Islands .The Solomon Islands is a country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands....
    ) reintroduced by referendum in 2005 traditional "whipping" with coconut tree branches for various offences - the national justice system opposes this.


Media references

  • In the movie "The Harder They Come" the lead character, after assaulting another character is punished by "8 strokes of the tamarind switch."
  • The Michael Fay caning incident in Singapore.


See also

  • Switchgrass
    Switchgrass

    Panicum virgatum, commonly known as switchgrass, is a perennial warm season grass native to North America, where it occurs naturally from 55? N latitude in Canada southwards into the United States and Mexico....


Sources and references