It wasn't true in fact that Mr. Arnold had my parent's permission to whip us, and I cannot remember him ever trying. But there was no question that Mr. Stanley, Mr. Arnold, Rev. Robinson, Mother Sadie, and Mrs. Myers were in close enough communication to my parents that our wrongdoing was almost always seen and certainly punished. We did get chewed out twice, but not beaten twice.
So there is the urban legend about black neighborhoods where this was the case, and it is always said with some nostalgia for a more well-behaved past. As well, it is popular to raise this mutual old school parenting in the Hillary Clinton aphorism about what it take to raise a child. A village eh?
Isn't that just tribal?
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