Getting the strap at school - a harmless rite of passage or an awful abuse of power? Produced by Justin Gregory.

It was a time many of us would like to forget. Less than 30 years ago, teachers in New Zealand had the legal right to physically punish their students for bad behaviour and some of them were more enthusiastic about it than others.

"I remember one time not spelling something properly and getting kicked, really hard, in the base of the spine."

Poet, rapper, author, performer, Auckland artist Dominic Hoey mines his life for his material. This poem, which he performs live a lot, is about what he calls his "awesome education":

our teacher was a thick-necked sadist.

he carried soft brutal hands

and wore big wet eyes on his stupid pig face

he taught a master class in the joys of violence

spelling mistakes

laughing

being a child

all were answerable with

beatings

that'd make

any meth head bouncer proud

Dominic goes on to describe how one day this "thick-necked sadist" loses control and his beaten victim escapes from the class. Everyone settles back down to work until a man in a red jacket arrives. He wants to know if the teacher hit his son.

the man in the red jacket grabbed the teacher by the throat

and dragged him from the classroom

we all leapt to our feet

ran to the windows

our sticky fingers pressed to the glass

watching with glee

as the man in the red jacket beat the living shit

out of the teacher

'kill him, kick his face off'

when our teacher returned his face was a rotten mess

he never did grow back to his former size

and the man in the red jacket

became revered like Jesus or MacGyver

The name of this poem is 'Kill Him'.

Dominic has other not-so-fond memories of school.

"I remember one time not spelling something properly and getting kicked, really hard, in the base of the spine...getting thrown across the room by the neck ... but yeah, a lot of kids got it worse than me."

No one's saying this was standard behaviour for teachers, but most New Zealanders in their mid-30s and older can remember teacher-led violence at school - because if you were thinking this all took place a long time ago, think again. Dominic was at primary school in the 1980s. The late 1980s.

When RNZ asked our audience to share their memories of corporal punishment, they flooded in. We received literally hundreds of responses, almost all condemning the practice.

Only three responses were in favour, and one of them was from an ex-teacher.

I ask Dominic if receiving corporal punishment ever helped him to learn…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details