A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's cap, or dunce's hat, is a pointed hat. In popular culture, it is typically made of paper and often marked with a D or the word "dunce", and given to schoolchildren to wear as punishment by public humiliation for misbehavior and, as the name implies, stupidity. Frequently the 'dunce' was made to stand in the corner, facing the wall as a result of some bad behaviour, usually rudeness or mean threatening actions. Depending on the teacher, they might have to stand for as long as half an hour. Throwing spitballs, passing notes to boys or pulling on a girl's hair could prompt the measure. Class clowns were frequently admonished with the dunce cap. Only in some locations was it used against those who failed during studies – it usually was more a measure to teach manners and how to be a responsible individual. In modern society dunce caps are extremely rare, and are frowned upon.
A very similar practice on the European continent was a paper headdress known as donkey's ears, as a symbol of 'asinine' stupidity.
Read more about Dunce Cap: Origins
Famous quotes containing the words dunce and/or cap:
“A sure proportion of rogue and dunce finds its way into every school and requires a cruel share of time, and the gentle teacher, who wished to be a Providence to youth, is grown a martinet, sore with suspicions; knows as much vice as the judge of a police court, and his love of learning is lost in the routine of grammars and books of elements.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I put a Phrygian cap on the old dictionary.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)