Corporal Punishment

You guys have got it all wrong. {b}Teachers{/b} ought to be banned.

For many days there are many news about the teachers at different levels are torturing student. Same case is being discussed on chowk for many days. I thought to give a gist of the essay of Montaigne that he has written about the education, teachers and relationship b/w students and teachers.
Here are some important points of his essay that I have transferred into my own words with explanations for the convenience of readers.

First of all check out moral standard of the teacher b/c he is the companion of the student. We should take in the mind the integrity, strength of financial character internal force of the teacher. Emotionally stable teacher is the model of student.
Teacher must clarify the aims and prose and cones of the education. Education doesn’t only help in practical, financial and economical way, it transform our character. It’s a kind of motivation, leads man out of the darkness that’s why GOD calls education as light. Education humanize you and make you noble, education makes man out of monsters.
There are 2 types of teachers.
1.well filled and bookish. He does not have any thing in his character.
2.well formed intellectual.
Teacher must be a balanced Man. must not be a syllabus teacher.
Education is a mutual exercise b/w student and teacher. He should arose the imagination and emotions of student he should evoke the love of learning in student.
Teacher must realize the capacities of the student. Student should not be over burdened and stressed. Sign of a good teacher is that he comes down to the level of student that is very difficult. Teacher is the person who can gradually raise the capacities of the student. Capacity of the student can be raised. Teacher must investigate the student but should not be over- imposing or over authoritative. Controversy and difference of opinion should be allowed. There is a saying that reason thrives on controversy. Dissent should be encouraged.
The process of learning, or the path towards facts always begins with controversies. Here is the process of learning in my own point of view..

Doubt…Analyze…Fact…. Truth…wisdom…virtue…Devin.

Mystery…. Wonder…Curiosity…Learning…knowledge…wisdom…virtue…Devin.

First of all there comes a doubt in one’s mind, after that he analyzes it and comes to the fact, fact is the truth, that truth follows the wisdom, wisdom is virtue and virtue is always Devin. Same thing is with the next line, first of all we find ourselves in a mystery, we wonder over that and we become curious about it and this curiosity results in learning, and this learning is knowledge, knowledge is wisdom, wisdom is again virtue and virtue is Devin. We after this process reach to the divinity.
Mostly our teachers don’t encourage or tolerate such type of controversies, by doing this they are damaging all this process towards the exploration of facts, truths.

Change is the result of education. Student should be taught to confess his mistakes. Abstinent is another form of illiteracy. Mistake is the sign of learning. If we don’t commit mistakes how can we learn what’s right what’s wrong? Mistake according to me is an experience by which we learn.
Best teacher is he who,

1 allows you to speak out
2. He listens to u impersonally.
3. He is always ready to except truth.
4.He is always ready to forget.
5. He is always ready to tolerate.
6. He is always ready to forgive.

Teacher is the person who can find out the hidden potentialities of a student and it’s only possible when teacher allows his student to speak out and listens to him impersonally. He has ability to except the truth, to forget the things of student that are against his opinion or point of view he has ability to tolerate such things he is able to forgive.

He must not close the child in limited surroundings. Student must explore different dimensions of the life such as observation, interaction, experience, study, experiments, travel, imaginations, intuitions, meditations, inspiration and the teacher is the only man who can help student to do so.
There is much more to be discussed on this topic but for the time being it’s enough from my side. I wanted to discuss Montaigne’s points but my own point of views rushed into it and thus it became 25% Montaigne and 75% S.GUL.

sakoooooooooooot:

I agree with you and your stance. I do believe in disciplining a child, but I do not believe in any kind of physical abuse. That`s a cruel practice and the teachers ought to be sent back to the basics of teaching. A very interesting article with good points!

By the way, my previous post was meant for Urstruly :)

Zahra

ZahraJ, fak, designworld: thanks for liking the article and appreciating my effort...I`ll be so happy if a thick-headed, insensitive teacher back home reads this story and cries...cries with guilt for doing this to little, innocent kids...

I can`t believe that some people are actually in support of corporal punishment on this website!

#10

That was a sweet story. The ending was quite powerful and insightful :)

Kinza - Congratulations on writing such a different and thought provoking article. Corporal punishment is both unfortunate and unwelcome yet it continues to flourish in our part of the world. From so called High schools to Govt. schools corporal punishment is widely practiced in different variants. This is not only resulting in children loosing their self esteem and confidence, but in many cases are scarred for life. Thanks again for your brilliant article keep up the good work.

Regards,
FaK

You have done a tremendous job by making the Pakistani people realize that the school system needs to change. Persons with analytic depths as yours need to be recognized. Your hypothesis is very valid. Ending the school torture can in fact bring new solid hope to otherwise worrisome future in terms of psycholical built-up of our children.

Please carry on giving your views on related social issues of our society.

Dr. Naqshbandi,

There is little hope for having a serious/rational discussion with individuals like Urstruly and Echoboom.

However, since you consider yourself a bibliophile, please let me draw your attention to the following lines from Kabeer:

Pothee pudh-pudh jug mua
Pandit bhaya na koi
Adhayee akshar prem ka
Padhe so pandit hoi.

Who should we reserve the prem for, if not our kids? Maybe you have been reading the wrong books, sir!

Sincerely,
BeeJay.

Re: # 10

Ah, so this originated in grade 9 but alas we are still enduring it here... there is the man who writes the best short stories (something that comes naturally I suppose) and then he changes his garb and starts afflicting judgments on morals, on women, on conduct, and on those inexorable indoos! (ahem, just a harmless kid following the proctor hand book).

Mystery solved!

For this one observer

But then there are our Ba Ba Blacksheep.



Tony Blair woos Muslim voters
UK Bureau
march 24, 2005

Conscious
of the fact that Muslims are angry because of his Iraq policy, Tony
Blair has started to woo them through various concessions. Muslims
affect outcomes in at least eight constituencies where they are in
large numbers. But in many other fringe seats their support is also
vital.

On Wednesday night, Blair rebuked his own Chief Inspector
of Schools for criticising Islamic education in the country. He
distanced himself from the chief inspector David Bell in a lengthy
interview with a Muslim newspaper.

Bell had said that Muslim
faith schools were failing to prepare pupils for life in British
society. He had also said that the pupils were not being prepared to
respect other cultures. But Blair distanced himself from Bell, the man
the Government has put in charge of raising standards in schools.
|
``
I don`t actually agree with the comment that they are not teaching kids
proper discipline or how to integrate into the community,`` Blair told
the Muslim Weekly. Such a statement is seen to underline Blair`s
anxiety about the Muslim support to Labour in the forthcoming General
Election, expected on May 5.

He also insisted that Labour had
gone out of its way to help British Muslims. Pressed on why should
Muslims vote Labour, Blair said, `` There is multi-cultural and
multi-racial society we believe in that we have done a lot to foster in
this country in the past few years.``

But it is as yet to be seen how much Blair would succeed in mollifying Muslims.

as a teacher myself i can see first-hand what the banning of corporal punishment in schools has done to the educatiuon system here in the UK: ruined it! Kids have no resepct anymore. What used to be the envy of the world is now a travesty.

Our elders were correct when they said, ``maan baap ka pyaar aur ustaad kii maar phool hotay hain`` (The love of the parents and the (corporal) punishment of the teacher are flowers)``.

In Panjabi we say: Allah sent down four divinely revealed books...and the fifth was the danda!
and:

Danda-peer!

READ this & cry.

Corporate punishment & such debates are luxuries in a country where the entire system under Muslim-brahmins is hell-bent to turn the nation into Dalitistaan.

``If everybody gets same education, where will servants come from``? The Ma Ma Blacksheep swings her chakdee ( fat-laden behind) and coquettishly brushes by Ba Ba Blacksheep.

Ba Ba Blacksheep acts--what else--sheepish. Bah Humbug, he mutters!

---

Urstruly:
grassiaa muchoo!

`` dil sey shauqu-e ruukh-e nak-O na gayaa
taaknaa jhaanknaa kabhh-O na gayaa``.

--hUm bhee koo-ay rah-e dildaar kay zindaani haiN.

ahquar ,
vghairaa vghairaa

echo

to some extent. As a proctor when you get a chance to exercise your powers to have finger in everything it becomes a second nature.

Urstruly:
A not so innocent query.

Do Proctors later become Proctologists?

Personally, I have endured Corporal Punishment in the school to the extent of abuse. About 99% of it was well desreved because of of the pranks I used to pull sparing no one including teachers. It was just all impulsive like a djinn had overpowered me. Once a teacher who was called the dehshat khan among the school children was thru punishing me, I asked him if I could go to drink water. He was so pissed that he told me that the only way I could go was thru the window. Piece of cake, I jumped the window. By the time I was done drinking water Lucifer took over my control. I climbed the school roof thru the drain pipe, which we usually used to do to retrieve our cricket balls; walked to the ventilator (roshandan) of my class room; opened it from outside and shouted ``Sir may I come in``. My parents were called the next day and they told me to shape up or else....I went straight for one whole week. That was the longest I ever did. Next week, as I was conducting the early morning assembly program, I took a moment at the podium after the event and called attention of the whole school, that was lined up in the school yard to look at the school gate where a dozen or so of late comers were standing, waiting to be punished after the assembly, and then admitted to their classroom. Their punishment was the subject of my speech. ``How long we will have to endure this abuse by teachers``, ``how do you expect us to become responsible citizens, when all we learn here is that might is right``. Damage was already done when teachers snatched the mike from me. I called all the students for a walk out. And the school walked out. That was the first ever in school; it slipped the rugg under from all teachers. Though they were able to bring the students back in by intimidation, coercion and threats, the pressing issue was how to deal with me. I deserved to be rusticated and most of the teachers were in favor of that but my urdu teacher was the only one against it. She made impassioned speeches in front of the school committee in my presence and and sometimes in my absence. Not to mention that she was my mother`s friend but she was also the in-charge of student discipline. So at last, the solution to this ``menace`` that she presented was finally accepted by the committee. They appointed me the Chief Proctor of the school. I was in grade 9 then. That was very first because the C.Proctor has always been traditionally the grade 10 student. So corporal punishment worked quite well for me. It made me the king of all proctors- girls and boys. Some of them were quite cute - (girl proctors I mean) and I already knew that usually girls have a fetish for the man at the helm.

malik 99 and paindupastry: thanks for liking the article...abuse is the worst form of educating a kid....all through my school years I hated going to school because of a few insane teachers...I have this wish that one day I can meet them face to face and inflict the same type of punishments on them just the way they inflicted on us...i was lucky enough to have a loving family and guidance and so moved on with my life on the right track but not everyone can cope with these kinda experiences easily...

kaurasach, fuzair: I compeletely DISAGREE with you...I do agree however, that disciplining is required for kids but that can be done through other means like for instance setting up good examples. There`s a big difference between a parent disciplining a kid (even if it involves minor spanking) and a teacher spanking a kid in front of the whole class...

BeeJay: totally agree with you...nice comments...i can feel what you must`ve gone through after watching that humiliating episode at your school...no doubt, these things haunt u forever...

Chow,

Kinza Farhan

Corporal punishment has been legally banned by the Supreme court in India but cases of children being severly battered are still being reported.Till now i have heard only of one incident in which the teacher was suspended from duty for his act.Parents,whose children report being beaten up at school,also usually ignore it,thereby becoming also guilty to some extent.

Hitting with a ruler,fist,book or slap constitutes physical abuse.More painful is the blow to the ego of the child because this is done in open in front of the whole class,sometimes the whole school.Studies have proved beyond doubt that children exposed to physical abuse at school or home grow up to become violent adults.At the same time it is unfair to blame teachers solely for this because they are not properly trained to handle the psychy of young children.Child psychology has to be a compulsory subject for teacher training courses(which I suppose is at avery rudimentary level at present).
Teacher-student ratio is another problem in our part of the world.There may be 50 to 100 students in one class and at some places,single teacher handles 2-3 classes at the same time.Plus there are poor woking conditions,no electicity,poor buildings,adhocism,pressures from beaurocracy etc. which always weigh on teacher`s mind.Expecting teachers to behave in ideal manner under these conditions amounts to asking too much.Frustrated teachers sometimes displace their anger on helpless children.There is no point in comparing American or English teaching system with Pakistani or Indian one.

Note: This is a serious topic, and so are my comments here.

To #1 kaurasach, #2 fuzair, and #3 paindupastry

I must respectfully disagree with all three of you. Here is why.

Even if you say that “a little bit” of spanking is okay, how do you ensure that you are not opening the flood gates? Once those grown-up hands have been raised in anger, they have a way of taking over. Who is going to be present there, monitoring that just the “proper” amount gets administered, no matter how “peeved” the teacher is. That “little” bit may end up as being a LOT for a “receiving” child. Some kids can be more fragile than others, so what is a “proper” amount?

There should be absolutely NO physical punishment allowed in this whole equation between an adult and a child, because it is always unequal in favor of the adult. The onus must always remain on the adult to keep his temper, no matter how maddening the circumstances.

Kids are always learning: from their parents and family members, from school peers and teachers, from surrounding society, media, and so on. Even when a teacher is spanking a child, the child is still learning: learning that it is okay to use physical violence to settle an issue. At the same time, the child misses an opportunity to learn how to communicate even under very trying circumstances! Therefore, children who are victims of abuse (whether at home, school, or elsewhere) are likely to grow up into adults who are uncommunicative and violence prone – perpetuating the vicious circle of the abused children growing into abusive adults.

I still have occasional nightmares about one particular episode from my childhood. I will never forget that day in grade 6 (in North Bihar) when this Science teacher made an example of this one errant student. In retrospect, I don’t even remember the infraction that kid had committed, so it may have been very minor. But boy that teacher was mad! Not only he broke several canes on the back of that kid, he humiliated him further by forcing the kid to spit in the kids’s own outstretched palm, then making him lick that palm clean right in front of the class! I am not sure if it helped that one kid’s conduct become any better, but I am reasonably sure the other members of that class, who were not even touched, got indelibly damaged too and the whole class still carries that memory-I certainly do even after all those years. In retrospect, I realize that particular teacher was probably a disturbed individual, maybe even an abuse victim himself in childhood. But the system that allowed him to operate in that setup where he exerted such a degree of control was the real culprit!

There, I have said it.

Sincerely,
BeeJay.

I studied in a boarding school in India. and teachers were not allowed to touch a child. To enforce discipline through punishment, we were made to do physical exercises, detention or revocation of certain privelages. I am sure that these forms of punishments can be adapted for day school as this is a far better way of correcting a child.

I remember that we had an art teacher who at times could not control himself, and would end up slapping a student. The next scene would usually be of the student heading towards the Headmasters office and the art teacher running after the child and apologizing !!!

Kinza - This is a very well written article. I fully agree with you that corporal punishment, in ALL its forms, should be banned from schools and from homes. For a short term benefit, they cause a long lasting damage. This violence that is ingrained in children`s minds then carries over to society when those children grow up to be adults. Beating of a human being is not a way to correct that human being.

Whats good for the goose is good for the gander. If children can become better human beings after getting these beatings, then parents and teachers should recieve the same treatment to help them excel as well.

i feel sorry for what u may have experienced as a very young child. your particular experience may have been quite damaging but i do feel small punishments are not only okay but sometimes required to teach a child. as for physical abuse, thats a different story and itll be good to hear what chowkies vies are on the subject and thier own experiences.

There is a difference between punishing a child and child abuse. A couple of raps on the palm of the hand with a ruler for misbehaviour does NOT constitute abuse; neither is spanking a child. Hitting a little girl several times on the head with a heavy textbook is abuse. We risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater if we ban all corporal punishment because some sadists abuse children.

Using some mild type of punishment is OK to discipline students. All this student teacher `friendship` is pile of crap. Students in US lack respect in general. Few want to teach these days.

Corporal punishment in extreme is damaging and leaves negative impact thru life.

In old days. When classrooms did not have walls or doors (under a tree), many a students tired of corporal punishment, would let their sentiments know about corporal punishment to the ``masters`` in choicest Punjabi abuse and run away. Those were the good old days.