Punishment in schools – Part 2
Yesterday I posted a piece on punishment in schools, inviting opinions on whether, when, and how beating children in schools is acceptable, and how to deal with the question of discipline in schools.
Here are a few more comments on this issue:
My own daughter is in form 3 at a school in Chinhoyi. I paid $410 full fees for the previous term. The fees were paid right at the beginning of the term. Half way in the term the school authorities ordered the pupils to pay an extra $30 per pupil for extra lessons with the same teachers and after full fees were paid in good time. My daughter and many others about half of each class failed to pay the $30 and did not attend the extra lessons. The exams were set bringing in mostly material covered in the extra lessons. My daughter and the other pupils obviously failed most of the subjects. All those who failed were severely beaten up by the school authorities. I am in the same predicament, how can I complain without making my daughter vulnerable?
- TM, Chinhoyi—–
I hope you can view the subject scripturally as well. See Hint 12 from The Duties of Parents by J. C. Ryle (first printed in 1888). “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” [Proverbs 22:6]
- MG
What do you think? Leave your comment here or email info [at] kubatana [dot] net.
Friday, August 14th 2009 at 12:19 pm
I think this is a relevant debate. In the sense that when punishment in schools reaches the level of brutality it just duplicates political wrongs, and also prepares children to accept them and behave in the same way. I don’t know how corporal punishment is dealt with now but at the school I went to, Eaglesvale, in the 80s, there was a lot of corporal punishment that went beyond the bounds of legality or reason. The school was a sadistic system. I am naming it deliberately – I hope it has improved. Many of the teachers could have been taken to court but never were – why not? – parent’s resignation, turning a blind eye, not wanting children to be victimised…? The same traps that stop us from taking political action on a larger level.
I have just returned from a month in Zim and my very strong feeling is that not much can be expected of govt and that all Zimbabweans can do is look in our own back yards and try to work from there, at our own histories and how we ourselves can change thinking and behaviour. So this kind of debate I think is essential.
Saturday, August 15th 2009 at 7:45 pm
No, corporal punishment in any form, towards any age group, for any reason, is immoral, unnecessary and cruel.
It sends out the wrong message and the young grow cynical when they view adults dictating to them with unneccessary harshness.
The hypocritical ‘do as I say and not as I do’ in physical or emotional punishment creates despair and a sense of injustice.
It is contrary to the ethos that we all aspire to: that we help those in need, those who are learning, those who have difficulties.
Zimbabweans are a mix of the compassionate and the vengeful just as in any society. We look forward to those who are compassionate winning the battle against such cruelty.