http://www.shababyemeni.com/en - Violence Never Begets Respect

Violence Never Begets Respect

Contributed by Radhi Yahia Alradhi, Yemen

Sunday, 01 April 2007

“Why has he come home early? He looks tired and exhausted as if he is coming from the field rather than school. He fell asleep quickly and didn’t eat his lunch or even complete his home work.” Many questions circled her mind. She wanted to ask him about the matter but she knew that he is a reserved boy and does not reveal his secrets, and he was fast asleep.

But her curiosity and love led her to awaken him. "Oh, he is dreaming and looks too warm. Maybe he has a fever?" She asked herself.

The sun rose with her worried eyes wide awake. She was troubled about her only son whose nightmares never settled and kept her awake. But whenever she asked him about the matter he answered "I'm tired. I feel ill, Mum."

It was time for school, but her son couldn't go so she went to school herself to inform his teacher, but mostly to find answers for the questions that were troubling her mind, questions she could perhaps ask his classmates.

Softly she moved towards a group of children who were singing as innocent birds. “Where is class two, my son?” she asked one of them. “It’s there beside that tree” he replied and pointed towards the class.

She went to the class and her heart trembled in shock when she saw him standing by the door of the class with his slashing stick. “Students should be seen and not heard” he shouted as his merciless weapon struck some pupils.

“Excuse me, teacher”, her faint words temporarily halted the punishment.

“Yes, Madam" he replied as a gentleman.

“My son can't come today. He is sick” she said.

“Ok. But I'm sorry I don't know him well. I've just come to teach two days ago. Could you tell me his name” he asked.

“Fuad” she replied.

“Ok." he said as he wrote Fuad's name.

When she returned home and saw her son occupied with video games, she knew that fear kept him away from school. She wondered how many times her son had been hit, and she felt hopeless realizing that she lacked the power to influence or change the attitude of a teacher who deemed himself executioner.

The relationship between teachers and learners is considered a holy one as it should be based on love and respect, mercy, patience and guidance. Teachers should be instructors for the adult learners and parents for the young ones. But to turn their job into executioners, results in many injuries and scars on the face of education and only turns schools to prisons.

Research has consistently uncovered the negative influence of punishments on children and revealed the benefits of positive attitudes, encouragements, and positive reinforcements on children.

“But how can we keep the class quiet?” “Spare the rod and spoil the boy.” These were the defensive comments some teachers used when I told them that it is illogical and inhumane to punish students physically.

The other form of abuse that some teachers use to punish students is to attack their self-esteem and integrity. Words such as donkey, monkey, and stupid are all too common and lead us to wonder whether teachers are fathers and mothers or enemies whose ghosts haunt the restless students in their sleep and weaken their confidence. And so we have schools in Yemen that are equated with prisons rather than gardens of knowledge. But will teachers, principals, or ministries pay attention? Will parents be able to organize themselves and redefine the teacher’s role? Let us hope so, or we will continue to graduate innocent inmates rather than students.

Comments (5)

1 Written by reader, on 05-04-2007 22:31
this phenomena; does it apply to private schools?

in my lat visit it seemed a phenoma prevelant in public schools?

2 Written by pro-corporal punishment, on 07-04-2007 14:52
if it wasn't for the corporal punishment I used to get both in school and at home, I would never be as successful as I am now :grin

.

Your teacher at the private school can't punish you, because daddy would go and kill him if not would at least deport him/her. Kids at private schools usually if not always have less respect toward their teachers when compared to public school kids. This statement was valid when I used to be in Yemen.

Now both private/public school kids have less respect toward their teachers and they don’t care about school as they used to.

3 no fighting
Written by con, on 08-04-2007 02:28
I remember that time
I don't know how you can learn with fear. It is better to use positive feedback. The problem is there is not much positive in Yemeni schools to feed the kids.
I guess some kids deserved corporal punishment, but there are limits. The problem is the kids get used to the softer hits and need harder hits to be deterred. It becomes a borderline with torture.

You are training them to withstand fights on the street and in jail. you are not training them to be good Yemeni citizens.

4 Written by Yasmeen, on 09-04-2007 17:20
Although I think corporal punishment is very problematic, it is only one version of a set of problematic punishments. It is not a problem because hitting hurts, but because it's humiliating even if it were a little stroke on the palm.

There are incidents of students disrespecting their teachers in public schools as much as there are in private schools. I don't think corporal punishment is a deterrent.

In all cases, students and teachers' dignity should be protected.

As far as i'm concerned there are worse methods of punishment that are not necessarily corporal. They are worse because they are even more humiliating.

Any kind of degrading punishment, including corporal punishments, is destructive of the self esteem of the student and the status of the teacher as an educator.

Not to mention that it is also a manifestation of the teacher's failure to be an effective educator.

5 Written by Yumna, on 12-04-2007 17:03
I had a teacher who was quite expressive about her anger towards her husband, by displacing it on her students. Often she would walk in, say her rough Sabah Al-Khair and start us off with a round of corporal punishment.
When she got divorced, i think that was one of my most happiest moments...

Whoever thinks anyone has a right to 'educate' students through violence and humiliation has serious issues.

Teachers/Parents might silence the kid verbally by such inhumane action, but the silence goes beyond the classroom, and only create a generation of silent, obedient, uncreative, uncritical, anti-social kids who are too afraid to think, talk, express themselves or simply be a kid. and of course, dysfunctional cycles repeat themselves.

Thanks Radhi!