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Thursday, April 02, 2009

Caning is normal in school

When I read this news, this sentence jumped up at me....

"I was told that the teacher caned the boy for failing to do his homework. That is a normal thing to do."

I do not wish to speculate about the case. It is just this sentence that I am uncomfortable and feel sad about. I wonder why it has to be this way. Why do kids get caned for forgetting to bring their work books or for not completing their homework. I do not support caning in schools for these reasons. If caning is for stealing, cheating or more serious misbehaviour than perhaps it could be more justified.

I never understand why teachers have to strike fear in the hearts of the young in order to control them. Quite often I've been told, there is no choice, it is the only way to control them. The class is so big. It is a sad situation. Why do they work on the premise of punishment rather than reward?

My girl dislikes school because of the fierce teachers but when the same fierce teachers praise her work, she would be so delighted and motivated to work so much harder. Reward is the way to go, not punishment. Sigh.

7 comments:

  1. No cane. Punish them by giving more homework like 10 pages of cursive writing....hahahah!! Learn from Ron Clark 55 essential rules..

    Regarding the boy's case - i feel so sad... cannot speculate, will see the result. But i read, that happen before, a lady died after the MIL used a mug to hit her shoulder. Hit sekali nia, not very oso, died already. No sick no disease.

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  2. OMIGOSH !!! I so want to sue that teacher and that school!

    I think canning should only be on the hand or on the buttocks...if ever at all.

    And only for REALLY REALLY bad deeds!

    For homework? What the F***!!! SOOOO mad!

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  3. My friend also told me her son gets canned on the hand in school for mistakes made in homework and also exam. Get canned everyday until the son tell her that he has toughened himself up and can take it. It's become part of his everyday life.

    ReplyDelete
  4. annie,
    Yah lor, punish with more work. But then sometimes they couldn't finish in the first place because they have too much work, then how? ;) But its still better than caning or being made to stand on the chair for the rest of the lesson which is so humiliating for a young child.

    Ann,
    Well, its quite common in Chinese schools.

    Lian,
    Same thing for my sister. She said her kids are so immune to it that they just shrug their shoulders and say "Worse come to worse kena cane only" when they forget their homework or can't finish it for some reason.

    However, at my girl's school, I have not heard her complain about caning so far. She finishes all her homework but she hasn't mentioned anything to me about anyone else being caned. She just mentioned that her English teacher carries a cane but he is absent more than half the time.

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  5. OMG MG...
    if that happened to your little girl do you still let her study there? Sometimes I don't get it, I mean you're so open minded and very understanding about kids 'world', but why you still want your kids stay at that school?

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  6. henny,
    So far caning does not happen at my girl's school though its pretty common in chinese schools here. We have little choice becos on the other end of the spectrum are schools with teachers with lackdaisal attitudes etc. That is why I have agonised about the choice of schools in many of my previous posts because choosing schools here is like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. Sigh.

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  7. last time i got canned cos i was practising for netball competition and my teacher wasn't very happy about it. So she went and search my book and found out that i didn't do ONE correction. So she sent someone and asked me to come back into the class, canned my hand and ask me to continue to play again. Gila right?

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