SPARE THE ROD AND SPOIL THE CHILD
What makes school life memorable is not only the fun of it all – (bunking classes in the secluded junior school corridors, secretly eating your partner’s tiffin and then feigning innocence, making noises during the class from the last bench to disturb the teacher, breaking test-tubes in chemistry laboratory, burning noisy fire-crackers in the toilet, bringing chits to examination hall in socks, forcefully acquiring the seat from juniors in the school bus, giving a leave application saying you had severe ‘loose motions’ although you were feasting on a 'five course meal' the previous day), but also the day, or in some cases even days, when one was beaten black and blue by a teacher either for misbehaving or not completing his/her homework or for indulging in certain unprintable deeds. Alongwith the unforgettable memories of the first drink, first suit, first car, first salary, first date and first kiss, what one also finds impossible to forget is the first instance, when one was screamed at, slapped or severely thrashed by a teacher or the principal. It is not because of the bruised skin or the pain that one still remembers the “rod”, but because of the feeling of shame which came from the humiliation that one had to face before the whole class, and in some cases, even the school, that it still remains the 'worst nightmare’.
I was in K.G.2 then, and our teacher was Ma’am Talwar. She was one teacher who could give even Hitler a run for his money. We had been given words to translate from English to Hindi and I, being from a Bengali family, was a bit poor at Hindi. The first few questions didn’t give me much trouble, but then came “marrow”, and I was left at my wits end. We call it “potol” in Bengali, and I being in such a desperate and helpless situation, used the better of my discretion and giving the Bengali word a hindi touch, wrote “patal”. Mrs. Talwar was terribly infuriated at this insolence and had nearly chopped me off with her rasping slap. As far as I can recall, I was the first person who was a victim to her thrashing in our batch, and though too young to feel the humiliation, I certainly felt ashamed when till many days after the incident, I was made fun of by my classmates.
Then, while in school, my first rendezvous with corporal punishment was quite harsh. Our games teacher, Sir Virdi, was a national level boxer. He was notorious for thrashing students quite mercilessly, which was quite evident from the circumference of his biceps and triceps, that was greater than most of our waist-lines. That fateful day, I had woken up late and in the haste to reach school in time, I forgot to take my games dress along. When he asked me the reason for not bringing my games dress, my naïve answer was “Sir, I forgot”. The next thing that followed was a thundering blow from him, which badly shook all the nuts and bolts of my body.
But the worse was in class 10th when our maths teacher Sir Siddiqui hit a boy in our class so hard on his ear-lobe that he was rendered partially deaf. He had to be hospitalized and the teacher was on the verge of losing his job.
All these incidents of corporal punishment which have become so comman these days in schools and coachings, though even with the view to correct the students, have their root cause in the innate impulsive and violent nature of the teacher. No misbehavior, indiscipline, or irregularity in homework and classwork is as mammoth a reason, as to warrant as inhuman a beating that leads to fractured bones, and at times leaves the student physically retarded for the rest of his life.
It’s also important here to look into the psyche of the teachers who indulge in such inhuman behavior. Family feuds, personal tensions, financial problems, work pressure to complete the vast syllabus within the stipulated date, and the presence of certain disturbing elements in the class make the teachers, like any other person in any other profession, lose their self control and cool. But what the teachers forget here is that they aren’t dealing with grown up adults but small children who are physically much weaker to bear the atrocity of their bad temper.
I don’t disagree that in some cases where the child is less a student and more a ‘juvenile delinquent’, sparing the rod will undoubtedly mean spoiling the life of the child. But it’s for the discreet teachers to judiciously decide that to what extent should they resort to corporal punishment, in order to bring the child on the right track.
Student councilors and psychiatrists, who’ve studied child psychology, do strongly feel that harsh behavior, in most cases, instead of improving a child makes him/her more stubborn and vindictive. He/she becomes further obstinate, insolent and rebellious. In some cases, the student starts repeating his/her mistake intentionally, just to irritate the teacher.
The need of the hour is, for the teachers to find, a more effective and humane method to correct the perverted yet vulnerable minds of the students. If not done so, then incidents of students assaulting teachers in clandestine roads with a group of boys or kidnapping teacher’s family members to avenge the humiliation faced by them in class will become the order of the day. Children are not like a piece of iron that needs to be hammered repeatedly to be given the desired shape, but like clay that has to be moulded carefully and skillfully with both hands into the shape of mature responsible human beings.
BY : SHUBHRO SEN
I was in K.G.2 then, and our teacher was Ma’am Talwar. She was one teacher who could give even Hitler a run for his money. We had been given words to translate from English to Hindi and I, being from a Bengali family, was a bit poor at Hindi. The first few questions didn’t give me much trouble, but then came “marrow”, and I was left at my wits end. We call it “potol” in Bengali, and I being in such a desperate and helpless situation, used the better of my discretion and giving the Bengali word a hindi touch, wrote “patal”. Mrs. Talwar was terribly infuriated at this insolence and had nearly chopped me off with her rasping slap. As far as I can recall, I was the first person who was a victim to her thrashing in our batch, and though too young to feel the humiliation, I certainly felt ashamed when till many days after the incident, I was made fun of by my classmates.
Then, while in school, my first rendezvous with corporal punishment was quite harsh. Our games teacher, Sir Virdi, was a national level boxer. He was notorious for thrashing students quite mercilessly, which was quite evident from the circumference of his biceps and triceps, that was greater than most of our waist-lines. That fateful day, I had woken up late and in the haste to reach school in time, I forgot to take my games dress along. When he asked me the reason for not bringing my games dress, my naïve answer was “Sir, I forgot”. The next thing that followed was a thundering blow from him, which badly shook all the nuts and bolts of my body.
But the worse was in class 10th when our maths teacher Sir Siddiqui hit a boy in our class so hard on his ear-lobe that he was rendered partially deaf. He had to be hospitalized and the teacher was on the verge of losing his job.
All these incidents of corporal punishment which have become so comman these days in schools and coachings, though even with the view to correct the students, have their root cause in the innate impulsive and violent nature of the teacher. No misbehavior, indiscipline, or irregularity in homework and classwork is as mammoth a reason, as to warrant as inhuman a beating that leads to fractured bones, and at times leaves the student physically retarded for the rest of his life.
It’s also important here to look into the psyche of the teachers who indulge in such inhuman behavior. Family feuds, personal tensions, financial problems, work pressure to complete the vast syllabus within the stipulated date, and the presence of certain disturbing elements in the class make the teachers, like any other person in any other profession, lose their self control and cool. But what the teachers forget here is that they aren’t dealing with grown up adults but small children who are physically much weaker to bear the atrocity of their bad temper.
I don’t disagree that in some cases where the child is less a student and more a ‘juvenile delinquent’, sparing the rod will undoubtedly mean spoiling the life of the child. But it’s for the discreet teachers to judiciously decide that to what extent should they resort to corporal punishment, in order to bring the child on the right track.
Student councilors and psychiatrists, who’ve studied child psychology, do strongly feel that harsh behavior, in most cases, instead of improving a child makes him/her more stubborn and vindictive. He/she becomes further obstinate, insolent and rebellious. In some cases, the student starts repeating his/her mistake intentionally, just to irritate the teacher.
The need of the hour is, for the teachers to find, a more effective and humane method to correct the perverted yet vulnerable minds of the students. If not done so, then incidents of students assaulting teachers in clandestine roads with a group of boys or kidnapping teacher’s family members to avenge the humiliation faced by them in class will become the order of the day. Children are not like a piece of iron that needs to be hammered repeatedly to be given the desired shape, but like clay that has to be moulded carefully and skillfully with both hands into the shape of mature responsible human beings.
BY : SHUBHRO SEN
posted by Shubhro at 6:20 AM
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