I have always wondered why is it necessary to award corporal punishment to school kids? So far I haven’t found an answer. This particular incident once again got me thinking.
Ujjwala Andrews, a teacher in city’s Vinay High School, will serve one year of simple imprisonment for causing the grievous injury to Munir Patel 11 years ago.
Patel’s fault was that he was “troubling his teachers”.
After being hit on head with a wooden scale, the boy began to get seizures and was hospitalised for serious head injury.
This has taken 11 years out of Munir’s life and he had to drop out from school.
Patel, now 27, dropped out of school after the incident and works in a shop now.
He said Andrews deserved “stringent punishment”. “The beating I received at her hands has changed the course of my life. She has got away with a lighter sentence. You tell me how would you have felt if this happened with you?” he was quoted as saying by PTI.
Can you imagine someone’s life being changed in such a way? Munir’s example is one such case but there are so many cases where kids get affected in many different ways after receiving corporal punishments. Some have long lasting psychological impacts. Some just lose interest and some just drop out. Worst, some even commit suicide.
In India and many countries it is Okay to hit a school kids in order to discipline them. I think this needs to change. Corporal punishment should be banned in schools. There is really no need for it. It is heartening to see that some states have banned it. Delhi, Goa and TamilNadu are such states. Other states should follow suit. The teachers who lack the ability to teach, in my view, use such tactics to “discipline” children.
On the same lines I also think there is no need to hit a kid at home in order to discipline him.
cross posted here.
update: Another teacher gets sentenced. This one paraded the kid naked for taking a dip in the school tank. I hope more parents and kids file complaints against such teachers. The only sad thing is that such cases are taking 10 years to adjucate. Why?
March 22, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Long time ago in the United States, it was a common practice for a teacher to take a kid out into the hallway, find another teacher to witness, and apply one to three whacks to the student’s rear with a small wooden paddle. Some of the states still allow corporal punishment here. According to the National Coalition to Abolish Corporal Punishment in Schools, paddling is most common in southern U.S. states, with Texas accounting for one-fourth of all students paddling each year and I LIVE IN TEXAS (lol). How did I survive paddling during my school year? Only God knows (lol).
My question is most of us aren’t doing this at home, so why are we doing it in schools? Physical punishment causes a lot of negative consequences, and there are so many more creative ways to discipline.
Dr. Irwin Hyman of the National Center for the Study of Corporal Punishment says “The problem is not spanking in schools; the problem is that we as a society have such faith in this kind of punishment to change children’s behavior. Until we can convince parents that spanking is a bad idea, it’s going to be difficult to convince school boards.”
Dr. Benjamin Spock said, if we are ever to turn toward a kindlier society and a safer world, a revulsion against the physical punishment of children would be a good place to start.
March 22, 2007 at 10:57 pm
YUp , physical punishment, does not serve the means, and it does have negative censequences, irt creates a fear,
And because of which the kid may not express himself, later in his life when he has problems..
July 20, 2007 at 9:52 pm
It is the most ridiculous concept that by hitting a child one thinks we can ‘discipline’ them. Do people think we’ll get a sane and balanced society.
The sad fact is that many law makers and respected justices of courts across the so-called civilised societies from USA to Asia… all think it is sensibkle and the ‘right thing to do !’
God help the children and our socities .
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