Corporal punish must stop

by Sir Frank Peters
May 11, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1426/corporal-punish-must-stop

Any teacher or headmaster who engages in corporal punishment is an enemy of student, family and state, now that corporal punishment has been outlawed.

"Corporal punishment is torture, not discipline, that's imparted by terrorists who strike fear into fragile, vulnerable, impressionable and defenceless young children that's physically and mentally damaging and speaks no praise of the perpetrator or society that permits it"

The ultimate rebellion by a student against corporal punishment in schools is suicide: it's horrific to contemplate, we prefer not to give it much thought, but it happens.

It is the final message of grief and a declaration from the pupil to the parent, teacher, headmaster, police, education authorities, government and society telling them he has had all he can take and cannot take any more.

That life (as they know it) just isn't worth the sleepless nights, the distress, the anguish, the pain, the sadness and tears, the acne, hair, skin and bowel disorders, and the feeling of sheer hopelessness. Their previous cries for help fell on deaf ears and they continued to suffer, sometimes mercilessly, under the hands of cruel, sadistic torturers, with no one to understand their living hell, or jump to
their defence.

Such cruelty, sadly, often has the approval of their ignorant parents who live by the 'spare the rod and spoil the child' rule and know no better. They can't be blamed, their parents were equally ignorant, uneducated and had perpetrated harsh corporal punishment upon them which they survived and it didn't do them any harm, they argue... as they reach for pick-me-ups, anti-depressants, headache pills, and miscellaneous other medications to help them through the day.

There are many wisdom-packed adages handed down from generation to generation that have stood the test of time and are as valid as much today as what they were hundreds of years ago: 'Spare the stick and spoil the child' is NOT one of them.
How is it possible to beat love and respect into anyone?

Any parent who sends his child into a corporal punishment environment needs to have his head examined by a psychiatrist and if the psychiatrist declares him sane, then the psychiatrist needs to have his head examined.

How is it possible for any parent to declare that they love their offspring so much they are willing to give their own lives for them and yet send them daily into an environment of constant fear and potential danger to both body and mind?

How is it possible for any loving parent to witness the once-blooming smile wither from the face of their loved child and watch them sink deeper and deeper into the quicksand of unhappiness, depression, despair and hatred of school because of the violence and cruelty that awaits them daily in the guise of corporal punishment? How is it possible for the student to learn anything worth learning in such an environment?

Why is society bursting at the seams with so many unhappy pill-popping, glue-sniffing drug-addicted children, who should be happy, attending school, and working towards a bright future, fulfilling their childhood dreams, which is their birthright?

Some people will argue a child needs discipline, which is absolutely true because we all need some form of discipline in our lives.

Discipline is good and is meant to correct and teach, not to gnaw away and destroy the very essence of our being. Corporal punishment is torture, NOT discipline, that's imparted by terrorists who strike fear into fragile, vulnerable, impressionable and defenceless young children that's physically and mentally damaging and speaks no praise of the perpetrator or society that permits it.

We are all born unique: there are no two people in the world who are the same. Some may look alike, even act alike, but our minds – complex, beautiful and more powerful than a mountain of computers –make us different and special.

When we are born, our near-empty minds are gluttonous for filling. We are naïve, trusting, and will consume anything given to us like human blotting paper. We are all products of our environment. We learn to love and trust our parents and see them as our lifetime protectors from a very early age. We believe in them. We trust them... they have taught us to trust them. We look up to them with great loving respect and admiration, and believe they will do what is right by us.

If we are brought up in a loving, respectful moral atmosphere, we will learn to love, respect, be moral and do what's right by our fellowman irrespective of the colour of their skin or the creed by which they live.

We learn from our experiences in the many different environments we enter. It's a natural process that's never-ending. We are what we THINK we are... it's all in the mind. And if all our confidence is shattered and we conclude that we're worthless or of very little value to ourselves or anyone else, we will act and behave that way, fall into an abyss of sadness and despair, self-destruction, disrespect and hold deep-seethed hatred and thoughts of revenge for all who put us there and society on the whole for allowing it. We will then retaliate as we best know how through violence or whatever means we have at our disposal. What is there to lose? – Everything of real value has already been taken.

Any teacher or headmaster who engages in corporal punishment is an enemy of student, family and state, now that corporal punishment has been outlawed. The Bangladesh High Court has made it clear it will no longer tolerate corporal punishment in schools, but some teachers feel that does not apply to them. One teacher, at least, changed his attitude this week when the father of one student who had been given corporal punishment, beat him up in full view of his class.

I do not advocate violence, even if the intention is honourable, but there is a sense of poetic justice here: what goes around comes around.

Sir Frank Peters is a former newspaper and magazine publisher and editor, an award-winning writer and photographer of international renown, a humanitarian, a Goodwill Ambassador and Senior Adviser to European and Saudi royalty, and is a great friend to Bangladesh. He successfully campaigned last year to have corporal punishment abolished in Bangladesh schools.

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