During my
last visit to India this past summer, there was a news item on TV about a
teacher lynching a student with a ruler for making one mistake in his
recitation. A lynching- much more than a beating- 63 lashes with a ruler. A hidden
camera picked up the action and news outlets beamed it to the world. I was
beyond disgusted watching it; it made my stomach turn. Horrified students
huddled in their seats, watching their crazed out-of-control teacher beat their
classmate. Do you think this helped the student with his recitation?
When I attended school many years
ago, teachers hitting students used to happen, but not too frequently. I attended
fairly high-performing schools with many upper-middle class families, and while
corporal punishment wasn't rampant, it did occur now and then. I would have
thought that this practice would have become unfashionable by now. Apparently,
not so. Sad to say, it still happens. A parent asked me in disbelieving
earnest, “How can you bring up a child without hitting him every now and then?”
Getting compliance from a child out of fear does not instill character. After all,
character is defined as one’s behavior when no one is watching.
I have been a mother for over 20
years, and a teacher for about a dozen years. I am a teacher of students with
special needs and with several aggravating behaviors. Yet I have never felt the
need to hit any of them. More to the point, it wouldn't have helped. After all,
what am I going to do? Hit a crying child to make him stop crying?
Beating a child is an exercise in
futility. The beater is acknowledging that he or she is defeated, and doesn't know
any more skills to manage the student. The beater is accepting failure, and
using brute power to assert superiority over a child half his age, and probably
half his size. (I very much doubt a teacher would pick on a student as tall as
himself or herself. Unlike younger kids, I dare say they would defend
themselves, physically if necessary.) It is a highly unequal and unfair power
relationship, where the teacher is counting on the fact that the student will
not defend himself/fight back.
This is just sad. It shows the
teacher’s shortcomings more than the student’s. Beating a student every time he
makes a mistake on his multiplication tables will not help him to learn
multiplication tables. In fact, it will make him more anxious and make him
stutter and stammer the next time he has to recite his tables. What is the
point?
I realize that teachers don’t use
physical punishment as the first step. It only happens after repeated
infractions on the student’s part. Agreed. First the teacher tries reteaching
the student, then the teacher makes the student stand on the bench, then sends
him out of the classroom, then sends him to the office, then calls the parent for
a conference and yells at the parent…. Then finally beats him. OK …, then what?
Where do you go from there? What is the next stage? The teacher is now out of options.
Seems like teachers beat for two
reasons- anger, and frustration. An angry person is a
pitiable person who needs mental health help if he is beating kids out of
anger.
Beating a student out of
frustration- this situation can be helped somewhat. This is frustration felt by
the teacher not towards the student, but rather toward oneself. It is
frustration felt by the teacher at not having the skills to know how to help. Intensive
training and practice in classroom and behavior management can help with this
situation.
Physical punishment- and its ugly cousins,
verbal abuse, shaming, disrespect- reflect more on the teacher than on the
student. “Naach na jaane aangan teda…”
