How many of you have received a cane on your fingers on the assembly as a child before? You know that feeling of pain you get as a result of that, especially one that makes you tremble inside of you. Reading the prompt for this week, my mind flashed back to those years or days, whichever one I call it because it's been more than 2 decades now.
I remember how we would be checked thoroughly by our teachers on the assembly ground on a Monday morning, starting with our fingernails to see if it was well cut or not. We receive canes on the tip of our fingers when our nails are long and dirty with a warning that we must not bring the same dirty nails to school the next day.
Then they move forward to checking if we put on the correct socks which are always white coloured ones, any other colours are not allowed and the ones who usually violate the rule would have to remove their socks right from the gate while others who didn't wear theirs from home will do so right from the gate even before meeting with the first teacher who would be standing at a corner which sometimes would make us think there is no teacher around until we have stepped into the school away from the gate and with a shock behind us, we hear, "hey you, stand there. Where are your socks or the right sandals?"
The correct sandals that were accepted in my school were brown or black coloured ones and anything other than that would mean punishment as a correction not to wear them to school the next day. I do not enjoy being flogged for anything and when I am eventually punished on days I never expected, I try not to repeat the same because I hate the sound of a cane being landed on any of my body parts as I would dance like an earthworm in the presence of any teacher or my parents. This action always makes them laugh as it was always funny and I would think they have spared me but no, once I am in for punishment or flogging, I don't escape it.
Another punishment is to cut the grass behind the classrooms or sometimes, would be paired with other disobedient students to wash the dirty and stinky students' toilets where once you enter, you start seeing poo everywhere even plastered on walls. This is one reason I don't like entering the book of any teacher hunting for offenders on any day.
What about assignments? I could say this is the part I got more punishment either to kneel for some minutes or get flogged depending on the teacher's mood. There are some teachers that I don't fail in doing their assignments because it is evident that we would not be spared if we miss doing them and there are others who are still lenient in their dealings, but most times, we end up seeing their other eyes, perhaps being provoked by something or someone and are prone to venting their anger on the students.
It got to a time when if we failed to do our assignments based on not getting enough materials to achieve them and not get punished, we would pray for something bad to happen so they wouldn't have to show up in class while they nurse whatever problem they are faced with.
Some teachers can be cruel in that, they give simple exercises in class as examples and give us technical questions as take-home assignments making us rack our brains to solve which at the end of the day, we wouldn't be able to solve, thereby exposing ourselves to strokes of canes being lashed on our buttocks as we all would lie straight down on the table.
I would say the kinds of punishment we received back then in school were part of what shaped us. Being punished for late coming to school helped teach us the value of punctuality which has been a part of me today. Being punished for having dirty fingers also worked wonders for us in that we understood what cleanliness is and how to care for every part of our bodies. Being punished for not doing assignments also taught us how to be committed to our work and ensure we are always obedient and ready to do what our teachers told us. Doing assignments at home helped us learn and explore areas we weren't taught in class and that has helped me today to deliver my work with efficiency.
Being given punishment in school has a way of improving a child but should be minimal, corporal punishment is still better than any other which could hurt a child more. I believe those punishments are ways to build and shape a child's life into the best.
Some schools do allow the use of a cane while other schools do not, but a teacher must not be pushed to anger and use that to beat a child. It is believed that when one is provoked, it could affect a child when being flogged because, at that time, one would do something drastic. Just like a case of a teacher who flogged a student and accidentally hit the eyes. This was as a result of an extreme anger. Cane should be used to scare a child especially when he or she isn't ready to learn and if there is a need to use it, then one should be calm to lash out canes at the child.
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