BEYOND CORPORAL PUNISHMENT Challenging Physical, Emotional and Mental Abuse in Schools

The relationship between a teacher and a pupil or student is described as a fiduciary relationship. This means that it is a relationship involving trust, influence, responsibility and duty of care by the stronger party (teacher) to the weaker party (student). Such a relationship is not to be taken lightly. A result of the fiduciary relationship is that students respect their teachers, believe what their teachers say and are likely to perceive the teacher’s perspective to be always right. So, even if the teacher is doing something wrong, such deed may become normalized because the student trusts and believes the teacher to know the right thing to do. In reality, the degree to which a teacher is right is not absolute.

Corporal punishment means inflicting deliberate physical pain or discomfort as a form of discipline or as a way of correcting or punishing undesired behaviour by a student. It often involves striking a student across the buttocks or on the palms of their hands with a cane, slippers or leather belt (flogging), slapping, bonking, spanking, hitting or smacking the student with the hand. In some cases, teachers encourage or delegate to older students or prefects to discipline and punish younger students. While some might see light corporal punishment as an appropriate disciplinary measure in a teacher-student relationship, there are extreme forms of punishment that go way beyond normal and may inflict physical, emotional and mental abuse on the student.

In my experience, such abuse happens especially in primary and secondary schools. We have to admit that managing children, teenagers and adolescents is not easy. “Spare the rod and spoil the child” has long been the unexamined justification. The situation is improving now as some schools have adopted policies against corporal punishment. Some parents and concerned citizens and groups have also stepped up to challenge highhandedness by teachers. But dark spots and grey areas still remain especially in public schools. When it comes to correcting or punishing students, what is appropriate depends on the nature of the misbehaviour and the extent of the punishment or disciplinary measure.

For instance, there is nothing trustworthy about a teacher knocking a student on the head with her stilettos as a form of correction or to make the lesson “sink in”. That is plain abuse. There is nothing exemplary about a teacher flogging a student on her bare skin in public with a cane laced with pepper so that she will “never forget”. That is inhuman and degrading treatment.

There is nothing responsible about a teacher using swear words, molesting, demeaning and making a caricature of a weak and vulnerable student before an entire class for just failing a question. That is not only abuse but the worst form of bullying. We must call it what it is!

What kind of humans and citizens are we hoping to raise with such treatment? Beyond the physical pain, such treatment also inflict untold emotional and mental torture on the students with consequences that go way beyond the school years. Consider the following likely responses to abuse.

● Hardening Effects

The hardening effects of abuse on a student may include recalcitrance, numbing of physical pain, numbing of feelings and emotions associated with pain or failure, substance abuse, disregard for other people’s feelings and emotions, disincentive to learn, school avoidance and dropout, suppressed anger or hatred, intense dislike of authority, aggressive and destructive behaviour, bruised ego, attention-seeking personality, cultism (protectionism), seeking revenge, bullying, antisocial, psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies.

● Softening Effects

Conversely, the softening effects of abuse on a student may include fear, anxiety, eroding of self-confidence and self-worth, low self-esteem, inferiority complex, demotivation, loss of interest in learning, poor attention span, social and emotional withdrawal, mental block, trauma, depression, or more serious mental health issues which may be more suppressed than expressed.

● Long Term Effects

The effects of unchecked abuse go deep beyond the conscious mind and may make indelible impressions on the subconscious which will totally shift attitude and behaviour from positive to negative. At the subconscious level, the response becomes automatic and recovery becomes difficult to near-impossible. Abused students grow up to become abusers themselves, at school, at home, at work and in society. It’s a fatal cycle.

There’s a thin line between discipline and abuse. To the unsuspecting teacher who may believe that he or she is moulding the character of the student by inflicting physical pain, corporal punishment may foster the impression among students that violence or abuse is an appropriate or acceptable method of responding to or managing other people’s behaviour.

Sadly, our society has come to take some of these things as normal. I have seen a teacher that abuses students being hailed as strong, courageous, a “woman of action”. The teacher is always right, right? Na lie! If you check the domestic life and background of such teachers, you will most likely find high stress, frustration, abuse, narcissism and mental health issues hidden in plain sight. You will likely find that such teachers have been victims of physical, emotional or mental abuse at one point or another, and such was swept under the carpet instead of being addressed. And the cycle continues….

So, who will watch the watchman? Who is responsible for conducting background check or mental health assessment on teachers? Are such matters even required or given priority for teacher qualification, supervision and promotion? Should they be given priority?

What is your take on corporal punishment in schools? Does it violate the rights of the child? Does it improve or defeat the learning outcome that the teacher seeks to achieve? What do you think is appropriate disciplinary action and what is not appropriate? What will it take to shift our mindsets and attitude to challenging physical, emotional and mental abuse in schools and outside schools? How can this be better addressed on a national scale beyond individual cases?

Please share your views.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

● Share your views on corporal punishment

● Share this post to reach and sensitize more people

● Choose love, empathy, respect, dialogue and negative reinforcement

● Condemn abuse in all its forms in schools and learning environments

● Report cases of abuse to relevant authority in your state or country

● Recommend mental health and mental hygiene for both teachers and students

● Join a group or organization leading advocacy against corporal punishment

● Sign a petition to ban violence and abuse in schools in your country

● Start your own petition, mobilize others to sign it and submit it to relevant authority >>>

https://www.change.org/start-a-petition?source_location=header

https://www.gopetition.com/start-a-petition

EduTrust Foundation Series, April 2020

#education #development #empowerment #SDGs #SDG4 #schools #teachers #students #discipline #punishment #abuse #mentalhealth #mindshift