To BEat or NOt to beat!

 https://kuenselonline.com/six-year-old-beaten-by-a-teacher/

To BEat or NOT to beat!

Right understanding is perhaps what we need. 

This Kuensel article did not surprise me at all. Now that the focus is on the emphasis to bring back discipline and quality education, everyone is “working” on it.

The child did not know, that is why she was beaten. If she knew she wouldn’t have to come to school at all. 

I know the despair of the teachers when a policy regarding corporal punishment came out. ‘No beating’ or ‘man handling’ any child! Most of us were like ‘now we can’t beat them, so to hell with everything’. We became aggressively defensive. We felt children would never learn without being hit and that it was our birth right to hit!

Little did we reflect (as we are trained to) and understand why we mustn’t hit anyone. Nor did we look for alternatives to address issues of discipline or learning.

I remember my primary school Principal who wouldn’t tolerate teachers who would hit or beat. But did they punish us? Of course, they did. Their alternative way of disciplining us and making us learn were far more interesting than getting hit or coming in contact with the child physically aggressively. These ways would help us reflect and realize our mistakes and help build a sense of responsibility. These methods would help us think! 

However, stuffing children’s mouths with tissue paper to keep them shut was never one of these methods. When a policy stating that we mustn’t beat a child comes out, perhaps it means that we should look for more civilized ways of improving the child. It’s doesn’t mean it’s the end of taking care of and disciplining the child.

And when a policy is revisited and revised stating ‘we must discipline a child’, it doesn’t mean we beat the child ‘nicely’!!! It means we must reflect and improve our ways with the child. 

It’s interesting to note that when we train as a teacher, we write reflections and essay after essay on the child and child psychology. And once in the classroom we forget what we wrote in those beautifully promising essays of how no child will be left behind, how every child will be loved and cared for with utmost understanding, of how we will go out of our ways to make a difference. The essays filled with pledges of making difference!

I think we need not make any difference. Instead, we have to be different. We have to practice what we preach. We have to understand that we have different young little learners who all have the ability to grow. Perhaps, as 21st century educators, we must be more able, civilized, confident, sure and understanding about a lot of things that involve the child and us.

During the many years as a trainee and a trainer, beating was not at all on our list of solutions. As civilized beings, we show so much compassion to even animals. These are little citizens who will take care of us. 

Not an expert of child psychology, but if we connect the dots..., we should get there. And if we don’t get there, we are so lost. So we have to come back and restart. Perhaps then we may get there.

Mary McCloud Bethune used orange crates for desks, Anne Sullivan tapped the secrets of the universe into Helen Keller’s hands. I’m sure we can dance to the educational beat and enjoy teaching and learning as much as we deserve to!

Remember - every child needs a Champion as Rita Pierson once stated!

All the very best! 

Be the difference!!!