So now we had all admitted that corporal punishment happened. We had discussed that the reasons for it were flimsy and shared powerful, personal experiences. It was time for the final hard-hitting message before the new teaching approaches were introduced.
I started with the impact on children. A child who is beaten either becomes, distressed and introverted so cannot concentrate on their learning because they are so worried about being beaten again. Or an alternative is, they almost become immune to it and use it to raise their status as a tough boy/girl. In any case, they are not the only ones affected. Even the “good “children” exist in a state of high anxiety because they never know if they will be next. As to improving academic performance, how on earth can you concentrate on learning when a teacher is wielding a stick behind you?
I then focused on the impact and potential problems for teachers who continued to use physical punishment in their classes. IT WAS AGAINST THE LAW. Therefore, they were playing Russian roulette every single time they used their hands or a stick on a child. Kenya was changing. All it would take for them to lose their job and possibly their entire career was for a parent to complain – not to the HT but to the District Education Officer, or a local newspaper to get hold of a story, or a child to be seriously injured either deliberately or accidentally.
My next point, came at it from a different angle. Many people became teachers because they believed that it is a vocation. They wanted to help children learn, they want to make a difference, they wanted to help build the future of their country.
We all know that corporal punishment is illegal. Therefore, when a teacher used it, they must ensure that no-one finds out. It follows that they must tell both the victim and the witnesses to lie – to their parents, to other teachers or governors, to the HT.
Teachers are educators, teachers are moral guides, teachers are creating the citizens of the future. How can they stand in front of children and instruct them to lie??
And if we are being entirely honest, how many of these teachers have gone to church on Sunday, beaten a child on Monday and told them to lie on Tuesday? What kind of a teacher is that? What kind of a teacher are you now? What kind of a teacher do you want to be?
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