I’m still shocked by accounts of hundreds of boys and young Nigerian men recently rescued from a “correction” facility where they had been held against their will and tortured only to read about another little boy forcibly shaved by his teacher to teach him a lesson on hygiene. He’s only 7! That was uncalled for. Teachers do play a big role in disciplining our kids but sometimes they over do it and you wonder if they should just stick to teaching. I’d understand if a student was bullying others or being repeatedly disruptive in class. Teachers would then have viable reasons to step in but even then, the punishment shouldn’t be excessive and the offending student should maybe be referred to the school’s disciplinary committee where several heads can then decide on the appropriate punishment. Sometimes all it takes is talking to the student’s parents and they’ll fall in line. I remember the very first time I was canned in School. I was 7 too and in Primary 1. My crime? Speaking vernacular! Like you expect kids not to slip up and veer into their mother tongue from time to time! And in the Secondary School I attended, we were only allowed to grow our hair to three inches and only Prefects and mixed kids were allowed to grow theirs longer. Some of our teachers’ daughters had long hair too! The double standard! Shaving was a punishment some teachers meted in our school too and it was hard on the unlucky students who sometimes were only being punished for reading Novels during Prep! Why not confiscate the Novels instead? I remember another of my teachers who would collectively punish us. Like if she happened to be passing by and heard a few murmurs, the entire class would pay. But do you really expect a class of 30 plus students to stay completely quiet? Of course we’re going to talk to each other. As long as we’re not screaming on top of our lungs but she’d act like we were and would order all of us to leave the class and kneel on the gravel outside for an hour or so. We should have sued her for the damage to our knees. Mine are still dark and scarred to this day! There’re also teachers who won’t let students have bathroom breaks mid lesson. Older students may be able to hold it till break or lunch time but younger students may not and may end up having accidents right there in the classroom and then their classmates will make fun of them for the rest of their lives and that’s just cruel. And what about the 14 year old Kenyan girl who committed suicide a few weeks ago after a teacher reprimanded her for staining her uniform? It was her first ever period. How would she have known what to do? That teacher is female by the way and you’d think she’d have done all she could to help that poor girl through her first experience but instead, she ordered her to leave the class and stand outside! I wonder what these teachers’ reactions would be if their own children were subjected to the same.
