The debate on the return of corporal punishment in schools as a way of curbing student unrest shows our leader’s fetish for simple solutions and quick-fix approach to complex problems.
The fixation on the biblical adage, ‘Spare the rod, spoil a child’, without considering who was being addressed and in what context, also betrays lack of understanding of the issues at hand.
On careful consideration of the scripture, one realises the message was an exhortation by King Solomon to parents to discipline their children, not leave it to strangers.
Besides, many proponents of caning are either individuals who went to school in the era "an African child can’t understand anything without a cane", or those who claim they are "better" because they were caned.
Why should we mete out cruelty on our children based on unscientific and misguided thinking? Does it ever cross our minds that teachers could abuse the cane?
I remember during my school days we were caned for events outside our control, such as lack of school fees or wearing torn uniform. We paid for our poor backgrounds through many strokes of the cane.
Why do we want teacher-student relationships to resemble that between prison-warders and prisoners?
In my opinion, caning is cruel and degrading. If the law of cause and effect was to be applied, parents who have abdicated their responsibilities should be caned before we cane students.
Guidance and counselling, dialogue and more parental involvement in their children’s life are the way to go.
{George Nyongesa, Nairobi}
Joining high school is an exciting event in a student’s life. Students undergo intense moments as they deal with adolescence, peer pressure and all that comes with school life.
In the first year, many students spend time dodging bullies and teachers who seem to heap scorn and praise at the same time. Students with low self-esteem are the most affected and they look for acceptance wherever they can find it.
In the process, some who are entrusted with authority ignore their colleagues pleas for help, choosing instead to flex their muscles by being authoritarian.
These students have been taught that violence and intimidation will get them what they want. Sounds familiar? Well, this is what we get when we view corporal punishment as the solution to all our problems.
Many parents were caned and they believe that is the only way their children can learn. So they use the rod as a substitute to dialogue in raising a child.
By introducing corporal punishment, you simply tell children that violence will make people do what you want.
This is detrimental because children will not listen to you when you advise them to avoid other forms of violence.
Hence, the cycle of violence never stops. As children grow older, they fall back on violence and intimidation to get what they want.
Children ape their elders. What did they learn from the shameful violence that was brought by last year’s discredited elections?
We should not resort to caning simply because it is the simplest and quickest way to get what we want. We need to engage students more intelligently.
{Michael Mwendwa, via e-mail}
