Teachers and Pupils

As an African man, I always pride myself on the way kids are being disciplined in the country, because I happen to be a big supporter of the saying Spare the rod and spoil the child.

I may not have agreed to it growing up, but the older I got, the more sense I found in it. I remember how surprised I was when I first found out that in most first-world countries, teachers in school were not permitted to beat a child with a cane whenever they did something wrong. I thought it was stupid, and I remember thinking to myself that if I had lived in any of these countries, I wouldn't be scared of doing anything wrong because there was no ass whooping.

_{photo by Muhammed Nishal}

But you see, the closer I get to getting married and becoming a parent, the more I find myself thinking about these topics, and to be honest with you, I'm beginning to think the whole thing because I don't think I am fully comfortable with the thought of someone hitting my child with a cane.

Now don't get me wrong, if the child did something that deserved the ass-whooping from the teacher, then please go ahead. Where I have problems with it, though, is when the teachers do a little too much, like some teachers in my day did, or when they hit the child not because they want to correct the child, but simply because they're in the position to.

You see, some of these new adults are seething, and some of them just want to pass down trauma that they faced in their time to these kids. And even though I'm not a parent yet, I just know I will be very protective of my children and probably will be more than ready to exchange punches with their teachers if a day comes where I find some ridiculous scars on my kids bodies or I find out their teachers just hate them.

And this won't only be because I'm trying to defend my kids but also because as a kid, I went through that whole pain but couldn't defend myself or stand up for myself because I was a little boy, but I'm never going to let that repeat itself.

I know some of you will say that if you don't want your kids to be disciplined, then they should be homeschooled, but I do want them to be disciplined. I also understand that it takes a community to raise a child; I'm just not in support of anyone going over the limit and leaving scars on my kids bodies or making them afraid to go to school the next day (all of which I experienced), just because you think you can.