Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child

A couple of bloggers have written about that unfortunate boy who got beaten to death by his schoolmates. It's shocking to say the least. I managed to catch a glimpse of the news on TV last night and I really felt for the parents of this kid. You bring up your son for sixteen years. You teach him all the good values in life. You even managed to get him to study hard at school. And for those very things he was beaten to death. What have we become?


When I was a kid, I went to the school in which my mom taught. I was put in her colleague's class. And I remember my mom telling my teacher that if I was ever out of line, she should cane me. Other parents were like that as well. In fact, there was even this father who presented his son's class teacher with a cane. "If my son naughty, cane him!" That was the way it was then. While most of us still got up to some mischief every now and then, we were very aware that our teachers had been given the power to cane the crapola out of us. And by our parents, no less.


But boy, things have changed! When a teacher canes a child, some parent will come to school and make a big fuss. There'll be a big PTA meeting to decide disciplinary action against the offending teacher. The Education Minister will step in. And perhaps this might have given the impression to kids that no matter what shitty things they did, Daddy will always back them up. Is this how we want our kids to grow up?


When Baby grows up someday and goes to school, I will accompany him. And I will tell his teacher to cane him if he so deserves it. My mother brought me up to respect my elders and to obey my teachers. Sure, I got caned, but look what a fine example of a human being I turned out to be (*ahem*). And I have to say that the occasional caning I got did me more good than harm. Aside from learning a little discipline, I also toughened up (*ahaks*)with ever stroke! Can I do any less for my own child?


Read these:

The Insane Ox Speaks > Exasperated

Hafizmail.com Daily Rants > Stupid Malays?

Proverbs 13:24 > He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

14 comments:

  1. my mum caned me. my dad caned me. my standard 3 teacher caned me (legs). standard 1 i had to stand outside of class for being noisy. standard 2 teacher whack my hand with ruler. high school stand on chair, stand outside class, on the lawn (all with same gang). got called to principal's ofis a few times oso.
    yes, i believe in the caning system to a certain extent. just as long as the both teacher & student doesn't get too out of hand (sum teachers r nuts u know). kids gotta be taught respect frm a young age.

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  2. James ... you from Taiping?

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  3. Cane, cane, cane also never die what! Right, oliviasy? :)
    Uh-oh! I've been busted! Who are you, Reena? :?:

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  4. Hehehe.... me too! :)
    Enjoy reading your blog!

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  5. check this out, if you do not know about this site already.
    http://taipingtalk.com

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  6. If my kids suffer blue black eyes becos fight with another kids also i cant say anything except feeling hurt my heart....but NO adults must touch my kids...

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  7. i think i turned out fine *ahem*

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  8. Thanks for the link, Reena. Found some long lost friends there! :)
    Okay, phoenix, we won't touch your kids! ;)
    I'm sure you did, oliviasy! :lol:

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  9. Interesting food for thought. I never gave this much thought even after Charis was born. I can attest to the fact that caning did nothing much to stunt my emotional growth but I guess it's a bit more difficult when you are considering the same for your own kid :p

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  10. I suppose it gets even tougher since Charis is a girl! :)

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  11. I was caned only twice in my lifetime. Once for accidently poking my sis on her the side of her eyes which almost made her blind, and second time, I cant even remember what was it for.
    See how nice I turn out to be?

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  12. Erm, I'm thinking you didn't quite get caned enough! Hahahah!!!!

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  13. There's this Malay proverb that says something like... (I don't remember it in Malay so I'll let you know in English) "Love kan your son, hand hand kan your son"
    Something to that effect lah.

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