Help! We can't discipline the kids

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Teachers are helpless and sometimes horrified whenever a student steals something in class, uses foul language constantly, bullies schoolmates, plays truant or damages school property. They can lodge police reports, but it occurs to them that they are dealing with minors.

   Another alternative is to bring the wrongdoing to the attention of parents. In many cases, parents merely shake their heads or raise their eyebrows in disbelief.

   In the good old days, the cane was used to impose discipline and reform a wrongdoer. However, this disciplinary method is now considered physically “violent” or “harmful” to a student’s self-esteem.

   The former Singapore Prime Minister, Sir Harry Lee Kuan Yew, used to poke fun at the British for frowning on corporal punishment. He himself had gone through the experience and he favoured caning as a means to maintain discipline.

   Some of our former leaders had also been caned or had witnessed corporal punishment in their schools. The disciplinary measure was a deterrent against misbehavior, hooliganism and rebellion. It helped to hold young offenders in check.

   Corporal punishment banned


    Now this disciplinary action against a recalcitrant student is considered outrageous, if not criminal..  His or her parents can sue the teacher or school for using the cane even if it was intended to correct the student’s misdemeanour. 

   As it is not a "civilised" punitive measure,  all European countries except France have banned corporal punishment in school. Nevertheless, 19 states in the US still retain the practice which was adopted as early as the 10th century BC. Even ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt  applied it.

   Ironically, we allow judicial corporal punishment in the form of whipping or harsh caning. Only 33 countries in the world still impose this additional penalty beside imprisonment.

   Criminal who are subject to caning can perhaps consider themselves fortunate. In some countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, offenders are amputated or mutilated.

   Moreover, we advocate and practise the death penalty which is outlawed in many developed countries. The argument against capital punishment is that we do not have the right to terminate the lives of fellow human beings. Rather, they should be left to rot until death.

   Over-protected children

    Gone are the days when the death penalty came in the form of impalement, disembowelment, slow slicing or boiling to death. The crimes punishable by death once included shoplifting, petty theft, cutting down trees in public places, and cowardice or desertion in war.

   The world’s four most populous countries – China, India, the US and Indonesia – practise capital punishment. Malaysia is one of the 58 countries subscribing to it.

   Against a background of disobedience, defiance, lawlessness and increasing discipline breakdown, many parents and guardians ignore the “spare the rod, spoil the child” warning. We sometimes wonder whether today’s children are overly pampered and over-protected.

   In a society where two parents in a family work full-time, their children are often neglected and, in due time, become unruly. Do parents weep or resort to domestic violence only when the strains are overbearing or when they learn that their children have turned to drugs or serious crimes?

   Discipline has to be applied both at home and in school. If the cane has to be used it is not for abuse but for correction and self-restraint. The fear of abuse or brutality can be removed if a procedure or proper control is complied with.

   Even without the cane, reports of domestic violence and child abuse are rising. Any measure that is carried out to the extremes is negative and dangerous. 

   Caning, which is milder than the death penalty and judicial corporal punishment, is a last resort. It is an effective way to ensure that the young respect not only law and order but also authority and decorum. Thus, it should not be banned.

   Corporal punishment opponents advocate that parents and teachers should reason with the young through heart-to-heart talks. Without subjecting to  rules and restrictions, however, children are often deaf to advice.

   While parents struggle to increase their earnings, their children's welfare and upbringing are often neglected. Sometimes, their maids are left to carry the heavy burden of holding the young in check. In an outburst, they are likely to beat disobedient children. 

   When the talking, pleading, persuasion and swearing do not work, parents cannot dispense with the cane.