Building Respect, Not Fear: Alternatives to Caning in Schools

On a normal day, we’d expect that all kids love school and are always looking forward to going to school. But in the early 2000’s my story wasn’t the same. I always knew that I had at least 5 lashes reserved for me every school morning because I was the best and worst student in the school at the same time . Best because I was always at the top of my class and worst because I always came to school late.

To my teachers, it wasn’t even about me coming to school late. It was the fact that my house was just two minutes walk from the school yet I didn’t even bother to show up early. When my mom used to take me to school, I would always make sure to cry as soon as we were getting to school just to waste time.😂 it wasn’t like I was even going to do anything in school aside eat, sing, watch tv and sleep. What could someone in crèche possibly go to school early for.

But then, as I got to the upper classes and started to go to school on my own my teachers started to lash me for showing up late. Then I was asking myself, what changed?😂 Maybe it was the fact that i was older then. You maybe be thinking I went to school late because I work at home in the morning. Honestly, I wasn’t even taking up any chores. I would wake up, sit on the compound looking at others rushing to get to school and leaving comments.😂 After everyone has left, I would now even think of making an attempt to get to school and funny enough, I was so unbothered. But I knew the canes that were waiting for me.😂

I didn’t like the canes at all but then at some point I was actually going in late intentionally especially on Wednesdays and Fridays when we had to go for worship and singing sessions in the morning. Even though I would show up to school late, I always made it to school before my first lesson for the day. I’m sure you were thinking I went to school around 10:00am.😂 Nope. Normal reporting time was 7:00am but I would show up at 7:30 or 7:45 since lessons started at 8. Was this even something to warrant 5 lashes for poor me. 🌚

Aside my usual daily 5 canes, we also had early morning mental every morning and one wrong was one cane for you. At the stage, I knew I was safe because I always came in ready. I can’t say same for some of my classmates especially those who can’t even get one correct.😂 It was sad to watch them get caned but when I receiving mine no one had pity on me so they should enjoy.😂

If I remember right, these were the only times canes were being used on us in school aside when you actually committed a serious offence. But with time, my school implemented a no cane policy because most of the teachers were starting to abuse their right to cane us students which led to so many issues between the school and the parents of the students.

In todays world, you hardly see kids get caned in schools because the whole system is against it now. However, there’s always a black sheep among the lot. Some teachers always go against the school rules to beat the kids and that is very bad. I know some kids can be very stubborn but then I believe there are other forms to punish them aside inflicting physical pain on them.

From my experience with canes in school, I don’t think I’d wish for someone to go through such treatment and torture. I know that you can’t change someone who’s not ready to change and so the best way to convince them to do better is to actually talk to them and try to motivate them in your own little way instead of inflicting pain on them.

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all images belong to me.

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