Spare the Child

I kind of had a rough day today.

Last week, we held a “Safe School Environment” workshop for our Senior Men and Senior Women Teachers.  We spent three days informing these teachers about the importance and necessity of safe schools, as well as training them on the procedures and strategies to ensure safety.  The topics were wide and varied: midday lunches, reporting techniques, sexual harassment, corporal punishment, child labor, guidance and counseling, child abuse, etc.  My session was about corporal punishment.

For those that don’t know, corporal punishment is any type of punishment which inflicts pain, however light; this includes hitting, slapping, smacking, kicking, punching, beating, etc. with a hand or implement, such as a whip, cane, stick, wooden spoon, etc.  Obviously, corporal punishment is illegal in America.  If a teacher so much lays a hand on a child, they are instantly reported to the police where they may incur imprisonment or a fine and will most definitely suffering revocation of their teaching license.  In Uganda, as of 2006, corporal punishment was banned and made punishable by the law; however, nearly all officials and head teachers turn a blind eye to this legislature.  Corporal punishment is rampant in all schools, private or government, for all ages and sexes.  Most often, it takes form of caning, but it extends to slapping, pinching, hitting, etc.

Anytime I have discussed corporal punishment with a Ugandan, the conversation has always followed the same course.  I start by telling a teacher that caning is unacceptable, that corporal punishment is ineffective, that beating only creates a vicious cycle of violence, but their responses are either:

“Spare the rod, spoil the child.”  Unfortunately this proverb comes from the Bible, and it can be difficult to refute.

“An African child only hears from behind.”  As an American, they essentially shut me down immediately by refusing to believe that American and African children could learn or behave the same way.

To open my session, I reminded my teachers that although I am American, I have stayed with them for over one year.  I understand that their classrooms are overcrowded and classroom management can be difficult.  I asked them to please have an open attitude and mind about my session.  I asserted that I was not judging them, and I would not come to their schools on Monday morning with a police officer to arrest everyone with a cane in their hand.  I only begged that they would consider alternative discipline.

Corporal punishment has four major consequences:

1.    Physical: A light beating may not leave any physical evidence, but some will leave bruises or cuts on the child.  We are unable to know the history of every child; therefore, we may not know if beating a child will be harmful to their health.  For example, a teacher caned a young pupil “lightly,” but this child suffered from sickle cell anemia.  As result, this child was hospitalized for a few days.  I think it’s relatively self-evident how corporal punishment has physical consequences.

2.    Psychological/Emotional: As I have said before, we have no way of knowing the child’s history.  This child may suffer an unfortunate family life, and school may be the only place this children could possibly feel safe.  Corporal punishment robs children of a safe and nurturing environment, where they can properly learn.  Most teachers will argue that caning forces a child to learn; however, psychology tells us that is not the case.  I will try not to go into too much detail, but let me explain.  We have three parts to our brain, which function like building blocks.  The lowest section controls our bodily functions that we don’t even think about, such as breathing, blood flow, reflexes, digestion, etc.  The midsection controls our emotions and hormones.  The largest and top section is our forebrain, which handles the higher level of thinking that makes us human, such as language, critical thinking and decision-making.  If our lowest section is having problems, it shuts down the top two.  Therefore, if a child feels fear or anxiety in the classroom, which would automatically initiate a “fight-or-flight response” and a release of stress hormones, his mid-brain has just hijacked his brain.  No higher learning can be executed.  The child may be able to memorize answers as a means of survival, but he will not have a deep understanding of the material.  Furthermore, corporal punishment does not even teach the child what was wrong with their behavior, help them understand more appropriate behavior or give them methods for changing their behavior.

3.    Behavioral: When a child gets caned for misbehavior, he is registering two things: my teacher is angry or upset with me, my teacher is using violence as a means of expressing his disapproval.  Corporal punishment teaches children that violence is an appropriate means of conflict resolution.  As children, they will use violence to solve problems and to express their emotions.  As adults, this will contribute to domestic violence.  Men have learned that lashing out at their wives is acceptable, while women have learned that being beaten is also acceptable, which is called learned helplessness.  I gave the example of an experiment done to dogs where they were forced to stand on a pad that delivered them shocks.  In the beginning, they were restrained, and they would thrash about trying to avoid the shocks, but there was nothing they could do.  Later on in the study, the dogs’ restraints were removed, and they were free to jump off the platform.  Sadly, the dogs wouldn’t leave the platform.  They had accepted the abuse as normal and would just lie on the mat and whimper.

4.    Developmental: Most children that are beaten have some developmental issues, whether with maturity levels, sociability or learning difficulties.

If Peace Corps has taught me anything, it’s that development is painfully slow.  Change cannot happen over night.  I asked my teachers to please, try, and slowly slowly stop using corporal punishment, especially for minor offenses, such as wrong answers, late-coming, speaking Lunyole, etc.  I closed my session by asking how many teachers were caned in school for coming late.  Every teacher raised their hand.  And what time did we have start the workshop?  11 am, because everyone was so late.  So, does corporal punishment work?  I think not.  At least everyone laughed.

So why am I so bummed today?  I arrived at my center school to teach, but all the classes were in the middle of lessons, so I sat down to journal while I waited.  Out of the corner of my eye, I realized that P5 was causing some serious commotion with children pouring out of the doors and crowding around the windows.  As I approached, no teachers were in sight.  Children were fighting, beating each other and climbing all over the desks.  It wasn’t just two kids- it was the whole class.  I entered the class and gave P5 a stern lecture about appropriate behavior for big girls and boys.  I told them that if I found them fighting again today, there would be a punishment for the whole class, not just one or two children.  Within five minutes, I saw a boy rush outside to grab a stick and run back in to lash his classmates.  I couldn’t believe it!  So, the whole P5 class was punished by having to clean the school during their break in the afternoon.  I made sure they understood why they were being punished.  As I was finishing with them, one of their teachers finally comes waltzing in.  I explain the situation to him while trying to include the class.  I’m sure they were tired of hearing me talk, and I noticed some pupils were playing with their books or whatever.  I walked around the class picking up books and telling children to listen properly when a teacher is speaking.  What does my P5 teacher do in order to help me?  Smack a kid in the face with a stick.  Great.  I’m trying to tell them that beating is not an appropriate behavior.

As I left school feeling discouraged, I found a P6 boy beating a P1 girl.  That’s a 13-year-old boy beating a 6-year-old gisl.  Again, I couldn’t believe it.  The boy insisted that it was his sister, like that would make it any better.  Fortunately, I knew how to ask the little girl in Lunyole if that was true.  Nope.  This boy was beating a little girl, plain and simple.  I made him apologize, but I couldn’t dole out any more positive discipline.  I just wanted to go home.

Last Friday, I had considered attempting to tackle the problem of corporal punishment at my center school during my last year of service.  Today, I’m worried that not only will I be just a broken record to the teachers, but that I’ll lose motivation for everything.  It’s horrifying to face the daily child abuse and violence that occurs in schools.  If I don’t loose steam, I’m hoping to bring this amazing Tanzanian-based organization, Raising Voices, to my school for a more comprehensive training in positive discipline.  It would be amazing if my center school could be the model school for alternative punishment.  Sigh.  It will just be exhausting and disheartening to have corporal punishment constantly on my radar.