To touch a petal of a beautiful rose flower may not kill it, but its God-given bloom wilters before your very eyes. Imagine what corporal punishment can do to the delicate developing mind of a child
What a priceless 100th birthday gift it would be to Bangabandhu if Bangladesh had no corporal punishment and its youth were confidently marching towards becoming outstanding citizens for the world to seeing.Sir Frank Peters
There’s loose talk around these days about children not being respectful to their teachers, their parents, and elders in general.
Some people, in their eureka moment, espouse that corporal punishment should be exercised in the homes and classrooms as the panacea for all social ills.
Just like the snake oil salesman of the Old West who hawked bottles of elixir of questionable content around the sun-scorched Western plains claiming its value to be the panacea of all medical ills, there wasn’t an ounce of truth in their claims.
While the snake oil salesman played on the ignorance of their uneducated, uninformed audience during the pioneering days of America, ‘teachers’ throughout Bangladesh did similar.
The one major difference being, the snake oil salesman knew he was selling rubbish, something that had no benefits whatsoever and if the people were foolish enough to fall for his sales patter, so be it… they deserved to be taken.
The school ‘teachers’ on the other hand, were ignorant of the damage they were causing by corporal punishment. It was what they knew ‘discipline’ to be… how things were done. It was what was practiced in their own homes and in the schools they attended, and they knew no better.
In 2011 there was a major change to the local tapestry. The High Court of Bangladesh made it abundantly clear that corporal punishment was wrong. Justice Md. Imman Ali and Md. Sheikh Hasan Arif outlawed the inhuman, ineffective, ignorant practice in schools and madrassahs, declaring it to be: ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and a clear violation of a child’s fundamental right to life, liberty and freedom’.
Even today, however, with the vast amount of knowledge at our fingertips, the negative findings of insurmountable case studies, and the irrefutable scientific evidence available that condemn corporal punishment outright for the ‘snake oil’ that it is, there are people among us who actually try to justify its use.
“I was given corporal punishment and I turned out to be okay,” they say as if they had won an endurance test.
Sadly, they will never know is if they would have turned out much better without it.
A rose
To touch a petal of a beautiful rose flower may not kill it, but its God-given bloom wilters before your very eyes. Imagine what corporal punishment can do to the delicate developing mind of a child.
There are many undeniable, irrefutable, beyond-all-question-of-doubt truths in the world like the world is round, night follows day, not everyone you love will love you back, nothing in nature blooms all year round, and corporal punishment is without merit, are among them.
Studies have proved corporal punishment leads to adverse physical, psychological and educational outcomes – including depression, aggression, poor social skills, destructive and disruptive behaviour, vandalism, poor school achievement, poor attention span, increased drop-out rate, school avoidance, school phobia and many more, every parent and society wants to avoid.
My attention was drawn to a speech given by President M Abdul Hamid recently. He was speaking at the Ninth National Cub Camporee-2020’ at the National Scout Training Centre at Mouchak in Gazipur as Chief Scout of Bangladesh.
It was a fascinating and inspiring speech that both adults and youths throughout Bangladesh (and the world) should have heard.
Leaders in the making
In his speech, President Hamid told the awe-inspired young audience: “Scouting activities can help new generations to build themselves as modern, progressive and creative citizens.
“You will lead the nation tomorrow. You will build a hunger and poverty-free, secular, developed and rich Bangladesh envisioned by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” he said.
“The new generation, who did not see 1971 Liberation War and Bangabandhu, must take a lesson from the history to engage themselves in nation-building activities,” he added.
No doubt, if progress in society is to be made, there’s a strong possibility it will be spearheaded by youth organizations like the Scout Movement – the largest members-only youth-for-good fraternity in the world.
The Scout Movement is a voluntary non-political educational movement for young people open to all without distinction of gender, origin, race or creed, in accordance with the purpose, principles and method conceived by its founder, Lord Baden-Powell.
Within the movement, youths are put on a character-building conveyor belt and taught respect for themselves, their parents, fellow scouts and others. They’re taught not to lie, steal, cheat or damage community property and to help other people and the community at large. They gain a sense of independence and pride in what they do. They learn to respect their uniform and in turn to respect their personal wardrobe.
They learn confidence, how to speak up for themselves when needs be in a polite controlled manner, interact with youths of their own age and to respect the laws of the land. The Scout Movement is all about building character, learning, personal development, and having fun… lots of fun.
Many boys create friendships that outlast the years they spent together in the movement, similar to the camaraderie shared by military people who return from tours of duty overseas.
In many youths, it brings out qualities they never knew they had. They learn skills and shed the layer of shyness that once held them back ¬and they become amazingly motivated. They learn to develop in mind and body, run meetings and activities for the benefit of others and, in so doing they become good role models for the younger members and see them well on the way to becoming decent human beings and prized model citizens.
Apart from the interesting activities the Scout Movement provides, encouragement is most probably the greatest invisible badge of gold it can bestow upon a youth who is unsure of himself, needs to know, needs be told, needs to be reminded, needs to be appreciated and regularly shown he is of priceless worth.
And the Scout Movement achieves all of the above WITHOUT corporal punishment!
Do as I say
Now imagine if corporal punishment did not exist in any setting (school, home or madrassah) and children were encouraged to do better and not beaten, chided or belittled when they make little mistakes, how society would benefit.
Children first need to be shown by example and then encouraged to follow. ‘Do as I say, but don’t do as I do’, is hypocritical and just doesn’t work.
Watching a friend (if not himself) being beaten with a stick by an out of control irate ‘teacher’ is far from inspiring or encouraging to perform at one’s best. Fear is not encouragement and as our dear departed friend Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore once said: “To discipline means to teach, not to punish”.
Closing his speech, His Excellency, President Hamid advised scouts to ‘become active and create mass awareness against narcotics, terrorism, militancy, child marriage, and fanaticism”.
Ensuring there is no corporal punishment in our learning places will reduce terrorism dramatically. Consciously or subliminally, pupils learn from the good or bad behaviour of the teachers. Violence is a lesson you don’t want them to learn.
Corporal punishment teaches hate, resentment, vengeance, disrespect, and is the mother of terrorism and the embryo of a violent society. One act of corporal punishment is one too many.
What a priceless 100th birthday gift it would be to Bangabandhu if Bangladesh had no corporal punishment and its youth were confidently marching towards becoming outstanding citizens. I’m sure luminous Scout Master President Hamid, would entirely agree.
Three-finger Salute!
(Sir Frank Peters is a former newspaper and magazine publisher and editor, an award-winning writer, a royal goodwill ambassador and humanitarian. In recognition of his campaign to outlaw corporal punishment in Bangladesh, three families have shown their appreciation by naming three boys ‘Frank Peters’ in his honour. sirfrankpeters@gmail.com)
