I taught in Zimbabwe schools for 15 years and I never beat a child, yet I managed to maintain classroom order. Because the students liked to come to my class, they were eager to learn. I had parents sometimes ask me to beat their child, even if the child was the best student, just to keep the child on track. I would tell them, I don’t beat my own children, I won’t beat yours. Furthermore, I am not a parent of my students, only their teacher.

I would not want my children beaten by a teacher. One a teacher slapped one of my daughter’s across the face. Another one told my first grader that she was making her sit by where the rats lived because she talked too much. I reported these incidences to the headmaster because I won’t tolerate such behavior from a teacher toward my child. I was happy for my first grader though who spoke up and said, “There are not rats you are just trying to scare me.” She is now an “A” student in finance at Penn State. The other one is at Stanford on full scholarship. It is amazing what a student/child treated with respect, empathy, understanding, and learning without fear at home and school can achieve.

My message to teachers is that they should discipline school children as a parent would discipline his or her child. Discipline is not the other word for abuse. Abuse will always breed disorderly conduct, always remember that today’s victim of abuse is tomorrow’s perpetrator. let us therefore discipline out of love, not vengeance. F.M