HORROR STORIES... TRUE?

Last Saturday, I was helping out at the Church's Children Drama Club. The kids, aged between 8 to 12 years, were told to pick an ordinary scene from school and act it out. With four groups performing a 8 minute skit, 3 of these groups gave a VERY similar scene: an angry teacher and a punishing principal.

What realy disturbed us was how the teachers and principals were portrayed and the words they used. "I'll SLAP you!" "SHUT UP!" "STUPID" and even "go to HELL".

The teachers asked the children, what made them think of their teachers in that sort of way? "Coz it's true!" they answered in unison, followed by many stories of terrors.

"My headmaster will simply cane us!" said one boy.

"One teacher made me made the whole class stand in the sun for 30 minutes!" another girl related. Mind you, these are Primary School students.

I begin to wonder.... were the tall tales simply tall tales?! Was it just a child's fear of punishment that made them believe such stories? Did they really experience such treatment... or was it just a 'heard-about-it tale'?

What if the stories were true?

I then searched into my mind of my own personal experiences as a school girl... the fat girl. I admit, I DID hear tales of how the kids at the All Girls' School were made to parade around the field with their skirts lifted... just because the skirt hems were above their knees!

But when I was in Primary School, we were punished by doing that darn 'Squat-Stand-Squat-Stand' act, with our arms crossed over our chests and holding on to our earlobes. Why? Just because we were noisy. We were KIDS, for crying out loud!! And being rowdy was a child's joy.

The cane was given only to real indiscipline kids, after real thought. Was it because I went to a good school? I don't think so. A year after I left for Secondary School, a girl died. Just shortly after finishing her UPSR exams. Worse still, I knew her. Amelia. We used to spend morning pre-assembly breaks and recess together, since she was one year younger than me. I had thought that we would be together again, hoping that she'll enter then same Secondary School as her sister (my senior) and I did.

Amelia had a sudden asthma attack during recess, and when her cousin went to fetch a teacher, he simply said, "I don't care" and simply left the poor student to find other help.

That's all it took to kill her... the "Don't Care attitude".

Teachers are also human, just like everyone... under a lot of work stress. But why do they need to act so different. It is because they feel the burden of educating other people's children? Under-paid? Unappreciated? What ever happened to the "Joys of Teaching" ?

I'm not saying ALL educators are bad. But when one teacher makes a huge mistake in anger management, the entire profession gets a bad name. And it's not just them... what about the children? In turn, they are the ones who are hurt in the end.

They end up lacking confidence, trust and optimism. And just when you think that things could be improved in our education system... news like this come out. Schoolgirls made to squat in the dirty, murky pond, in the rain.