Children on ‘Should we bring back the cane in schools?’
After a survey in 2011 revealed adults wanted schools to get tougher with kids, the Daily Mirror found two pupils with differing views.
YES says Kaleem Sim, 15, who attends a
grammar school in Slough, Berks
Bringing back the cane
would act as a deterrent to bad behaviour because it introduces a fear factor
that would stop most pupils from playing up.
If you knew you were going
to be hit with a ruler or a cane – especially if it took place in class – it might
make you think twice about doing something just to show off.
It would probably end up on
Facebook that you'd been caned in class and the humiliation of everyone
knowing, not just those at school, is a big enough reason to stay out of
trouble.
Also, most children would
rather get the punishment over with quickly instead of dealing with all the
different types of punishment we have now.
We receive bad comments in
diaries, or lunchtime and after-school detentions, which can hang over you.
With corporal punishment, it’s over and done with – but has the embarrassment
factor.
And then you’ve got your
parents to deal with so for many children, once will be enough to stop them
from doing it again.
Bad comments in diaries can
seem trivial and detentions are inconvenient, but nowhere near severe enough to
stop bad behaviour completely.
That doesn’t mean that
teachers can just dish out is canings because a pupil chatting at the back of
class or have forgotten their PE kit – the punishment has to fit the crime if
it is to be meaningful.
There has to be a verbal
warning first and if the pupil ignores it, the teacher should have the right to
use the cane.
But I think the teacher has
to inform the head teacher first to prevent any abuse of power and parents should
be told by the school about what is going on.
Caning may not always work
and exclusion should still be in used but in most cases I think the threat of
the cane is enough to make you think twice.
The pain is a deterrent,
too. No one wants that.
NO says Jack Palmer, 15, a comprehensive pupil from
Windermere, Cumbria
Teachers don’t need a cane,
they need to earn respect from their pupils.
I have been lucky in that
my school has teachers who have authority with the way they deal with pupils.
One teacher, for example,
is very laid back and gets on really well with his pupils. But if you step out
of line you know about it. He works hard to treat us well but we know where the
boundaries are and we respect that.
At my old school there was
a teacher who was feared by everyone. In the classroom everyone thought he was
a little bit hard and scary and no one stepped out of line.
When anyone was out of
order he would shout at them. But we all respected him because we knew he could
lose his temper.
But outside of the
classroom he was really nice. He was just strict in the classroom because he
had to be.
There are many other
punishments you can use that are as effective, maybe more so. But we get
encouraged too and that is respect more effective.
If you use the cane then
all respect it builds in resentment. In places like North Africa people have
rebelled against dictatorships because of how they have been beaten and abused.
No one likes injustice.
In schools the pupils would
see it as wrong and there would be no respect. You would get anger against
being beaten and people would rebel, they would deliberately misbehave because
of the injustice they’d feel. Some people would deliberately misbehave and
fight against it. They could end up being proud about being caned and so
wouldn't be afraid of it.
How could you respect
teachers who beat you? It doesn't make any sense. Maybe in the 60s it might
have worked but not now.
My mum is a teacher and
even the horrible kids like her – but she doesn’t shout and scream.
You cannot use fear as a
way of controlling a classroom. It isn’t a deterrent to bad behaviour. Good
teaching is the thing that works.
It is easy to use a cane to
punish children. It is harder to earn their respect but that is what we want.
We want respect on both sides.
As published on
the Daily
Mirror website, 17
September 2011
Picture credit:
Unknown
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