I Will Never Accept This!
This post is going to be a bit different from what my followers are used to, which is (lately) exhibitions, museums, art, photography and so on. It's going to be about an exhibition, but in a different way.
Most likely I'm not going to be popular after I publish this, even make a few enemies, but I'm not looking to win any popularity contest, I'm just expressing my opinion on a matter that is extremely important.
Last week I went to an exhibition, which was about reformed collages and the educational system in the past few centuries, in the last 400 years to be precise. This week I showed you how a classroom looked like and what props they were using in the 19th century, in this post. There will be other posts to show you another side of the educational system you may not know, but today I'd like to talk about how students were treated back in those days.
To give visitors context about what life was like for students in those days, there were these big boards where you could read all you needed to know.
To begin with, let me tell you that only the wealthy and privileged ones had the chance to study. Education was not free, tuition was quite expensive, so the well off, the wealthy and those who got sponsored by someone, got the chance to study, but even so, life was pretty difficult for them. Most of them were staying in boarding houses and had their daily tasks to carry out besides studying, like cleaning, carrying wood and so on. It's not the ideal life a student would dream of, but this wasn't the biggest issue.
There was a short video (5 minutes I think), to give you a glimpse into the life of these poor kids and the opportunity to see what they had to go through. There's a nice, hand carved wooden chest from 1758, don't miss it :) This chest was used for the financial documents of the collage.
I stood there, watching the video twice I believe and thinking of how life has changed since then, but not everywhere unfortunately.
Long story short, the story of this video is about one young boy who saw an older student stealing his friend's pocket watch, that he inherited from his father. He reported the theft, but the thief was smarter than him, hid the watch and poor kid had to face the music for false accusations.
The matter was settled at the end, but in a way you never want to see in life, let alone experience it. Yes, corporal punishment was the end of the story for this poor kid, who did the right thing after all. Unfortunately this was not an exaggerated story as that's how matters were resolved back in those days and corporal punishment was the way they educated kids.
At the time of writing, there's a scandal going on in my country, who's main character is a kindergarten teacher who was caught on tape yelling at kids, beating them with a ruler and threatening the kids with beatings. She's been arrested and going to have to face the court and could be sentenced as well.
It's shocking to know cases like this exist but this is reality. The sad thing is that it's possible she is not the only one treating kids like this.
What is more shocking is that this kind of treatment applied to kids is considered normal and necessary in some parts of the world. As a curator, I read a lot of posts on a daily bases and come across similar stories. I'm not going to name the countries where this behavior is not only tolerated but encouraged as well, most likely you can guess which ones I'm referring to.
What I don't understand and will probably never be able to understand is how these people still consider such behavior normal and necessary. Often I get into arguments with them as I'm not going to hide my indignation, nor say it is ok. After being subject of such bullying, shaming and physical abuse, as an adult, they still think it's ok, which most likely will lead to them doing the same thing with their kids.
The most shocking justification I've heard from them is that those beatings were out of love for the kids. I'm always wondering, if you beat your kids out of love, what do you do to your enemies? Absolute madness! Beating and abusing a child will only lead to hatred and will leave deep wounds that may never heal.
In most of the countries you can go to jail for such behavior and can lose custody of your children, but some parts of the world are lagging. I just hope civilization can evolve there too and save these kids from this kind of treatment. Abusing those who you should protect is the worst thing you can do! Making kids fear you won't bring any results.
Feel free to leave a comment, tell me what you think about the matter, or about how kids are treated in your country. Is corporal punishment still considered the best form of educating kids?
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Corporal punishment is now banned here in South Africa, but I remember the 70s to this day, as I had to bend in front of the class for 6 of the best on most days. No kid should be treated like this.
I'm sorry to hear you had to go through it. Good thing it is banned today. I hope it is respected.
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Oh God!
As a mother and teacher I understand this is inculcated from religion and culture as for example I lost my parents at an early age, but I had my grandmother who raised us with blows when we did things wrong is why I try to scold and punish my children when they misbehave and do not do their homework, but never physical abuse I think everyone decides how to raise their child, but it should be punishable worldwide
You're right, every parent decides how they raise their children, but abuse is never a solution to anything and should be punishable. No kid should suffer such treatment, let alone from those who are meant to teach and educate.
It's true and I had seen it when I was in school. Besides, when I was a class 1-2 student, our teacher often used to punish us with wooden ruler scales on our hands. Our parents never complained instead they supported it thinking it's the best medicine for a naughty student who doesn't do homework or can't perform well in class.
I was a backbencher student so these punishments were common to me...
Abuse is never a solution or medicine against anything and I hope people start to wake up and change everywhere.
This is new to me, I've never heard of such treatment, actually I had to look it up to see if I understand you correctly. In my time, naughty kids were placed in the first row but not to shame them, but to keep an eye on them and it was certainly not for neglecting homework.
I'm sorry to hear you had to go through this.
Well for me, I can say, that corporal punishment shouldn't be an action when a child does wrong, I've used numerous ways to punish my kids, I sometimes don't allow them to use their phones or even watch television, and sometimes forces them to sleep which is cool..but going to the extent of punishing them severe is truly not acceptable and shouldn't be entertained. Over here we have many children that have been lost because of such punishments.
Back in my parents' day corporal punishment wasn't even reserved for when kids did wrong. My father was left-handed, and when he was in primary school (in the 1920s & 30s) they did NOT want children learning to write with their left hands, or being left-handed at all. So the teachers would whack the kids' hands with rulers if they caught them writing left-handed. Utterly barbaric, and yet some societies still refuse to acknowledge that left-handedness is valid (usually for hygiene reasons).
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That is terrible, absolute madness and barbaric as you say.
My brother is also left handed and was not let to learn to write with his left hand, but he certainly wasn't beaten. His handwriting is terrible, I don't know if it's due to his left hand orientation or not, but it doesn't matter anymore.
I'm not really familiar with this but I suspect it happens in Islamic countries? I've heard they eat with their right hand and use their left hand for hygiene purposes? Is that the reason?
Yes, those are the reasons that I have learned. Which, while I'm sure it made some sense back in the days before germ theory and the power of hand washing were understood, I feel that today there is no excuse.
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Wow.
Now this is a lot.
Well in some parts of the country where I found myself, it happens.
But I bless God for my parent all the time.
I grew up in a home where if you need to be disciplined, they will sit you down and talk so much sense into you first of.
I can count the number of time my parent used the cane on any of us.
They'd rather talk to you, and trust me it works, because by the time they are done talking to you, you will surely be remorseful.
Teachers flogging the student? I didn't have time to experience this too. I was the good student 😅.
Then you're a lucky one to have had part of such education, especially in a country where abuse is considered normal.
Actually 😅.
I'm really glad too.
This kind of punishment was ridiculous but we can't hide its existence. Even I was a victim of brutal punishment at a very early age when being left on the creche by my parents which will always remain in my mind even if there is the saying that you forget your memories with the passage of time. Somehow that one will ever live within me. I can't imagine how bad things were for the poor people or when it was a thing to punish children for their education results... it just sucks.
I'm really sorry to hear what you had to go through. These memories mark you for life! I was lucky as was not part of such experience, but we had a teacher in kindergarten, who was not nice to us and still remember her for that. And teachers in elementary school, who loved to hit boys.
It just sucks for sure and I hope these people will be removed from the educational system and also held responsible for their actions.
This says it all. Its sad that this goes on still. But it was the norm not that long ago. I grew up in the States and corporal punishment was still going on in my high school in the 1980s. It was a small town and in the south but still only 40 years ago.
I'm really sorry to hear you had part of this in a way. It's never easy and looking back it's really frustrating. Let's hope there comes a time when corporal punishment will be a memory from the past and that time better come soon.
They not only say that they do it out of love for the children, sometimes they say that they learned that way and that is why they do it with the children nowadays, thinking that it is the best way even though they evidently have a trauma and continue to replicate it with others. Here in Venezuela I still saw similar cases, even in some musical institutions and despite living in modern times not all young people know how to defend themselves and prefer to keep quiet.
I share your way of thinking and I hope that the world ends up changing; it is difficult because there are so many corners where so many atrocious things happen, but each time there is a majority of people with a sense of justice and who rebel against these acts. It will take time, but I feel that it can change. How nice that you talked about this in Hive Erikah! 😘
You know what is strange and I can't understand it? As kids, these people most likely cried a lot and were angry and frustrated for being beaten up, yet they are doing exactly the same now. They need to understand that this kind of behavior can only create hatred and detestation. Education is not about creating fear in a kid, but about making him understand.
That's right and in fact I know people in my social environment who take it upon themselves not to repeat the mistakes they made with them in childhood, so yes you can be better and make a change, hopefully everyone can see it and practice it. Thanks for the feedback my dear! 🙏
The times back then were indeed different from today, and there was unequal treatment of students, especially females. I read that only men were able to study because it was their responsibility to provide for their families, while women were expected to stay at home and were not deemed necessary to pursue education. That's why it's better now than before because everyone, regardless of gender, is given the opportunity to pursue education. And also, the education system today is different compared to before. Here in the Philippines, teachers are prohibited from punishing students as they could lose their license. It's good that physical punishment is prohibited, but it's disheartening because their are some students do not show respect to their teachers.
Yeah, there was a time when that was the case.
I don't agree, in such cases there are other measures and tools to make the student behave and obey the rules. Violence is never an acceptable one.
Education through beatings (physical mistreatment, in general) and psychological mistreatment are not education at all. It is abuse. And yes, generally, victims of abuse reproduce these behaviours not only in their children but also in friends, family and even pets.
How sad that this continues to manifest itself in the world. There is still much to do in this regard. 😞
Of course it is abuse. I can't understand how the victims of such abuse reproduce these behavior, honestly. I bet they suffered a lot and did not like it, they know how it feels, yet they are doing it to others. That's mentally sick.
Well, not all people who are hurt show it in the same way, and there may even be some who don't show any later damage, but of course, child abuse does leave mental problems.
During my years as a grammar school pupil, an all boys school for those with above average intelligence ( just the way it was, not being pretentious) caning was an accepted punishment, I was bent over countless times to get the whack, often ranging from 1 stroke to half a dozen dependant upon the misdemeanour, ( i was intelligent, but very naughty, a rebel, someone who din't and still doesn't give a flying fuck!).
It did me no harm, rather swift punishment than having to write out countless lines or take detention as punishment. thing is, the threat of the cane, did not alter the way I behaved. My life, my rules
In that case you have been through a lot. Caning in my days was not accepted, teachers had no can but they slapped kids occasionally, pulled their ear and hair. Writing countless lines... I can't remember if that was a thing, but most likely it was. I never had part of that, fortunately.
Yes, that is true, but in the early days of life, there are a lot of stupid rules to obey, unfortunately.
It is all about control. indoctrination, I remember challenging many many aspects of my education ( especially in history and geography), the masters did not like the "mantra" challenged. " This is education you will not challenge what we tell you".
Yes, blindly obey and don't question anything. Not a good way to educate students as you teach them to not think at all, just accept everything they're told. Look at the African communities where brainwashing is a normal thing and they grow up repeating the same nonsense for decades and are surprised when contradicted.
Ahhhh! not just me then LOL
Nope, most of the blockchain.
LOL great minds think alike
Por suerte por mi edad no llegue a pasar por nada parecido, aunque mi padre aquí en Argentina si. A lo sumo he tenido malos tratos en la Universidad, pero nada que con un intercambio de palabras con tu profesor no soluciones 😂
Well, these days in developed countries you can't have this kind of treatment. Good thing there are rules and laws to protect children. Mistreatment is a different thing, but there are solutions for that too :)