In response to Hiong Gai Gai's recent encounter with the laptop charger, I've decided to give an insight on the school situation.
In school, I've also encountered many such cases. Not between teachers of course. Well, being a NT class form teacher for 3 years, it's no wonder to anyone that I have such cases on hand. Handphones and wallets are usually the prime target items of theft, they both boil down to one simple incentive. Cash!
There was even a time when we had a group of students working together to steal phones from athletes and participants of Sports Day, since it's highly unlikely that one will take good care of their belongings while cheering and competing. They had a network of who does the stealing and who holds on to the phone and all that. Sale of the phones is almost immediately done on the day itself, and cash would be distributed to all participating members.
There was another case who stole from a teacher while submitting homework. This same student stole from the dentist stationed in school to do health checks.
Who gets the lousy end? the parents, of course. and who they have to blame? themselves, in my opinion. If you allow your child to carry a 24K gold necklace to school, don't expect me to take care of it for you. If you think your child is responsible enough to take care of the expensive electronic device then you replace it when it's stolen.
Children are more easily blinded by greed. Their developing morals(if any is developing) do not exert a strong influence on their decision. Unless of course, we are talking about VERY well brought up kids, which are rather hard to locate these days. And most of the cases of theft, the parents are just too soft-hearted to cane the child. Most of the time it's just a stern scolding, some even went on to rationalise with the imbecile teenager. If my child were to be caught stealing, I'll beat the living daylights out of him/her.
The leniency of the parents these days makes the teachers work so much harder. Sometimes, I feel that I am stricter to my students than their parents are to them. I will not hesitate to slap them if they are defiant or rude to me. I have had parents call me up and ask me to talk to their child about matters, simply because their child won't listen to them but listens to me. Unfortunately, the parents don't understand. I am just a temporary substitute; I can't be disciplining your kid forever, one day they will grow up and leave the school.
Spare the rod and spoil the child!
I agree with one aspect my colleague tells me. One of the reasons parents shun from beating their children is because they feel pain when they dish out corporal punishment, and they don't want to feel the pain in their hearts. What they often forget is that if they don't teach their children well, the emotional pain to come later is even worse to bear.
1 comment:
It's funny how everyone seems to be talking about this over the last few days. Mr Brown posted up his thoughts on the issue recently, and I was quite annoyed by the fact that he was so appalled by the simple sight of someone dishing out some discipline. Since all of us do not know the full story, wouldn't it be a bit premature to judge this parent in question?
Frankly I don't see the point of all this soft approach to nurturing your kids nonsense. If some sorely-needed spanking is in order, then by all means apply it. I think my point is that there isn't one true way. The more important thing is to explain to the child why what he did was wrong, and if pain is the only way to get his attention, then it is necessary.
After all we live in a society with laws, that punish us when we do something wrong. How can the children learn this concept of law, that orders society, when they are not shown that their actions have consequences?
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