19 July 2007

"My child did that?? Impossible!"

Recently two cases of teachers allegedly involved in injuring students were published in the newspapers.

In case #1, a 13 year old secondary school girl was allegedly punched twice in the face by a teacher after she allegedly said something vulgar to him in class. As a result her face is swollen.

In case #2, a secondary school student in Sabah was allegedly slapped by a teacher resulting in injury to his/her ear drum etc and may lose hearing in one ear for life. The student allegedly said something very disrespectful behind the teacher's back and was overheard by others and reported.

Before I want to get something off my chest about student behavior today, I would like to say that what the two teachers did is very wrong and action should be taken against them by the authorities.

Okay, teachers are not psychopaths just waiting to punch or slap people for no reason. Something the students said must have been so rude or disrespectful or provocative that the teacher will snap and hit out at the student.

The question here is just what is wrong with some of our students nowadays?

In my time as a student i.e. during the 70s and 80s, we feared our teachers all the time. One step out of line and we will get detention or other appropriate punishment befitting our mistakes. It is a very very rare case to hear teachers injuring students.

But from what I can see nowadays, a lot of students have no respect for their teachers and we often heard of students abusing teachers verbally, physical assaults, vandalizing teachers' property such as cars etc. When the teacher snaps and retaliated unlawfully, the parents of the student will yell bloody murder and tell all and sundry that our teachers are all psychopaths.

In the two cases above I have not read of anyone actually questioning the parents of the student just what kind of upbringing their children are getting today to the extend that they can abuse their teachers verbally.

No doubt action should be taken against the teachers but I just wish appropriate action will be taken against the students too. If nothing is done, it is like telling everyone it is okay for their children to be rude to their teachers.

Okay, I hear some saying it is easy for me to rant about this but what will I do if I find out one day that a teacher has punched my daughter's face resulting in facial injury?

Well, first I will demand that the appropriate action be taken against the teacher, by making the appropriate reports and so on. Then I will find out what set the teacher off. If the reason is because my daughter said something vulgar or rude to the teacher, I will personally slap her face in front of everyone myself.

That I can assure you I will definitely do.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very sad. My school days, some of my friends do show anger but not like humiliating the teacher or using vulgar words. End of the day we still appreciate that our teachers are good people. Most of them,

In todays society, I think it's because of too much TV, MTV, Internet and a combination of peer pressure that make teenagers think it's cool to defy authority. Very sad.

Makes you wonder, when public canning was still ok in school, things were more simpler then.

Wombat said...

When I was in primary school, I have been slapped left right and center for very serious disciplinary mistakes and even had a 2x4 massaging my butt once. Once I even had to sweep the school's courtyard during P.E. for a month. These were good lessons for me.

Anonymous said...

In a certain society, slapping your own daughter might be considered as child abuse.

Wombat said...

Yeah I know... enlightened society and all that. Hell, my mom once threatened to chop me up into 18 pieces too.

Anonymous said...

Noticed that most kids these days are disrespectful to the elders. Teachers weren't spared too. Everyday, I see my neighbor's kids scream and shout at their grandmother - and the mother never said a word. If it was me, I would've slapped those kids and teach them some respect.

Yea, teachers were a respected people back in those days (60s, 70s). Even the parents of the students respected them. That's what I heard from my dad.

I agree, why didn't anyone interrogate the student's parents about their kid's behavior?

Shana said...

in those 2 cases , both student and teachers are wrong, did u guys heard about the principal in gayang slapped and hit 30 form 1 student claiming that he asked them to bring one particular book on wednesday and thought the students forgot, when the principal actually asked them to bring the book on thursday(claimed the 30 students),instead of confessing that he was wrong, he ask all the 30 students to line up and slap them !super idiot!

Wombat said...

Shana : Your case sounds very similar to the Tuaran case last week involving a HM slapping 22 primary 4 students for forgetting to bring their homework and the HM also got the day wrong.

Shana said...

gayang in tuaran right?i think its the same case.i thought form 1 students?now im like the HM , i forget and now i want to slap someone!heheh

Wombat said...

Shana : yes, we are talking about the same case. Go here for the complete story : http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=51458

Anonymous said...

read the paper today/yesterday, a punk shoved a lady teacher because she repreminded them being noisy at bathroom...

man that boy should be sent to bording school.
I am forever gratefull to my discpline teacher...
"Awak nak belajar ke nak jadi gangster" then fussh along came the cane.That went on for a few times... and for each of his question i said... saya nak belajar , saya nak belajar. My teacher would be proud of me now ;-)