15/01/2025
FLOGGING AND LEARNING
By: Dr. Cynthia Dave
"There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end, they lose at the other."
- Boswell: Life of Johnson
There is a video currently trending of a female teacher beating a 3- year(?) old student for not learning what was being taught. After the first slap I could not continue with the video any longer. My eyes are now so weak to behold evil or violence as I am growing old and preparing daily to meet my Maker.
Several people have been justifiably enraged about this and I have read several comments. One thing is now common with us even the educated folks. We tend to react impulsively against symptoms rather than attacking the disease. We are now all victims of Social Media terrorism where we just react against a particular action and start condemning the thing without asking necessary questions.
The other day it was the case of underage children been tried for treason. Then later it was the case of Osun fowl thief who was condemned to death.
In all these cases people reacted impulsively based on the sensational stories without going deeper to the root cause to get the facts. Accordingly the authorities reacted in panic and quickly set the "children" free. "Children" who were not too young to kill but too young to die; teenager who could lead armed robbery gangs to poultry farms and robbed them at gun point but now became fowl thief who must not be allowed to die...
This is the effect of social media terrorism and we are succumbing to it gradually as a people. No logic again.
Now to the case in question. It was indeed an abuse for the woman to beat that child so mercilessly for not learning. But the question to ask is: what is a three- year old doing in school learning? That is not the age where school learning or education begins. That, itself is an abuse. That child should be in pre- Nursery watching television and Sesame Street and learning by pictures. No one should be in school or enrolled for education below the age of 5, till he knows his left from right.
We are blaming the lady for being harsh. I disagree. We should blame a system that put forward a child of 3 year old to learn in a serious school environment. We should blame a parent that put forward such a child to be learning serious educational foundation issues at such a tender age. By law he is not supposed to be learning that by now.
Stop blaming the teacher alone. That is reactive, fighting the symptoms rather than the disease. Government agencies always find a way of exonerating themselves when things go wrong. And they are the worst culprit.
Who supervise these private schools? Who inspect their facilities? Who monitors them for any infractions?
Most of the people in your Ministry of Education are so negligent, lethargic, corrupt, grossly irresponsible and don't do their job. If that video hasn't surface nothing would be done. Many of such cases go on, many of such abuses go unrecorded.
I now come to the second part of this commentary.
It is not wrong to s***k a matured child by a teacher for not learning what she should. There is a reason why I prefaced this commentary with Samuel Johnson's words right in the 18th century. He said he discovered that students learned less when flogging was removed from schools. He was a contemporary of John Wesley of Methodism, another great scholar.
Johnson said he learned the letters of Greek and Latin with flogging. His teacher was hard and if he mispronounced any words he receives 20 lashes.
That was what made the great scholar. Wesley too passed through the same school system and also became a great scholar.
Show me any great scholar who was never s***ked by a teacher.
The Oyewole brothers in their biography spoke of how Rev. Kuti came to be called Daodu - because of his cane. You couldn't pass through Abeokuta Grammar School and not be flogged by Kuti. It is not possible. Oyewole told of an occasion when even when he came first position in class he was still flogged because he shook Kuti's hand with ink splashing on his hands.
Now look at
Tai Solarin, he was another teacher with big cane always by his side. He flogged students for misbehaving. By 6.00 am he was going round the hostel and if he sees you out if order, 6 strokes early morning without pleading.
But today great scholars came out of him. The William Kumuyis, Ola. Baloguns and the rest.
The same goes with all the great teachers of that era. Flogging is therapeutic. It resets the brain. I was flogged several times in school and in the Assembly before all despite being a brilliant chap and one of the best boys in class, that I had to make a covenant with myself to begin to behave to stop the flogging. Being brilliant even saved me from further flogging and earned respect and sympathy of teachers. That is how it goes. Show me a great man who was never disciplined. The great artworks in the palace once passed through the cruel tools of the sculptor.
Wole Soyinka admitted in "Ake: The Years of Childhood"that he was generously flogged as a child. But see the great scholar that he is today.
Intellectual refinement rarely happens without training and discipline. Flogging and beating is part of education.
However the world has moved away from there and that is why today they learn nothing. Teachers and students are so ignorant that you wonder what happened to learning.
Madness is bound in the heart of a child but sometimes it takes the rod of correction to banish it. My children got a taste of serious flogging from me while growing up. Some of them will still have the marks on their bodies because they were too difficult as children. Just like me. I have done my own for them.
Today children have no fear for teachers or even parents. In our own time a teacher was next to God. Flogging was allowed and generously applied. It was a therapy. But today my generation is better and we have learned a lot. Knowledge is easy for a mind that has been trained through discipline whose body has been seasoned with cane.
The world needs teachers like Ransome Kuti, Tai Solarin, Kuye, Alayande, Olafimihan. Students are not learning again and they fear no one. But the world has changed too. You could be sued now for s***king a child. If Rev. Kuti were to be living today he would be going from courts to classrooms everyday. That is why we have no more scholars.
I would suggest that the lady be warned and taught too. Meanwhile the state should withdraw the case against her. The state too is guilty. And the parents too. The woman should be disciplined or possibly suspended for few months or loss of salary but she should not be tried.
This is not a case of proper abuse because she was actually teaching him. Her error was treating a child like an adult. But then those who gave her the child to teach and the system that allows a child to be learning is also faulty.
It is really unfortunate. My humble opinion/suggestions though...And to worsen matters, Teachers are second class citizens in their own country, if not classless.
Who will plead the case of the teachers?, Unfortunately, Imagine also that her colleague did the recording that went viral. We have snitchers around our work tables...
13/01/2025
11/01/2025
07/01/2025
06/01/2025
05/01/2025
02/01/2025
01/01/2025
31/12/2024