I don’t salute corporals…
It’s the age-old debate…
Not the really yucky ones like abortion and the death penalty but the one about corporal punishment. As a 6 foot-something, 100 kilo-something, male teacher and a father it was never necessary for me to have to do anything other than raise my voice. I went beyond that at times and I regret that… I should have known better.
I attended school before corporal punishment in schools was outlawed. I was “canned” (is that some kind of polite way of saying “beaten” that makes it all seem all gentlemanly and okay?). Often. Daily. Lots. And I will be the first to admit I was naughty and probably deserved a few beatings.
But nobody deserves to be beaten that often.
I was not accepted in Pretoria Boy’s High at first. I think that had a lot more to do about a headmaster’s political agenda and left-wing dislike of my father’s military career then it was about me personally. My dad didn’t take that lying down and complained to the Education Department. We lived on a farm outside Pretoria… Boy’s High was the closest school with boarding facilities. The school had to accept me. By law. The headmaster didn’t take that well and the already strained relationship between him and my dad got worse. He was a weak, wimpish man and a coward (I have no love for the man… I never will) and he decided to take that out on me.
If that wasn’t the case, it sure felt like it.
I was canned 6 in my very first week of high school (the maximum allowed)… For jumping out a window (it was a convenient short cut used by everyone). The last time he canned me was in my last week of matric… I had made a cricket bat during a woodwork lesson – he found it in my locker, said I had made it to beat the younger boys and proceeded to cane me 6. His frothy-mouthed weekly beatings between are a blur… I got canned for lying, when I did not lie. I got canned for drinking, when not a single drop of alcohol had passed my lips. I got canned for breaking windows, for starting fights, for bunking, for not going to sleep when the lights went out, for being late.
But I never got beaten for the stuff I really did. Not once. I was never caught.
So my thoughts on corporal punishment? I’m glad it’s outlawed. It was an easy excuse for bullies and weak men. But… I wish I could say I was never a bully or weak man myself… I still remember every time I have ever given my sons a hiding or lost it with a student. If I could take back those moments, I would. In a heartbeat. I wish I had taken a breath first and considered an alternative.
I am really very sorry.
And my bum is still sore.
