The Authorities Cannot Protect our Children so Sometimes We Have to Break the Rules

Bullying seems to be a major problem in schools as children nowadays lack parental supervision given that both parents work in most households and guidance is very minimal.

It would be safe to say that maids spend more time with most children than the parents. Some say it is the development in society that we need more money now to give our children all the creature comforts that they see on TV or which their rich friends flaunt.

Before we condemn the teachers or schools, I would like to add that even in the 50s and 60s we did have teachers who abused their pupils.

I won’t mention names but would like to describe the actions of some of the teachers in the good old days. Did the kids dare to complain? We were too scared and most parents just allowed teachers to mete out the necessary discipline or parents were too ignorant.

1. Teacher 1. In those days in primary school, most boys did not wear underwear and this teacher used to grab and sometimes twist the testicles of the young boys as punishment. I’m not sure if he was racist but he usually gave this treatment to Indians.

2. Teacher 2. In Primary 6 this teacher got cheesed off with a pupil for uttering some swear word and promptly gave him a judo throw followed by a stranglehold to get the boy to apologise. The sound effect was tremendous as we were in a wooden building. Both were Chinese.

Now that we have had two reports of incidents regarding school bullies, the Education Ministry is urged to rethink its views on mobile phones in schools.

With proper guidelines, the phone could save your child’s life and bullies will know that their actions can be easily recorded.

The phone is merely a tool. It is up to us to derive the benefits that intelligent humans are capable of.

Photo: malaysiakini