Say ‘no’ to corporal punishment

Sir Frank Peters Correspondent
I take to task the report by your Senior Court reporter Daniel Nemukuyu in reference to the judgment of the Hon Justice Luke Malaba, in respect to the recent controversy surrounding corporal punishment.

To the best of my knowledge, the Hon. Justice Luke Malaba did not say that ‘parents and teachers can continue beating-up children as a disciplinary measure’ or even indicate such, nor should one even think such.

The Hon Justice Luke Malaba simply pointed out the legal issue before him only dealt with the constitutionality of caning of juveniles as judicial punishment. . . it was NOT an endorsement that children can be or should continue to be corporal punished in the home or school.

And if he did, which I strongly doubt, he would be wrong – totally wrong.

There is absolutely no place in modern society for corporal punishment to children. There never was justification for the evil, barbaric, archaic practice and the civilised world is learning this now. There are mountains of irrefutable evidence that confirm how wrong and damaging corporal punishment is. Corporal punishment is the weapon of the most ignorant and sick members of society, whether that be teachers, parents or both. A wrong is a wrong to whomsoever it applies.

We read a lot about how it states in the “good book”, “spare the rod and spoil the child” and in the same breath ‘he who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him’.

Fantastic! – Give the child as much “rod” as humanly possible . . . every day . . . every minute of the day.

These extracts from the “good book” are generally interpreted to mean, if children are not physically disciplined when they do wrong, their personal development will suffer.

All well and good, but there’s a major problem with the translation. In Hebrew the word “rod” is the same word used in Psalms 23:4, “. . . thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”

The shepherd’s rod/staff was/is used to ENCOURAGE, GUIDE, and DISCIPLINE the sheep towards taking a desired direction, NOT to beat, hurt or damage them. No shepherd would intentionally damage his stock and reduce his profits.

The correct interpretation of the proverb, therefore, should read “spare good GUIDANCE and spoil the child” and “he who spares GOOD GUIDANCE hates his son but he who loves him is careful to discipline him”. Now that makes sense.

Why would anyone of even a reasonably balanced mind think that beating a child is a good thing and it would make them better citizens? A damaged child today is a broken adult tomorrow and a potential threat to society. The jails are full of broken adults that were damaged as children.

Let’s be blunt and call a spade a spade, corporal punishment is an horrific crime against the child, against the state, against humanity and teaching authorities are wrong to protect or support the criminals who perform it.

Defending a rogue “teacher” brings no glory or pride to the teaching profession, but dishonours it. The fact the rogue has a wife, five children, a cat and two dogs to feed and is a dear family friend of the Headmaster, local politician, or whatever, should be of no consequence whatever. He or she is in the wrong job and the children, society, and nation would be best served by their absence.

The children are our future. We can either make an investment in our own future by taking care of the children, encouraging them and guiding them into becoming the good citizens of the nation that we aspired to be, but miserably failed. Two wrongs have never made a right.

In every child there are the makings of a saint. Many people believe they are a “gift from God” I like to think I am!).

It’s absurd, therefore, to have such heavenly qualities beaten out of them in a hell-hole school by demonic ignorant authorities!

For a country to prosper, it must abolish corporal punishment now, remove the weeds from the school system and allow the flowers to grow.

Sir Frank Peters is a former newspaper and magazine publisher and editor, an award-winning writer, a humanitarian, human rights advocate, a Goodwill Ambassador and Senior Adviser to European and Saudi royalty. He successfully campaigned in Bangladesh to have corporal punishment outlawed.