#News

Corporal punishment: An irrelevant nuisance?

Corporal punishment: An irrelevant nuisance?

By Bayo Fasunwon
|
Mayflower School was my Alma Mater. Apart from being a student, I was also privileged to have interactions with the staff and the world acclaimed social critic, Dr. Tai Solarin for about two decades. This gave me the unique opportunity of having more insights into the governing methodology of that community than many others who were just students. There were many things to learn from the man who battled asthma all through his life, had a hearing issue in one of his ears, and still lived above seventy years in service to his nation and humanity. However, in trying to interrogate the various dynamics in our political system, this piece would focus on one of those things that made Mayflower School the most sought after of all schools then.

It is imperative to state here that many important personnel had their children in that school. The Awolowos, the Bensons, the Arikawes, the Adeniyis (King Sunny Ade) and many others had their generations nurtured in that school. Also, Pastor W.F Kumuyi of the Deeper Life ministries, Bishop Mike Okonkwo of the TREM, Mike Abdul of the Midnight Crew, Anthony Joshua, the World Heavyweight champion, and ‘Bayo Fasunwon (don’t laugh) attended that school where we were taught that we could become whatever we chose to be, irrespective of heavenly injunctions or life’s challenges. What was the secret of Mayflower under Tai Solarin? As Anthony Joshua said, it was discipline. Discipline in Mayflower meant deliberate effort exerted to ensure that a person (staff, student or inhabitant) conforms to the expected and demanded behavior by sanctions and acknowledgements.

Related News  Aiyedatiwa mourns Dr Paul Akintelure

Discipline then, as could be recalled were predicated on the delivery of corporal punishments for deviant behavior. Often times, the punishment meted out in most cases, as one looked back now were heavier than the deliberate errors committed. The corporal punishments then ranged from kneeling, press ups, cutting a v-shaped lawn (on which were stubborn grasses), banishment to the piggery, incarceration in rehabilitation centres, in isolation from others, uprooting of palm trees, community service (manual labour during the holidays), locating the Queen in a termite filled hill and of course caning.

The application of the cane to the erring buttocks differs in persons, personality and offences. It ranges from X to infinity, wherein X is the allotted strokes, and infinity is the added strokes for the uncooperative delinquent. But the specialty of Dr. Tai Solarin himself is the ‘E gbe, ko ni ku’, which means, ‘carry him, he will not die’. In case, X=24, while infinity is the additional taps you get from those hefty guys who volunteered to carry you. In certain cases, when parents protested, they go home with their wards, which would be placed on indefinite suspension. Most students in Mayflower often looked forward to the time when holidays would commence, while parents are always happy when the holidays were over. But many years after ‘graduating’ from Mayflower, the products always laughs at the tough ‘ordeal’ they went through and are thankful that the disciplines have made them better.

That was then. Now is the clamour for the end of corporal punishments in schools in line with global (Eurocentric) practices. The media is filled with reports of parents who go to school to deal with teachers who dare touch their wards, and grass cutting has become an anathema. Many teachers who were trained with iron hands are finding it difficult with regards to the way and manner to deal with erring students in various primary and secondary schools in contemporary times. In the other extremes are reports of students who had been injured or even died in the hands of teachers who tortured them in the name of corporal punishment. The calls for the end to corporal punishment are hinged on the perception that it is barbaric and ineffective (but the Mayflower paradigm debunks this). Many psychologists have also intoned that corporal punishment negatively affects the psyche of the students causing traumas and neuropsychiatric issues in later years.

Related News  Adelami for grand reception Saturday

These were the foundations for the eradication of corporal punishment in the western world. I got a call from the United States of America where a Nigerian woman lost the custody of her children for punishing their misdemeanors. However, certain western cultures having observed the moral decadence in their children have allowed for spanking in the correction of the children. In Nigeria, parents and teachers validate the use of canes on the Biblical injunction of Proverbs 22, verse 15 which states that ‘Young people are prone to foolishness and fads; the cure comes through tough-minded discipline” (MSB version).

This presupposes therefore that negative deviant behavior is plain foolishness. Could the Bible be wrong? In many secondary schools today, teachers look the other way, when students misbehave. As far as they are concerned, their job is now restricted to teaching and admonition and not the enforcement of values and discipline.  The outcome of negligence, in the correction of ‘foolishness’ are always negative in many political systems. When character is not moulded in the formative years, man becomes a dried fish that can no longer be moulded, only broken. Many parents have accepted the fact that child training in this era has become more difficult than in their days. With the rise of Marlian doctrine, deviant songs, and negative behavioural indoctrination via movies and social media networks; mere words may not be enough to imbibe the right character in our wards.

Restructuring is the clamour in all quarters of the Nigerian society. There is a need to restructure the nation’s legal system and in turn the manner of the application of corporal punishment in schools. Given that the frailty of contemporary school children is not in doubt, the ‘e gbe ko ni ku’ paradigm should not be permitted in schools again. Be that as it may, there is a need for regulation on the nature and duration of corporal punishment, not the total eradication. If level ten officers and above in schools are the sole executors of caning, other lower level teachers should be restricted to the employment of minor, but effective corporal punishments on erring students. Beyond this, parents should be cautioned in exhibiting erratic behaviours when their wards’ foolishness is being dealt with.

Share
Corporal punishment: An irrelevant nuisance?

Blame parents for decline in  reading culture

Corporal punishment: An irrelevant nuisance?

How Amotekun can be effective, sustained –Obas

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *