VIOLENT TEACHERS

 

VIOLENT TEACHERS

 

VIOLENT teachers are not a new species.  They have been there ever since schools came into being. Inflicting of severe physical punishment on students  was the teacher’s unchallenged right.  Even the victim’s parents encouraged it.  Rules did not prohibit corporal punishment.  If one reads the school experiences of great writers up to 19^th century, one would find how mercilessly they were beaten by their teachers. Their plight at home was no better, where they were physically hurt by their fathers, uncles and elder brothers.  Children had hardly any rights then.  They were occasionally loved but frequently hit and humiliated for all sorts of aberrations.

 

Since the second quarter of the 20^th century, some laws have been framed to protect the child from severe physical punishment.  In certain countries, only heads of schools are permitted to mildly slap or hit the child with a stick or a rod and put it on record.   Further amendments to these laws are admirably child-friendly.  In most of the countries, corporal punishment is now totally unlawful.  Not only this, even other forms of punishment which upset the self-esteem of the child or demoralize him or cause him emotional or psychic disturbance or deprive him of rightful learning opportunities through expulsion from the classroom or the school have been abolished.  Furthermore, teachers are legally restrained from using derogatory words like “stupid”or “idiot.”

 

However, practice is different from theory.  Teachers, both male and female, continue to use verbal or physical violence on students as a corrective measure.  Sometimes, agitated or enraged or desperate teachers throw their self-control to the winds and thrash the child so brutally that he/she either suffers grievous injury of a disabling nature or loses his/her life. It needs to be probed how teachers with such wild temperaments manage to get employment in schools and remain undetected until on an inauspicious day an unfortunate child falls a prey to their monstrous behaviour.

 

To eliminate the menace of violent teachers, steps will have to be taken at three stages.  Firstly, at the time of admission to schools/colleges of education.  Secondly, at the time of their employment in schools, and thirdly during the probationary period. of their service. Under no circumstances should any violent teacher be allowed to cross the last stage.

 

To put it succinctly, the profession of teaching is meant for those who can act as surrogate mothers or surrogate fathers, not for those who are likely to become demoniac because of their furious and diabolical attitude towards sluggish, negligent, undisciplined or unruly students.

 

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