to cane or not to cane

couple of days ago, the education ministry had proposed to bring back canning in school to check the very rampant indiscipline that has been happening in schools these days. yesterday minister in prime ministers dept., datuk seri dr rais yatim stated that it is good to revive caning in schools.

what do you think? do you agree that school should bring back the cane? was the cane being used when you were in school? (aw! come on, do tell. i know that would be kind of telling your age, but what the heck).

any of you were from st xaviers school in penang in the 50s – 70s? if i’m not mistaken it was during that time that the late bro. charles, nicknamed ‘lau hor brother’ (‘lau hor’ btw is tiger in hokkien) was the headmaster, and he was always seen with a cane in his hand. i remember my eldest brother was in SXI that time, and he told me about how fierce this ‘lau hor’ was. a few times he and his friends would sneaked to the library during school hours, and everytime without fear, this ‘lau hor’ would pounce on them at the library armed with a cane… and whack! my poor brother and his friends would get a taste of his cane and sent back to school with a painful ass! needless to say, during bro. charles tenure as headmaster, his students seemed to be very disciplined lot, so i guess in a way caning help! but of course that was about 4 decades ago.

in this time, do you agree that caning would check indiscipline in school? i was thinking that nowadays school kids being indisciplined and naughty, if they were to be caned, don’t you think they might retaliate? after school, a student who had been caned might round up his gang and ambushed the teacher who caned him and attacked him. on one hand, the teacher might be please to learn caning is allowed, while on the other hand, the teacher might be a bit apprehensive to cane the students for fear of something untoward that may happen.

just what is the meaning of discipline? when one discipline a child, is one concerned with preventing the child from misbehaving or is one concerned with simply punishing the child for his/her wrong? the word ‘discipline’ according to the american heritage dictionary refers to both prevention and remediation.
(look under definition)

“discipline can be “training that is expected to produce a specified character or pattern of behavior” or “controlled behavior resulting from such training”; but it can also be “punishment intended to correct or train.” Educational researchers have examined both the prevention and the remediation aspects of school and classroom discipline, and thus findings about both are cited in this report.”