For those born before or in the early 1990s, have you ever been caned by your parents or by teachers when you were just a kid or teenager?
Back in your school days, have you witnessed punishments meted out to students that were deemed unethical or illegal?
Recently, I saw this video: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152502958881985&pnref=story
I was lucky that my parents did not beat me in the way that crazy korean lady did to her own child. However, my brother and I were caned quite badly when we were very young as we misbehaved. We had scars and marks, and they bled sometimes. When my mum caned us, she had this rage on her face and when she whipped the rotan continuously on our hands and legs, we thought she had gone crazy!
I remembered when I was 6 or 7 years old, my pocket-money was 50-70 cents a day, just enough to buy a bowl of noodles (30-50 cents) and may be a drink (10-30 cents) at the school canteen. They sold ice-cream too but the cone-shape ones cost $1 each. I never tasted them before and never had enough to buy one. So I took a 1 dollar coin that was left on the table back at home and bought one the next day. It tasted like heaven and my fellow classmates were quite envious.
I told my mum about it back at home. “Mum, I took 1 dollar from the table to school this morning…” Before I could finish, she flew into a rage.
“What? You STOLE 1 dollar from the table???” And she started whipping the rotan on me.
That incident stayed in my head for more than 20 years and there were more. I never brought it up or confronted her about her methods of punishment out of respect. But I swear I would never ever beat my kids. I even warned my wife about the possible psychological scars if we start beating our kids.
I heard of incidents that were much worse than mine. When I was 15 years old, my tutor, Mr. Chen, a father of 2 kids, happily told us how he punished one of them who did badly in his academic exams. “I dragged him to the toilet, stripped him naked and dumped a pail of ice-cold water on him.” Apparently, that’s not the end. He said he caned him very hard after giving him a big scolding. You know what, in-spite of the cruel punishments, the kid didn’t do very well in his O’ levels (L1R5 15 or 17 points) but got in to ACJC anyway because the kid was a swimmer trained by Ang Peng Siong, a former national swimmer.
Are you a parent? Are you strict? Watch the videos below and don’t use the rotan! I’ll call the police! lol.
Russell Peters – Preaching on Asians beating their kids:
World Strictest Parents:
I remembered for many days or weeks, he would walk around the courtyard during morning assembly, holding a pair of scissors and finding students(both boys and girls) with long hair or fringes. One of my classmates (a 14 year old girl) got discovered had her fringe snipped off in front of the whole school!!! That’s public humiliation! I still remembered she didn’t recover from all the humiliation meted by him. Yes, she made mistakes, misbehaved occasionally, but since then she became infamous, other teachers began to pick on her, chided her for her academic and character incompetence. What would you do if you were her? Well, for sensitive ‘delinquents’ without any form of help in school and discriminated every teacher, she became more rebellious and practically gave up on learning. She got expelled from school at the end of the year. I think she deserve an apology for all the psychological and physical (cutting of her hair) abuse. I am sorry for not speaking up for her then.
I also remembered how MR. RAYMOND KOH publicly caned boys. The whip looked like a snake! A book would be tugged in above the butt to prevent the whip from hurting the spine. His behaviour right before the actual caning was barbaric and unworthy of his position as a “TEACHER.”
I knew the decisions made weren’t his but I was sure he made them his own with his antics. Many students were afraid of him and disgusted by his constant shouting, screaming and acting like a big bully. YES! HE WAS LITERALLY THE BULLY! He treated students like his sheeps, talking down to students like he was LKY. The word RESPECT was muddled in too much HYPOCRISY!
The pictures below illustrates how he positioned himself with his legs spread out and hands stretched, holding a whip like the one below. His face “am chio.” After whipping the boys, he had that shiok face… looking like he had just ‘ejaculated’ on them.
am chio = trying hard not to smile or laugh
I understand these actions were sort of legal and acceptable back then, but that scene kept playing in my head whenever I witness any corporal punishment or beating of kids online. I am still disgusted by his actions. Anyway, I feel he should apologize at least for his antics.
Personal experience with MR. RAYMOND KOH: I was reading The New paper at one of the school benches one day when he appeared in front of me and took it away without saying a word. He was rude and didn’t think he was answerable to anyone even if he was borrowing it from me. Nope, he didn’t return it. It was just 50 or 60 cents to him. I was feeling like “take whatever you want sir, please don’t find any fault in me.”
I don’t know if Singapore schools still carry out corporal punishments and/or continue shaming kids like what happened 10-20 years ago. If any MOE civil servant or minister still preaches about corporal punishment in schools, then I hope they lose their jobs soon.
The videos below show what Singapore is also ‘well-known’ for:
Japanese TV commenting about caning in Singapore:
Public caning in Singapore:
Cowpeh!
*The writer blogs at http://cowpehcowbu.wordpress.com/