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32.
Is spare the rod and spoil the child still effective ?
It is not the times of Thomas Arnold and his son, Mathew Arnold. In
the age of Charles Dickens and the Arnolds, a second saying also was practiced.
That was ‘children may be seen not heard’. Brute force was used then. However,
in the 20th century , a gentleman, a colleague, had a set up time in which are
children may see their father.
One day, my late father was basking in the sun in our
lawn . He saw a young lad about 14 was running towards the commercial market
followed by a bearded man. When that man reached the lad in front of our gate,
the man laid the latter on the ground, picked up a brick and starting the boy’s
ear onto the brick. My father rushed to rescue from the clutches of the man. He
explained to my father that the boy was running away from the madrasa. My
father scolded the man saying teach the young through love, otherwise, the
children would run away.
I saw beatings of lesser mortals a few times . Once I
saw a father beat his son by throwing the latter onto a cement floor again and
again totally oblivious of my presence .His crime . The son was asking more
pakoras which his mother was frying .
I was lucky both at home and at school. My late
father’s weapon of mass destruction was scolding at which I had more than my
share. At school, I was a timid boy and I did my homework regularly. Besides, I
used to come to the school punctually .So I gave no complaints to the teachers.
However, sometimes my luck ran out and I was at the receiving end. Once I
committed an error in solving an Arithmetic sum. Mr. Siddiq Akbar, the teacher,
gave me a blow with his heavy hand on the back of my neck. It was not a painful
blow. But whenever I am reminded, I could feel the impact of the blow.
Once again, in the Cadet College, Hasan Abdal, my
English teacher caught me talking to Mr.Tariq Ikram, a former State Minister
and the Chairman, TDAP. He hit me at the back of my head with a thick book of
comics that I was holding.
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However, I felt the impact of capital punishment when
my class teachers were Father Mccain and the late Mr. Mushtaq Rasheed in the
Saint Mary’s Cambridge School, Murree Road Rawalpindi. In this School, most
teachers, foreigners and local, were kind. However, once the latter caught our
class makes a noise. He called the class monitor and gave me three kicks in his
back and three blows on the scruff of his neck alternatively in front of the
class. I was trembling in my shoes.
There were two Father Mccain in our school : Father
Mccain Senior was kind .However, Father Mccain Junior was very rough with boys.
He was altogether a different cup of tea. I felt that he had a great dislike
for the café au lait complexion of the boys. He wielded the cane like a machine
gun and fired a burst of fifty or sixty blows per second. At School, the caning
was called benders. Once a boy was beaten mercilessly that he could not sit
down on his seat the whole day. He attended the class while standing.
When we were informed about my selection to join the
Cadet College ,Hasan Abdal , I begged my father to pay all dues to the School
at once to enable to stay at home for the of fifteen or twenty days prior to my
joining to escape Father Mccain .
That was the situation in one of the most prestigious
public schools in Rawalpindi. Neither the parents nor the children dared to
protest. However, in Singapore four boys were caught damaging somebody’s
private property and were punished with ONLY four blows of a cane. Matters
became worse and a diplomatic row between the Governments of Britain and
Singapore erupted.
Once in Cadet College, Hasan Abdal, I got 58 out of
100, two marks less than the required percentage of 60%. A dear friend of mine,
Aftab, had 59 %. Together we were called by the Principal, Mr. Hugh Catchpole,
at his house situated on the campus at 4 PM that day. We both thought that we
had been invited by him for tea. His house was the last one. I was the bolder
of the two .I knocked at the door. A servant appeared. Now I realized that the
servant was aware of the purpose we had came for. Many others came and went
through the same portals .He bade us to sit in the drawing room .In the drawing
room, there was a small glass paneling in the opposite wall through which
everything was visible. It was through this glass panel I saw what turned out
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to be my greatest fear that the Principal was choosing
a cane to beat the poor boys. I was watching his every action from my vintage
point. He raised his right hand and I could see the glistening cane in the late
afternoon sunlight. And then a yell “ahh” pierced the daylight out of me.
That done, Mr. Catchpole appeared in the doorway to
beckon me. When I entered the Principal’s study the other boy had vanished into
the air. The same routine was followed and the cane was chosen to hit my
derriere. He threw a biscuit on the carpet and asked me to pick it up. I bent
down. The cane hit my bottom with a lightening speed and I was only able to
exclaim “ahh“. He again told me to pick the biscuit. Again the rod hit me. He was
well satisfied that he did not need me further. He opened the other door to let
me go warning me not to tell the others what happened to me.
At least Mr. Catchpole had the realisation not to hurt
the boys self esteem. However, brute force is used with the students
irrespective what age group they belong elsewhere in Pakistan. Now that the
media is free, more and more incidents of violence are appearing regularly. I
am reminded of an incident, which took place at the Islamabad Model College for
Boys, F-8/4, Islamabad. A boy, my friend’s son, challenged the pronunciation of
the teacher when he pronounced the name of ‘ New Guinea’ as ‘New Guineaa’. His
teacher got offended and beat the poor boy black and blue.
The topic is debatable . No Government regulations can
force the teachers or parents to cease applying violence . However , sanity may
prevail with more Education.
MAHFOOZ UR RAHMAN
November 08, 2011
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