IS IT necessary to physically punish a student who does not finish his homework on time? Is it acceptable to belittle, judge or mock a child just because he or she is different from  other children in the classroom? Is it all right to ignore a child because he is not up to par with his academically inclined counterparts?

I am asking these questions because people have come forward with reports of emotional abuse and trauma caused by teachers. I have a close friend who despite being scarred by such abuse chose not to let it affect her as an adult.

Although my friend, G, is a successful woman in her mid-twenties, she can still vividly recall what happened in the early 1990s when she had a horrible teacher whom she and her classmates had to endure for the first three years of their lives at a primary school in Malaysia. That teacher would pinch, yell, cane or hit G and her classmates over minor mistakes ranging from not putting down the date on every page of their exercise books to not finishing their homework because they did not know how to solve a problem.

The teacher would also belittle and mock G and her classmates because they were not smart enough or different from the other kids. In addition, she would play favourites by ignoring those she deemed as “unintelligent” and even encouraged the smart students to bully G and the others for being different. When the parents of the bullied girls got wind of the teacher’s antics, they complained to the headmistress only to discover that she took the monster’s side. As a result, that teacher carried on with her nasty antics.

After G and her fellow classmates endured the same teacher for three years, they learnt to put behind the traumatic events thanks to a caring teacher who saw their potential. However, what they endured earlier would stay with them for life. My friend G was depressed and angry throughout her childhood and adolescent years until she finally learnt to live and let go when she entered university.

However during a recent school reunion, G and her friends were shocked. According to a former schoolmate, the teacher is now with an international school in their hometown.The news left G and her peers feeling concerned for the children in that school.

They pray that this letter will help keep  sadistic teachers off the schoolyard. We should make bullying by teachers a criminal offence and blacklist them to ensure no child is abused in classrooms.

Source: The Sun – August 27, 2009