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corporal punishment
chiaroscuro
#21 Posted : Monday, February 09, 2015 8:40:39 AM
Rank: Veteran


Joined: 2/2/2012
Posts: 1,134
Location: Nairobi
kysse wrote:
Sad Sad such teachers have emotional issues nkt.
sasa wataandika using toes? amenisinya tu sana.






Caning should be done with extreme care....

The girls in this video are getting it worse, much worse, than the boys.

Caning on the buttocks is less painful than on the hands. For one, the hands are bare while the buttocks are covered by trousers. Secondly, the buttocks are a big mass of muscle while the hands have bones near the surface - one girl cries "mwalimu emuniumiza kidole"

The worst part is that these teachers appear angry as they cane the pupils. One thing I learnt about caning from my father is that it should not be done in anger - he never caned us while angry and in turn I never cane my children when I am angry.

Anger makes one lose self control - that's why we see the first boy getting over ten strokes!

All in all; I am not against caning; but what I see here is NOT punishment, it is ABUSE!

I would suggest that teacher training colleges train student teachers how to cane - complete with practical lessons using each other as test subjects!
masukuma
#22 Posted : Monday, February 09, 2015 10:52:05 AM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 10/4/2006
Posts: 13,822
Location: Nairobi
Muriel wrote:
masukuma wrote:
interesting paper Spare the Rod, Spoil the Colony: Corporal Punishment, Colonial Violence, and Generational Authority in Kenya, 1897-1952

Quote:
Corporal punishment, the infliction of physical pain and injury on an individual believed to have committed wrongdoing, was commonplace throughout Kenya's colonial encounter. European settlers bruised houseboys and harvesters with steel-toed boots to instill a sense of station in Kenya's racial hierarchy. Schoolteachers "broke" pupils' backs to mold their minds. African chiefs conducted forced labor to the cadence of the kiboko (whip or cane) urging young men to dig roads faster and carry goods farther. African fathers raised walking sticks to correct absent-minded herdsboys. Colonial magistrates sentenced thousands of young Africans to caning for crimes ranging from bicycle theft to breach of contract. Today, the citizens of an independent Kenya continue to wrestle with the decision to spank mischievous sons and beat restless schoolboys.
In Kenya and elsewhere in Africa, as Africans came into increasing contact with Europeans, the diversity of individuals and institutions laying claim to this form of violence expanded. Colonial governments relied on corporal punishment to broadcast their authority, often through military barracks, schools, courts, and penal institutions. Colonial courts were especially devoted to physical violence as a method of discipline and alternative to imprisonment, fines, or other forms of punishment. Courts in most British African colonies, from native courts in Northern Nigeria and Uganda to magistrate courts in Gold Coast and Kenya, sentenced offenders to corporal punishment to varying degrees. In colonies with white settlement, such as Kenya and South Africa, a cult of the cat o' nine tails formed to humiliate disobethent African chiefs, suppress resistance, and emasculate male sexuality to salve fears of black peril. Corporal punishment was a key instrument in establishing racial hierarchies. Moreover, the use of the kiboko in Kenya and sjambok in South Africa were common methods to coerce and discipline male African labor. Whether a method to punish criminal behavior, display racial superiority, or inculcate labor discipline, corporal punishment became an "essential pedagogical tool" of the colonial encounter, teaching through physical violence. Corporal punishment was not simply an instrument of the British colonial state; it was also a weapon of African parents and elders, used to define age and generational station. It separated men from boys, adults from children; it situated them on opposing sides of the kiboko and established the authority of one over the other. Fathers and elder menfolk in Kenya relied on a diverse disciplinary repertoire, which included physical violence, to correct the behavior of young men, negotiate boundaries between generations, and preserve senior authority. Yet elder patriarchal power was not hegemonic. Generations contested ideas about age, transitions from one age to the next, and fulfillment of accompanying rights and obligations. The colonial encounter further complicated these relationships, often in contradictory ways. As it entrenched elder authority, it also expanded the number of alternatives for young people to accumulate wealth and redefine maturity beyond the purview of fathers and senior kin. Colonial rule also muddied the disciplinary landscape. Although colonial rule sometimes empowered elders, it also redistributed their right to punish the young among a host of other actors. Likewise, while it freed some young people from elder surveillance, it also brought them under the watchful eyes of a wider community of disciplinarians. The right to beat a boy, once the exclusive right of African parents and elder kin, increasingly included missionaries, schoolteachers, employers, chiefs, and the colonial state. Each of these disciplinarians considered physical violence an appropriate form of punishment for young males.


Your narration of corporal punishment as
if of colonial origins is interesting.

How did our forefathers punish before the mzungu man came?


from the excerpt - i reckon that corporal punishment was there before but for different reasons.
Quote:
Fathers and elder menfolk in Kenya relied on a diverse disciplinary repertoire, which included physical violence, to correct the behavior of young men, negotiate boundaries between generations, and preserve senior authority. Yet elder patriarchal power was not hegemonic. Generations contested ideas about age, transitions from one age to the next, and fulfillment of accompanying rights and obligations. The colonial encounter further complicated these relationships, often in contradictory ways. As it entrenched elder authority, it also expanded the number of alternatives for young people to accumulate wealth and redefine maturity beyond the purview of fathers and senior kin.
All Mushrooms are edible! Some Mushroom are only edible ONCE!
AlphDoti
#23 Posted : Monday, February 09, 2015 12:02:15 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 6/20/2008
Posts: 6,275
Location: Kenya
chiaroscuro wrote:
kysse wrote:
Sad Sad such teachers have emotional issues nkt.
sasa wataandika using toes? amenisinya tu sana.

Caning should be done with extreme care....

The girls in this video are getting it worse, much worse, than the boys.

Caning on the buttocks is less painful than on the hands. For one, the hands are bare while the buttocks are covered by trousers. Secondly, the buttocks are a big mass of muscle while the hands have bones near the surface - one girl cries "mwalimu emuniumiza kidole"

The worst part is that these teachers appear angry as they cane the pupils. One thing I learnt about caning from my father is that it should not be done in anger - he never caned us while angry and in turn I never cane my children when I am angry.

Anger makes one lose self control - that's why we see the first boy getting over ten strokes!

All in all; I am not against caning; but what I see here is NOT punishment, it is ABUSE!

I would suggest that teacher training colleges train student teachers how to cane - complete with practical lessons using each other as test subjects!

@chiaroscuro I agree with you here. Canning is okay if done responsibly. How would I have raised those kids without canning them those days!

NOTE: I stopped canning them as they hit teenage! This is good strategy, they feel respected.
Muriel
#24 Posted : Monday, February 09, 2015 3:36:33 PM
Rank: Member


Joined: 11/19/2009
Posts: 3,142
masukuma wrote:
Muriel wrote:
masukuma wrote:
interesting paper Spare the Rod, Spoil the Colony: Corporal Punishment, Colonial Violence, and Generational Authority in Kenya, 1897-1952

Quote:
Corporal punishment, the infliction of physical pain and injury on an individual believed to have committed wrongdoing, was commonplace throughout Kenya's colonial encounter. European settlers bruised houseboys and harvesters with steel-toed boots to instill a sense of station in Kenya's racial hierarchy. Schoolteachers "broke" pupils' backs to mold their minds. African chiefs conducted forced labor to the cadence of the kiboko (whip or cane) urging young men to dig roads faster and carry goods farther. African fathers raised walking sticks to correct absent-minded herdsboys. Colonial magistrates sentenced thousands of young Africans to caning for crimes ranging from bicycle theft to breach of contract. Today, the citizens of an independent Kenya continue to wrestle with the decision to spank mischievous sons and beat restless schoolboys.
In Kenya and elsewhere in Africa, as Africans came into increasing contact with Europeans, the diversity of individuals and institutions laying claim to this form of violence expanded. Colonial governments relied on corporal punishment to broadcast their authority, often through military barracks, schools, courts, and penal institutions. Colonial courts were especially devoted to physical violence as a method of discipline and alternative to imprisonment, fines, or other forms of punishment. Courts in most British African colonies, from native courts in Northern Nigeria and Uganda to magistrate courts in Gold Coast and Kenya, sentenced offenders to corporal punishment to varying degrees. In colonies with white settlement, such as Kenya and South Africa, a cult of the cat o' nine tails formed to humiliate disobethent African chiefs, suppress resistance, and emasculate male sexuality to salve fears of black peril. Corporal punishment was a key instrument in establishing racial hierarchies. Moreover, the use of the kiboko in Kenya and sjambok in South Africa were common methods to coerce and discipline male African labor. Whether a method to punish criminal behavior, display racial superiority, or inculcate labor discipline, corporal punishment became an "essential pedagogical tool" of the colonial encounter, teaching through physical violence. Corporal punishment was not simply an instrument of the British colonial state; it was also a weapon of African parents and elders, used to define age and generational station. It separated men from boys, adults from children; it situated them on opposing sides of the kiboko and established the authority of one over the other. Fathers and elder menfolk in Kenya relied on a diverse disciplinary repertoire, which included physical violence, to correct the behavior of young men, negotiate boundaries between generations, and preserve senior authority. Yet elder patriarchal power was not hegemonic. Generations contested ideas about age, transitions from one age to the next, and fulfillment of accompanying rights and obligations. The colonial encounter further complicated these relationships, often in contradictory ways. As it entrenched elder authority, it also expanded the number of alternatives for young people to accumulate wealth and redefine maturity beyond the purview of fathers and senior kin. Colonial rule also muddied the disciplinary landscape. Although colonial rule sometimes empowered elders, it also redistributed their right to punish the young among a host of other actors. Likewise, while it freed some young people from elder surveillance, it also brought them under the watchful eyes of a wider community of disciplinarians. The right to beat a boy, once the exclusive right of African parents and elder kin, increasingly included missionaries, schoolteachers, employers, chiefs, and the colonial state. Each of these disciplinarians considered physical violence an appropriate form of punishment for young males.


Your narration of corporal punishment as
if of colonial origins is interesting.

How did our forefathers punish before the mzungu man came?


from the excerpt - i reckon that corporal punishment was there before but for different reasons.
Quote:
Fathers and elder menfolk in Kenya relied on a diverse disciplinary repertoire, which included physical violence, to correct the behavior of young men, negotiate boundaries between generations, and preserve senior authority. Yet elder patriarchal power was not hegemonic. Generations contested ideas about age, transitions from one age to the next, and fulfillment of accompanying rights and obligations. The colonial encounter further complicated these relationships, often in contradictory ways. As it entrenched elder authority, it also expanded the number of alternatives for young people to accumulate wealth and redefine maturity beyond the purview of fathers and senior kin.


I see ,,,,
Boris Boyka
#25 Posted : Tuesday, February 10, 2015 6:06:55 AM
Rank: Veteran


Joined: 11/15/2013
Posts: 1,977
Location: Here
AlphDoti wrote:
chiaroscuro wrote:
kysse wrote:
Sad Sad such teachers have emotional issues nkt.
sasa wataandika using toes? amenisinya tu sana.

Caning should be done with extreme care....

The girls in this video are getting it worse, much worse, than the boys.

Caning on the buttocks is less painful than on the hands. For one, the hands are bare while the buttocks are covered by trousers. Secondly, the buttocks are a big mass of muscle while the hands have bones near the surface - one girl cries "mwalimu emuniumiza kidole"

The worst part is that these teachers appear angry as they cane the pupils. One thing I learnt about caning from my father is that it should not be done in anger - he never caned us while angry and in turn I never cane my children when I am angry.

Anger makes one lose self control - that's why we see the first boy getting over ten strokes!

All in all; I am not against caning; but what I see here is NOT punishment, it is ABUSE!

I would suggest that teacher training colleges train student teachers how to cane - complete with practical lessons using each other as test subjects!

@chiaroscuro I agree with you here. Canning is okay if done responsibly. How would I have raised those kids without canning them those days!

NOTE: I stopped canning them as they hit teenage! This is good strategy, they feel respected.

Now these are sound words from people who know the three sides of the coin.
Everybody STEALS, a THIEF is one who's CAUGHT stealing something of LITTLE VALUE. !!!
tycho
#26 Posted : Tuesday, February 10, 2015 8:17:59 AM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 7/1/2011
Posts: 8,804
Location: Nairobi
Any form of behavior control that relies on pain and pleasure can't lead humanity to efficient and effective adaptive behavior.

The only benefit of such forms of punishment is conformity and timidity of reason, and the resultant, rebellion without wisdom.
FRM2011
#27 Posted : Tuesday, July 18, 2017 5:00:02 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 11/5/2010
Posts: 2,459

Hallo guys,

I sit in the BoM of a secondary school in the village and this matter is proving to be quite divisive.

The BoM had given the principal an okay that he can administer corporal punishment as long as it was reasonable.

Caning is not just against the TSC code of ethics for teachers, but its a criminal offence according to our laws. The BoM cannot protect a teacher if he is reported. My stand was that we were exposing the teachers in case an incident was escalated to the authorities.

We had a heated discussion in the board. The underlying question being, what is the alternative ? So I came back to Nairobi and visited the principal of my kids' school. A private school in Nairobi and to my shock, they actually cane the pupils. My kids confirmed as much. And the reasons vary from the valid ones like bullying other kids to the ridiculous like failing exams.

I am sure we have people who went to starehe on this forum. Kindly share how they have managed to instill discipline without resorting to the cane. Or anyone else who might have a working and practical approach in a school set-up.
AlphDoti
#28 Posted : Tuesday, July 18, 2017 5:10:46 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 6/20/2008
Posts: 6,275
Location: Kenya
FRM2011 wrote:

Hallo guys, I am sure we have people who went to starehe on this forum. Kindly share how they have managed to instill discipline without resorting to the cane. Or anyone else who might have a working and practical approach in a school set-up.

They admit pupils based on character. They do not accept obviously hard-headed ones... Other schools suffer highly with pupils who are coming from indiscipline homes or previous schools. These are the ones who export their behaviour to the next school...
Lolest!
#29 Posted : Tuesday, July 18, 2017 5:54:54 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 3/18/2011
Posts: 12,069
Location: Kianjokoma
AlphDoti wrote:
FRM2011 wrote:

Hallo guys, I am sure we have people who went to starehe on this forum. Kindly share how they have managed to instill discipline without resorting to the cane. Or anyone else who might have a working and practical approach in a school set-up.

They admit pupils based on character. They do not accept obviously hard-headed ones... Other schools suffer highly with pupils who are coming from indiscipline homes or previous schools. These are the ones who export their behaviour to the next school...

Wait...all schools looked up to Starehe back in the day

But wasn't it said that the late Griffin liked using the cane?
Laughing out loudly smile Applause d'oh! Sad Drool Liar Shame on you Pray
AlphDoti
#30 Posted : Tuesday, July 18, 2017 6:23:14 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 6/20/2008
Posts: 6,275
Location: Kenya
Lolest! wrote:
AlphDoti wrote:
FRM2011 wrote:

Hallo guys, I am sure we have people who went to starehe on this forum. Kindly share how they have managed to instill discipline without resorting to the cane. Or anyone else who might have a working and practical approach in a school set-up.

They admit pupils based on character. They do not accept obviously hard-headed ones... Other schools suffer highly with pupils who are coming from indiscipline homes or previous schools. These are the ones who export their behaviour to the next school...

Wait... all schools looked up to Starehe back in the day

But wasn't it said that the late Griffin liked using the cane?

You're right, cane was there. But the recipient were already too willing and easily reformed due to rigorous selection process. And besides, most of those selected came from poor families and they had no other option but to conform in order to proceed in that school.
quicksand
#31 Posted : Tuesday, July 18, 2017 6:40:27 PM
Rank: Veteran


Joined: 7/5/2010
Posts: 2,061
Location: Nairobi
AlphDoti wrote:
Lolest! wrote:
AlphDoti wrote:
FRM2011 wrote:

Hallo guys, I am sure we have people who went to starehe on this forum. Kindly share how they have managed to instill discipline without resorting to the cane. Or anyone else who might have a working and practical approach in a school set-up.

They admit pupils based on character. They do not accept obviously hard-headed ones... Other schools suffer highly with pupils who are coming from indiscipline homes or previous schools. These are the ones who export their behaviour to the next school...

Wait... all schools looked up to Starehe back in the day

But wasn't it said that the late Griffin liked using the cane?

You're right, cane was there. But the recipient were already too willing and easily reformed due to rigorous selection process. And besides, most of those selected came from poor families and they had no other option but to conform in order to proceed in that school.


Back in the day at my school we had both the cane and other kinds of punishment. I would prefer the cane, some other students too cause the others were of the cruel and unusual kind.
Some fine examples included cleaning the pig sty, washing the dining hall,..and toilets, copying large tracts of textbook text to exercise books, filling a bucket with water drawn from a stream one kilometer away using a testtube...and others. The teachers and prefects had an abundance of ideas. The principal also expelled people who were veering towards hardcore truancy and bad behaviour. The cane was nothing.
Contours, we used to call it. Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly fun times
Lolest!
#32 Posted : Tuesday, July 18, 2017 7:36:28 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 3/18/2011
Posts: 12,069
Location: Kianjokoma
quicksand wrote:

Back in the day at my school we had both the cane and other kinds of punishment. I would prefer the cane, some other students too cause the others were of the cruel and unusual kind.
Some fine examples included cleaning the pig sty, washing the dining hall,..and toilets, copying large tracts of textbook text to exercise books, filling a bucket with water drawn from a stream one kilometer away using a testtube...and others. The teachers and prefects had an abundance of ideas. The principal also expelled people who were veering towards hardcore truancy and bad behaviour. The cane was nothing.
Contours, we used to call it. Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly fun times

Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly We must've schooled at the same school. Contours?Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly

That punishment for fetching water from the river! Man, some teacher would tell you to fetch with a spoon!!

Laughing out loudly smile Applause d'oh! Sad Drool Liar Shame on you Pray
FRM2011
#33 Posted : Tuesday, July 18, 2017 7:44:08 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 11/5/2010
Posts: 2,459
Lolest! wrote:
quicksand wrote:

Back in the day at my school we had both the cane and other kinds of punishment. I would prefer the cane, some other students too cause the others were of the cruel and unusual kind.
Some fine examples included cleaning the pig sty, washing the dining hall,..and toilets, copying large tracts of textbook text to exercise books, filling a bucket with water drawn from a stream one kilometer away using a testtube...and others. The teachers and prefects had an abundance of ideas. The principal also expelled people who were veering towards hardcore truancy and bad behaviour. The cane was nothing.
Contours, we used to call it. Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly fun times

Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly We must've schooled at the same school. Contours?Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly

That punishment for fetching water from the river! Man, some teacher would tell you to fetch with a spoon!!



Your prefects and teachers were really creative. I am getting ideas already.
urstill1
#34 Posted : Tuesday, July 18, 2017 8:00:09 PM
Rank: User


Joined: 9/6/2013
Posts: 1,446
Location: In a house
AlphDoti wrote:
FRM2011 wrote:

Hallo guys, I am sure we have people who went to starehe on this forum. Kindly share how they have managed to instill discipline without resorting to the cane. Or anyone else who might have a working and practical approach in a school set-up.

They admit pupils based on character. They do not accept obviously hard-headed ones... Other schools suffer highly with pupils who are coming from indiscipline homes or previous schools. These are the ones who export their behaviour to the next school...


In the case of Starehe, if you'r beyond redemption, they'd transfer you to a school neighboring your home area and pay the fees.
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