Child abuse in schools
It seems the NTUC My First Skool child abuse case that happened late last week has left aftershock tremors across the nation. Waves of other alleged child abuse cases have been surfacing ever since.
More child abuse casualties have been found, and while some were reportedly more lacerated than others, there remain those who received another form of trauma—emotional hurt. But just how serious is this case made out to be.
Perhaps and more plausibly, could the child abuse case at My First Skool have sparked an uproar— a flood of paranoia among parents. Terrified that their younglings would be the next victims, parents are finding all possible means to safeguard their children, and have them walk away from these unpleasant schools or childcare centres unscathed.
Wearing a dunce cap
Just yesterday, on the 9th of July, The New Paper reported of another possible child abuse case in a childcare centre that happened in Tampines in April of this year. The source revealed that it was the principal who was accused of yelling, slapping and pushing him against the wall. No one knows for certain if this is true.
But the photograph on The New Paper article depicts the primary school boy receiving emotional trauma. Humiliated with a box over his head that resembled a dunce cap, the primary school boy was forced to stand in a corner of the room and face the wall for three hours.
According to the reports, the principal kept the boy at a poor ventilated corner with his dunce cap box over his head and was refused food, water and toilet breaks. And these were all because he threw a toy at a teacher. The principal has denied these allegations.
Controversy
Gone are the days when school teachers caned students as their primary mode of discipline. Today a typical parent would say, “If you ever lay a finger on my child, I will let the whole world know. I will call the police and have you arrested!”
Certainly, physical violence cannot be accepted in modern day Singapore. It is not justifiable. Teachers who practice violence on children must definitely be brought to justice. Yes, we all agree to that. But what about an ill-disciplined child? How do you handle him, or her? How should the right of way of punishment be?
RELATED: My First Skool footage upsets preschool teachers
Discipline
Effective disciplining is probably the hardest part of being an educator. When teachers have terrible kids, they cannot just fire them or demote them. Unlike your bosses, school teachers have to put up with bad behaviour and still be patient. That is the archetypal teacher you might say, but they are nonetheless human.
How should a teacher discipline?
When a child misbehaves, or is bad-mannered, and guilty of misconduct, a teacher should and must enforce disciplinary action.
- Establish rules or a system. Should a child be extremely disobedient, do not go straight into punitive measures. Reiterate his bad behaviour, and rely on the rules board instead.
- Do not make empty threats. If a teacher does not carry out disciplinary action after warning the student time and again, he (or she) will climb over a teacher, or even his parent’s head eventually.
- Talk to the student. Be firm. The teacher should bring him to a corner where they cannot be heard and explain firmly the situation at hand.
- Talk to the student’s parents about his misbehaving.
- Give the student attention. The most probable reason why he is misbehaving in class is that he yearns for attention. Give it to him. Besides the 3rd point, talking to the student, give him more responsibilities. Sometimes, kids just want to feel important.
For more interesting discipline tricks from teachers, visit Parenting.com. What's your take on this new outbreak of child abuse cases? Tell us. We'd love to hear from you! For more on this topic, watch this video: