Spare the rod, spoil the child

If you have grown up in Kenya and have the classic “beat you till the neighbours know your name” kind of parents, then there are some things you hear or see that make you scream “uwongo”.

Like when you hear of kids saying they get “time outs” instead of a beating that instills the fear of God in you.

Leave that alone, there are adverts on TV and radio that make you want to weep as you imagine yourself talking to your parent like that as a child.

There is one where a kid wakes up in the morning and does not feel like going to school so he decides to smear ketchup all over his spotless white school uniform. The mother comes in and all she does in shake her head.

Now, try to put yourself in that kids shoes and imagine what would have happened right after she shook her head.

For many of us, we can’t even imagine because we would have been unconscious two seconds after she saw the shirt.

For many of my friends who saw the commercial, we just shook our heads and moved on. We could hear and feel the belt, electric switch or anything that would have been close, hitting our skins.

TEACHERS WERE FEARED

What was even funnier, is that the mother picked the shirt and washed it. Let us be honest, for those of us who would have missed school, it is because we would have been at the hospital or at the police station trying to bail our mother out of jail.

For me, I would have worn a “home” shirt and given a note to take to the headmaster to explain what happened. I really wouldn’t have needed to go with the note because my swollen red eyes, slight limp would have been enough hints that I had been worked on like a thief caught in the Nairobi streets.

If that was not enough of a hint, he probably could have heard my desperate screams across town.

The next advert has nothing to do with parents but teachers. A student is asked a question and instead of doing the normal thing of standing up and giving the answer, she decides to sing it out. All the teacher has to say is “my goodness!”

Maybe things have changed since I was in school but that is no way to answer. First, teachers were there to be feared and loathed. If you loved a teacher, you were either a prefect or wanted to be one.

I remember we used to stand up and yell “Good morning sir/madam, welcome to class, we are ready to learn” in unison.

She would then walk up to her desk and not even acknowledge our greeting and start writing on the blackboard. Now, if you sat down before she said you do so, you were asked to kneel outside the classroom.

MORTAL ENEMIES
Now, with such moody teachers at what point would you get to sing out your answer? Then our folks had this complete faith in our teachers so if you limped your way home, your parents would beat you up again.

That era is gone, teachers and parents are mortal enemies, they sue each other when they won’t allow a child with dreads to learn.

If a teacher punishes a child, an angry parent storms into school demanding an answer and the teacher to be transferred.

No wonder kids are now singing in class with no fear of retribution. They now “turn up” in clubs and in class.

I remember how happy I was when I was told that in high school people do not get whipped until I got there. Even in college, it took some time before I got used to having all that freedom.

Remember when one Kalonzo Musyoka banned teachers from beating up students? We all thought it was independence until a teacher whooped you and you did not know who to report him to.

I know I am not a parent yet but will I turn into such? I heard one person say “yes” so let me just stop there for the sake of peace and my gene pool.