Teaching By the Stick

Before I arrived at Mizpah I warned that the teachers will hit the students as punishment. So the first time that I saw a student get smacked with the handle of the broom it came as no surprise to me. Students here are trained through the stick. A student will get smacked if they speak out in class, or need to be punished for any reason such a not doing their homework or calling a teacher by their first name. Anything that is hard can be used to hit, sticks, brooms, rulers, machetes (yes, a teacher hit a student with the flat side of the machete). It is how they get students to listen. I had a student type in computer class that he is scared of his English teacher because if he does not do his homework he will get hit, and no, I am not his English teacher. Even parents will hit their kids if they are not behaving. One young boy had a bunch of dried blood in his hear on day and I found out that his mother hit him on the side of the head. It is a lot different from “The American Standard.” But I don’t feel bad for the kids and this is why.

I tried was thinking of reasons why Americans are so against hitting students. The best reason I could think of is so that we don’t teach our kids that they can use violence to solve problems. We try to teach our kids to stay away from violence, to be loving and kind, to live in peace and solve issue like “civilized” people. But show me a people more loving and kind than Tongans. After being here in Vava’u and teaching at Mizpah, I am convinced that a child can be brought up by the stick and still live in a loving, peaceful and civilized community. So I do not feel bad when a kids has the end of a broom handle smack his hand for speaking out of turn, because I believe it has no effect on if they grow up in a world of violence or peace. But I do feel bad for the teacher who hits their students. I feel bad because the only way the teacher can get the students respect is by hitting them. The same reason I feel bad for teachers in America who have to use the threat of a pop quiz or more homework to earn the students respect. I don’t want my students to listen to me only because I hit them and I don’t want my students to listen to me only because I will give them more homework if they are disrespectful. If my students are going to respect me it should be because of who I am and what I teach. On days (usually Mondays) when I fell like the only way I can teach is by the stick, I try not too. Not because it will affect the students, but because each time I hit a student or give extra homework the reason that the students will show me respect changes. The boy in my computer class said that he was afraid of his English teacher because she would hit him if he did not do my home work. Tell me, who do you feel sorry for, the boy or the English teacher?