Children as chattel

Jun 01, 2012 Editorial

Today is International Children’s Day. It is also twenty-one years since we ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. And we are still debating whether we should stop corporal punishment – ‘caning’ children – in our schools. The new Minister of Education recently journeyed to Berbice to assay the sentiments of educators on the issue. From the newspaper accounts, it seems the dominant sentiment is that Guyana should continue with ‘the rod of correction’.
One may snidely say that the Berbice educational establishment is somewhat tradition-bound, but support for corporal punishment is very widespread across the country. This was illustrated in a rather remarkable letter to the press by the Minister within the Ministry of Local Government, writing in his official capacity, but representing, we believe, a significant swath of Guyanese opinion.
The Minister begins by arguing that “Corporal punishment has been with society ever since man began to walk this Earth.” We are certain that this was so, but it does not answer the question as to whether we still imitate our cave-man ancestors.
His second argument that in our specific case, corporal punishment “goes back to the earliest days of formal education,” does not fare better. The Minister should remember that ‘the earliest days of our formal education’ goes back to the end of slavery and the pedagogical tools assumed that we are just a tad higher than the beasts of burden. Our children must obviously have been in even greater need of condign disciplinary treatment. But the Minister’s resort to this form of justification is not fortuitous: corporal punishment of children rests on similar premises as those that justified extreme measures to ‘discipline’ slaves.
In fact, slaves were considered as “children”: their faculties –especially their moral and reasoning –were not “fully developed”. As mentioned before, they were supposedly closer to animals than man. The methods for ‘civilising’ slaves therefore, had to be closer to those that worked for animals than humans. They conceded that while a 2×4 might work on a mule, a whip was better for the slave and now in a further concession, the Minister asserts that a ‘cane’ might be best for children.
We remind the Minister of the structure of the institutions – schools – into which our children were placed for their ‘education’. At the top was the “Head Master” supported by other “masters” and the children were supposed to obey the rules explicitly no matter how arbitrary those rules might have been formulated or administered. The children were placed in classes (like the old slave ‘gangs’) where one of their own was the ‘prefect’ who would tattle to the ‘master’. It is not very surprising that we have produced a nation of ‘note takers’ who at best learn by rote. But more insidiously only know how to ‘carry news’ up the ladder and be violent towards those close to us.
Quite ominously for one writing in an official capacity, the Minister said that, “there is still a large number of people all over the world, including myself, for whom corporal punishment is an essential tenet of the Christian faith (spare the rod and spoil the child).” While this may be so, we would like to point out that, as acknowledged by the Minister, we are discussing the enforcement of Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – a commitment undertaken by the Guyanese state.
It would be useful to fully state this commitment: “States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.”
The Minister connects ‘disciplining’ of the child with ‘respect’ towards teachers. To be positive, discipline must be internally generated and in like manner, respect must be earned not demanded. The cane will deliver neither.

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