yesterday we had a couple of minutes, so i asked my 11 year olds if our school uses hitting as punishment for failing tests. they said YES! some of them had even been hit 50 times!
i now know EXACTLY why taiwanese are the way they are. why they have no concept of right and wrong. all the punishment goes to stuff that doesn’t matter. they get beat so much for grades nobody has the heart to beat them for the stuff they need to get it for. not only that they carry resenment in their hearts for being punished for nothing and therefore desire to break small rules.
just MHO here.
A math teacher friend of mine will set a class target of 85% for a test. For each percentage point the student is under the target, they get whacked 10 times on the hands with a ruler. So if a kid only got 80%, that’s 50 whacks.
It’s pretty brutal, but the class average went way up.
I once got six of the tawse on each hand for forgetting my geometry jotter. It was sore but I didn’t cry.
yes oh mighty tetsuo, but not for grades!
I once got hit for going to a movie with my swimming instructor.
don’t you mean “hit ON?”
don’t you mean “hit ON?”[/quote]
No, my father actually hit me.
don’t you mean “hit ON?”[/quote]
No, my father actually hit me.[/quote]
What’d he do to the swim coach?
Come to a movie with me and I’ll give you a spanking.
[quote=“rantheman”]yesterday we had a couple of minutes, so I asked my 11 year olds if our school uses hitting as punishment for failing tests. they said YES! some of them had even been hit 50 times!
I now know EXACTLY why Taiwanese are the way they are. why they have no concept of right and wrong. all the punishment goes to stuff that doesn’t matter. they get beat so much for grades nobody has the heart to beat them for the stuff they need to get it for. not only that they carry resenment in their hearts for being punished for nothing and therefore desire to break small rules.
just MHO here.[/quote]
Ran,
Interesting observation. While I may be in a minority, I want try to figure out what meaning might exist in my observations of local culture. Or maybe it needs to make sense to me somehow.
A teaching experience of mine may be related to yours in some way. I gave a short, no-notice test. At the end of the test, one student ran from the room sick on the verge of throwing up. It cleared up within a short time. As far as I could tell, it was extreme nervousness that caused it. This could be simple test anxiety. It could also be an extreme case of test anxiety brought on by the greater chance of failing a test for which the student was unprepared, resulting in some form of punishment later.
Seeker4
I was one of only 2 girls in an agriculture class when I was 13. We got hit with a cricket bat if our gardens didn’t produce nice veggies…but afterwards you get to sign your name on the bat:) I’d much rather do that than sit for hours in detension.
Corporal punishment is a form of hazing whereby sadists pass on their own frustrations and insecurities that date back to the time they were hazed. I have bitter feelings about this, as when I was a lad I attented a boarding school in East Lothian. The place was a prime example of “Spare the Rod, spoil the child” philosophy. We got beat on for the mildest infractions, the target usually being the hands or the arse, but sometimes it was the ears as well.
So, whenever my Chinese co-teachers use force to control or punish students, I directly tell them to cease and desist, or else they will lose plenty face! They don’t like that very much, but I cannot stand violence against children, no matter how bad they are. I much prefer using tone of voice (army heritage -“it’s all down to shouting”), continued eye contact, and using the kids peers to humble them. It takes a lot longer, but the result is much more satisfactory.
In my classroom I have a “You Hit, You Hug” policy. One time my co-teacher whacked a kid on the hand with a ruler and I made her hug him. She never did it again.
I just don’t understand Chinese culture.
There, now that I got that out of the way, as a parent who will be sending their kid to public school here, I have to ask if parents have any say on this matter?
I know there are a lot of parents on here, have any of you run across this?
I think that the day that my son comes home after being hit for not aceing a test, will be the day that I go to jail, and/or get deported for beating the shit out of some teacher.
If my kid needs discipline, that is my responsibilty, not some teacher.
Other parents, how do you feel?
Well, that explains the hair and make-up! 
[quote=“bobl”]I just don’t understand Chinese culture.
There, now that I got that out of the way, as a parent who will be sending their kid to public school here, I have to ask if parents have any say on this matter?
I know there are a lot of parents on here, have any of you run across this?
I think that the day that my son comes home after being hit for not aceing a test, will be the day that I go to jail, and/or get deported for beating the shit out of some teacher.
If my kid needs discipline, that is my responsibilty, not some teacher.
Other parents, how do you feel?[/quote]
Discipline is a parent’s job, but most parents don’t do it – there’s the real problem. When I was a kid, the teacher really didn’t need to discipline students per se because we were aware that a simple phone call home would bring us unhappiness. Simple, but effective method that gives children time to learn self-discipline, and a teacher the freedom to teach.
Info from a Taiwanese public elementary school teacher here is that corporal punishment is not allowed in her school. The teacher can be disciplined, fired, and will likely be sued by the parents. The kids know that and lack of self-discipline is getting worse. Not as bad, but on the same path as the deplorable situation in American public schools. That said, I am not advocating abuse of children under any label. Just telling what I’m hearing.
My guess is that most corporal punishment in Taiwan is happening 1) in private schools, and 2) in rural areas. Just a guess.
Hey, that “Yellow Fever” song on your website is so wrong in so many ways. I cracked up.
Story from the BBC today.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4378412.stm
It’s so cool that t’kids are using their own non-violent means to combat this kind of shit. The only way to stamp out violence against children is to name and shame these pigs… 
Good article.
I was trying to understand how the call for a ban tracked with my earlier report that this practice was already prohibited. It was mentioned:
I believe that corporal punishment (CP) isn’t the best method. Another serious problem is that when it is removed from the schools, it usually isn’t replaced with anything effective, which can lead to problems as bad or worse that CP.
[quote=“seeker4”]
Info from a Taiwanese public elementary school teacher here is that corporal punishment is not allowed in her school. The teacher can be disciplined, fired, and will likely be sued by the parents. [/quote]
This is just the line they give to foreigners. I used to teach at a primary school here, and believe me, the teachers hit the kids, viciously.
And just ask your young students - they are still being hit.
One of my students was telling me about his teacher who had flown into a rage, smacked him on the head, and ripped up his textbook. His mom was in the kitchen and overheard what the boy was telling me. She rushed in and told the kid (in Chinese, which I can understand, but since I’m white, no one ever believes it) that he must never tell something disgraceful about Chinese culture to a foreigner because it makes their country look bad.