Student Punishments in Taiwan, brought to you by Apple Daily

ESWN brought us this fascinating tale from Apple Daily of student punishments in Taiwan. ESWN writes:

To be fair, the phenomenon described here can be seen in many other countries (for example, Hong Kong, Australia, Korea, Japan, etc). However, in Taiwan, Apple Daily seems to devote more space to covering the subject.

Apple Daily is a lurid Hong Kong paper that seems almost anti-Taiwan in its quest to portray every negative aspect of Taiwanese society. It reminds of the way Soviet newspapers would focus on US problems.

Our own experience is that such punishments are very common. My daughter has been hit once, by a substitute, whom we quietly had removed the next day. We have seen many nasty punishments, though. At the school where I used to teach in southern Taiwan all of the classes were hit, to the point that the students would flinch if the teacher extended a hand. In Taiwan things are slowly changing (my mantra recently!). The Humanistic Education Foundation (Chinese page) works with students and parents to curb corporal punishments in the schools.

Why is it necessary to hit students? Conjecture for another blog....