My friend maddog sent me a link to a recent BBC article on banning of corporal punishment in Taiwan.Advocates of the changes say students will be better protected and that the island's overall human rights situation will be enhanced.
However, some teachers in Taiwan fear the new rules could cause chaos in their classrooms, saying it removes an important disciplinary tool.
The move means 109 countries have now banned corporal punishment in schools.
After years of lobbying by civic groups, lawmakers in Taiwan ratified the new rules designed to prevent teachers in educational institutes from physically and psychologically punishing students.
The BBC's Caroline Gluck in Taipei says before the changes Taiwan had regulations in place which theoretically banned corporal punishment - but they seemed to be widely ignored.
An understatement if there ever was one. While hitting has slowly faded from Taipei, in the central and southern parts of the island it remains a key part of educational regimes. Theoretically corporal punishment was banned in the 1980s, but each year I poll my university students and almost none report not being hit in school. I have personally taught in elementary schools in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung over the years, and in all places the students were hit. The Beeb notes:
An island-wide poll carried out among junior and primary school children in 2005 suggested that 65% of students had received some kind of corporal punishment at school.
If anything, that figure is probably low.
I was reflecting on this article because hitting in Taiwan schools keeps intruding on the education of children in my household. My niece is staying with us for a couple of months while her mother recovers from surgery, and the girl, in third grade, has been repeatedly hit by a teacher I can only describe as vicious. She hits for any reason and no reason, all the time. She hits when homework is not done, when things are forgotten, even when the student is late, something she usually has no control over. One bright little girl I know who was first in her class last year has sunk to 26th, and told my wife the other day that she didn't mind being hit all the time, since she has become used to it. My niece's problem, she opined, was that she was not used to it -- she goes to school in Taipei and has never been hit. The bright little girl's mother told my wife that she thought hitting would improve the girl's academic orientation, an attitude I have heard voiced many, many times in my stay on the Beautiful Isle. Even though it manifestly has not!
Not only does hitting terrorize students, it also thrusts its controlling tentacles into the lives of their parents. For example, we hurried to school today because we didn't want my niece to get hit for being late. Further, physical abuse of children by government employees legitimates physical abuse of children in private homes -- and physical of abuse of the children by each other. This link is made by civic groups in Taiwan that want to get rid of corporal punishment, and by the UN, which according to the BBC article has pledged to end corporal punishment both in and out of the home by 2009. Hitting is also one of the reasons Taiwan students hate studying so much.
Why do so many teachers object? As Clyde Warden* has argued in a landmark paper in TESOL Quarterly last year, in Chinese culture students are shaped through internalization of what we in the West think of as "extrinsic" motivators, one of which is physical threats. Hence, teaching methods that seek to "reduce the affective filter" -- lower the anxiety level of students -- backfire here, since students do not self-motivate and their internal experience of "the pleasure of studying" was long ago impaired by teachers and parents who sought to reshape them to internalize external motivators like family prestige, intrafamily competition ("Your cousin Jane got 98 on Math....why did you only get 61?") and income. Many teachers fear the loss of what they experience as an important driver of student performance. To a certain extent, eliminating corporal punishment will thus require comprehensive reform of child rearing in local society, not merely changes in the way discipline is carried out in the local school system.
In Taiwan the Humanistic Education Foundation is one of the leading organizations working to end corporal punishment and physical abuse of children on the island. I've worked with them before -- the organization is well run and supremely dedicated. If you have some spare pennies, toss them their way.
[Taiwan]
*Chen, J., Warden, C., & Chang, H. (2005). Motivators that do not motivate: the case of Chinese EFL learners and the influence of culture on motivation. TESOL Quarterly, 39(4), 609-633.
In my opinion some moderate corporal punishment are ok. There's obviously problem with the teacher abusing such power on your niece. During my 7 years of studying in Taiwan, from 1989-1996 I had never had any teacher abused such power.
ReplyDelete-CSU Student
This is something that really makes me sick every time I see it. And the boss of my school likes to talk about the importance of "moral education". :(
ReplyDeleteIt really takes a generation to truly change things. While the situation won't improve overnight, at least changes are slowly happening.
MT: What would happen, in your opinion, if you or your wife goes into the school and request that said teacher not to hit your niece in any circumstance?
ReplyDeleteWould this be wishful thinking on my part?
Has a foreign teacher ever hit a Taiwan student here? If so, what happened next?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we're in a bit of bind regarding the niece, the school is taking her on as a favor while she stays with us. So the teacher is doing us a favor. My sis in law travels abroad for her and the niece stays with us, so we need to keep the school's favor. My wife is considering how to handle it.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure foreigners have smacked a kid, but I have never heard of a case.
Michael
Everyone watches too many kungfu movies here.
ReplyDeleteThe Taiwanese (and Chinese)are too use to seeing people get the shit kicked out of them 24 hours a day on TV. Its just part of the culture. Since you are a foreigner, you just don't understand..... !
"Has a foreign teacher ever hit a Taiwan student here? If so, what happened next?"
ReplyDeleteI would imagine, NO. And if it did happen, it would become Taiwan headline news within the week. Not because of the event, but because some foreigner has been found dead, and the police looking into the accidental death with possible Triad connections...
The reason a foreign teacher would probably never hit a Taiwan Student is because of the education structure. The foreign English teachers are not recruited through the regular teacher examination system, and they have their separate system, therefore they have more leeway to do certain things, while there are also de facto and de jure things that they can not do. But then the source of my info is a bit dated.
But for a regular teacher, there are good and bad teachers getting punishment or retribution unjustly or justly; by the official education system, by current or past students, by friends and family, by triad big bros who recruit little bros from school for narcotic trafficking, so on and so forth.
"Everyone watches too many kungfu movies here.
ReplyDeleteThe Taiwanese (and Chinese)are too use to seeing people get the shit kicked out of them 24 hours a day on TV. Its just part of the culture. Since you are a foreigner, you just don't understand..... !"
I think the only one around here who don’t understand is you. In fact, with the kungfu movies statement you make, I think you are probably someone who has never ever been near any East Asian country, and probably thinks we are talking about Thailand.
There are teachers who genuinely cared about you, and they whip you because they really care about you; such as a 1st grade female teacher, who whipped me once to make a point about not playing with poisonous snakes, else it would hurt more then being whipped.
ReplyDeleteThere are teachers who are good and caring, but they had to punish everyone to uphold social interest; such as a 4th grade female teacher, who whipped everyone in the class for collective disorderly conduct. I and three other girls were going to be spared because we were not following the crowd, but for the sake of fairness, we had to be whipped, and I understand. If I could find her or the 1st grade teacher, I would like to tutor their kids in English or in any other subjects, free of charge.
There are teachers who are the in betweens; such as countless others I don’t remember nor cared.
Then there are SM queens and Sadistic bastards who fulfilled their bitch mother’s wish and not secretly pursuing their dream fetish career; such as a female and male teacher from two different schools.
I would never attack a female, and BDSM and leather is REALLY NOT my thing. But for the SM queen, I wish I was a female, so I could choke her out, then use a dildo to assfuck then mouthfuck her, followed by all sorts of weird Japanese AV stuff. And what did she ever do to me?
Well, she assign potential marks to everyone of her student, and usually everyone did not reach that mark. In my case, because I am usually good with stupid exams, so my potential mark was 100%. There was one time I've gotten a 99% because I missed a stroke for Chinese, and for that I got smacked once. There was also the time when a Science exam was using outdated facts, therefore I got punished for putting down the newer facts. And then there was one time when I got an 80% because I was not well that day, and I got whipped till I bleed. And I was one of the few lucky ones with the good marks. Usually everyone got hit, and the real smart ones would continue to get a lower mark so their potential marks would be lower then their actual potential.
But the thing I most vividly remember was the time when a poor student got whipped 100 times for getting a 0%. To be honest he was a really cool kid who was active, but he was unfortunate because his family is poor and he is not too bright. But what happened to him was wrong. And I could easily imagine him eventually ending up as a triad recruit.
As for the other bastard, if I ever see him again and I could get away with it, I’d murder that piece of turd, limb by limb. Fuck him very much for hitting me twenty times with a metal baton, for walking on grass; and for screwing with my brother for not picking up that bastard's rubbish. He would be wasted just like other Taiwanese teachers who was killed by alumnus, alumnae, or students.
So personally, while I believe there is a limited place for corporal punishment, I don’t believe anyone other then parents should administer them.
MT: Could it be possible that you or your niece's guardian transfer your niece's 戶口 to your household hence allowing her attending the school legitimately, though temporarily? I know this is a lot of trouble, but if it could be done, won't it be worth it? However I do not understand the fuss about her not being a regular resident of the school district and would require a special favor for her to enroll to a public school! And to think this fuss is from an educator makes the whole situation worse. Perhaps I am away from TW too long and have forgotten.
ReplyDelete"Usually everyone got hit, and the real smart ones would continue to get a lower mark so their potential marks would be lower then their actual potential."
ReplyDeletesurprised that no one's commented on this. (too new?)
certainly seems one way of avoiding punishment at school, and at home. i've heard many families speak openly of their children as "tai bun" (too stupid) to do/learn something while the child is standing right there. i wonder how much of an influence this plays?
hitting: the cram school that i taught at in a previous life had written rules about teachers (foreign and native) not hitting students - must have happened for this step to have been taken. i also had a number of parents ask me to hit their children if they weren't working hard enough. in 8 years, i never felt the need to use the option, although there were a few unruly little sh*ts during that time. being large and imposing always proved sufficient.
one other issue that i feel needs to be considered is the present lack of any sort of family structure. many families see parents both work (long hours), with little family time (bordering on none if dad is abroad/in china). parents often not only expect teachers to educate their children, but also to give them grounding in general "right and wrong" rules for life. never mind the fact that teachers here are often stressed just getting through the assigned curriculum.
michael - any chance of an "anonymous letter" finding its way to the newspapers about the hitting going on? tough situation - best of luck.
To the person who said " there are teachers ... whip you because they really care about you..." that I have to disagree with you.
ReplyDeleteI was born and raised Taiwanese and I get what you are saying and why you are saying it. Once upon a time, I thought the same and believed if I hit my child, I was hitting out of love. ( How else do you "teach" a child pulling his sister's hair until she cries is wrong/bad/mean?!) Now I know that is not true. No one ever equate being hit with being loved. I never felt loved when I was hit! My children did not either. My parents hit, because they were frustrated and did not have any patience. I hit because I was frustrated and had no patience. I am sure if I continued to hit my kids, they would one day hit their kids out of frustration and impatience! See how this works? This is why I believe there has been a culture of hitting in Taiwan and, judging from MT's blog, it is not going away. As for my performance academically from K through 12th grade, I excelled under teachers who did not teach with their whips but did poorly under who did. Hence another example that whipping/ hitting was/ is not effective.