The big, multi-school debate on corporal punishment was held yesterday. The students were to have prepared for both sides of the debate motion, and then they would be told minutes before speaking which side they were on. We were given the opposing side.
One of our school's speakers did exceptionally well; the other looked like he was having a nightmare on stage. He acted like he was making up his arguments as he went along, which baffled me because we had been practicing together for weeks. When the bell rang saying his time was up he was only halfway through. Another student leaned over and told me, "Teboho said he had a dream the other night that he would propose the motion, so he then decided to stop preparing to be on the opposing side."
Sure enough, when Teboho got off the stage he even confessed the same to me. Crazy kid. You dreamed you would propose?!
So we didn't get first place. We ended up 8th out of 15 schools. But our students were without a doubt the best behaved. Which made me reflect on the debate motion in a first hand way.
The debate was about whether or not corporal punishment should be used in schools. It's certainly used in ours. Every teacher but me uses it as the first tool in taking a misbehaving student to task. Our principal uses it as nearly the only tool, and she does so frequently. The students fear her, all five foot nothing of her. The students listen to and obey her.
Personally, I've never had a problem with the kids getting whacked when they act out, as long as the punishment's being administered fairly and consistently. And I wondered what the connection was between our students getting punished physically and being the best behaved among the schools at this debate. The worst behaved students seemed to be those from the city where corporal punishment is rare, where they consider themselves more progressive.