Rising number of student misbehaviour caused by 'soft' parenting?

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http://www.edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/photos/1121054/Sparing_the_rod_A_spoilt_generation.html

The pain stung the palms of the outstretched hands, but there were no waterworks from the 12-year-old.

I was the 12-year-old who received three strokes from that vicious cane. I had left my seat to pick up my pen that a friend had thrown to the ground.

“Boys don’t cry,” that is what we learnt in the Catholic mission school I attended. You took your caning standing and then you went back to your seat.

You do not whine or be a tattle-tale. You take out your frustration on the basketball court during recess where you play football.

The good old days.

There was no such thing as going home to tell your parents that your teacher had caned you, that you had sideburns pulled, that you got smacked across the head or that you got slapped.

Firstly, it would lead to a second round of beating at home. Secondly, you would see your friends shake their heads in horror signalling the end of your social life. No, we did not have our parents fighting our battles.

The kids from my generation were probably the last ones who were physically hit by our teachers and never complained about it.

Recently, teachers have been receiving bad press on local citizen site, Stomp.

There was a relief teacher going on about his students and their parents online. He later claimed to have been set-up only for a netizen to prove otherwise.

That debacle was not soon forgotten before the students from Bishan Park Secondary School decided the wisest place to practice their parkour skills would be in school. They jumped off the second floor ledge onto a bench.

A schoolmate had recorded it on his/her mobile phone and posted it on Facebook. It ended up on Stomp eventually.

A parent had sent the video to Stomp lamenting about teachers not doing enough. So what could have a teacher done?

A teacher’s duty according to the standards of today’s parents is to not only educate, but to discipline and to be a surrogate parent. The disciplinary methods would also be of the biological parents choosing, it would seem.

Spare the rod, most parents of today say. I say I turned out fine without the rod being spared!

Used wisely and within reason I do believe there would be hope to saving the future generations, but it is not up to the teachers. It is the duty of a parent.