Caning and other unethical punishments many years ago when you were a kid (Part 1)

For those born before or in the early 1990s, have you ever been caned by your parents or by teachers when you were just a kid or teenager?


Back in your school days, have you witnessed punishments meted out to students that were deemed unethical or illegal?


Recently, I saw this video:


I was lucky that my parents did not beat me in the way that crazy American lady did to her own child. However, my brother and I were caned quite badly when we were very young as we misbehaved. We had scars and marks, and they bled sometimes. When my mum caned us, she had this rage on her face and when she whipped the rotan continuously on our hands and legs, we thought she had gone crazy!


I remembered when I was 6 or 7 years old, my pocket-money was 50-70 cents a day, just enough to buy a bowl of noodles (30-50 cents) and may be a drink (10-30 cents) at the school canteen. They sold ice-cream too but the cone-shape ones cost $1 each. I never tasted them before and never had enough to buy one. So I took a 1 dollar coin that was left on the table back at home and bought one the next day. It tasted like heaven and my fellow classmates were quite envious.


I told my mum about it back at home. “Mum, I took 1 dollar from the table to school this morning…” Before I could finish, she flew into a rage.


“What? You STOLE 1 dollar from the table???” And she started whipping the rotan on me.


That incident stayed in my head for more than 20 years and there were more. I never brought it up or confronted her about her methods of punishment out of respect. But I swear I would never ever beat my kids. I even warned my wife about the possible psychological scars if we start beating our kids.


I have heard of incidents that were much worse than mine. When I was 15 years old, my tutor, Mr. Chen, a father of 2 kids, happily told us how he punished one of them who did badly in his academic exams. “I dragged him to the toilet, stripped him naked and dumped a pail of ice-cold water on him.” Apparently, that’s not the end. He said he caned him very hard after giving him a big scolding. You know what, in-spite of the cruel punishments, the kid didn’t do very well in his O’ levels (L1R5 15 or 17 points) but got in to ACJC anyway because the kid was a swimmer trained by Ang Peng Siong, a former national swimmer.


Are you a parent? Are you strict? Watch the videos below and don’t use the rotan! I’ll call the police! lol.


Russell Peters – "Beat Your Kids":



World Strictest Parents:



This post was first published over at the Embracing Your Identity blog on 13 November 2014. It is reproduced with permission.


YOU MAY WISH TO READ:


Caning and other unethical punishments many years ago when you were a kid (Part 2)


A Singaporean kid's thoughts and troubles


Why do we do this to our children?