From Wikipedia, so my sources are obviously legit:
"Nimzowitsch was annoyed by his opponents' smoking. A popular, but probably apocryphal, story is that once when an opponent laid an unlit cigar on the table, he complained to the tournament arbiters, "He is threatening to smoke, and as an old player you must know that the threat is stronger than the execution.""
I've been taken in by chess recently and when I came across this anecdote, the first thought that crossed my mind was the corporal punishment meted out in Indian schools. The term 'corporal punishment' adds a lot of underserving structure and civility to a teaching practice that is rooted in brutal dominance and chaos (but that's just me). But all children in India are exposed to this, some obviously much worse than others. It's still around because it works; it's incredible what you could get people to do for you if you put the fear of the lord in them.
At the heart of it, though, the efficacy of corporal punishment comes from the threat of further execution of it, and not from the literal execution of tempering the steel. What that leaves children (and eventually, adults) with is the Pavlovian urge to submit when facing the threat of physical punishment. Personally, I'm not a fan of training the future of my race to readily submit. As highlighted, that's a personal opinion. I think there are definitely some thought threads that are ready to accept a submission-prone proletariat; but I think it is highly unbecoming of the world's largest democracy, not to say counter productive.
(cue: drama) What is learnt may never be unlearnt.
It might sound dramatic, but I do believe 'un-training' years of a particular habit is extremely difficult.
I think it's interesting to see altercations between people in India - especially road rage incidents - the way one aggressor will violently raise his hand above his head in preparation to strike, take one step forward and menacingly bite his lower lip - the curious thing being that no blow is ever struck (well, sometimes at least). In a way, the aggressor is just trying to imitate what his teachers (or anybody in authority) did to him when they needed him to submit when he was younger.
(aside) I suppose sometimes we are merely reflections of past deeds. Or that there exists a learning morphic field around us. http://www.sheldrake.org/homepage.html
(aside: I wonder what happens to creativity in tasks that have potential corporal punishment payoffs)
There are many reasons why corporal punishment is still quite prevalent in India; none of them good. I don't think it's enough to just make it 'illegal' without addressing the issue at its core. Since schools are extremely well versed with (dis)incentives, we should be doing more to incentivise schools to stomp down on it.
Reality:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11617206
"Out of the 13 countries which were the subjects of the research, India was ranked third in terms of the estimated economic cost of corporal punishment."
"The study, Prevention Pays, found discrimination by caste and gender was the major cause of violence against children in India." Discrimination? Woah, whole new terrifying dimension. Though they do seem to be talking about 'violence against children' as a whole.
"Teachers tended to justify their actions by saying they were overburdened with too many pupils." I'm not even...
"Nimzowitsch was annoyed by his opponents' smoking. A popular, but probably apocryphal, story is that once when an opponent laid an unlit cigar on the table, he complained to the tournament arbiters, "He is threatening to smoke, and as an old player you must know that the threat is stronger than the execution.""
I've been taken in by chess recently and when I came across this anecdote, the first thought that crossed my mind was the corporal punishment meted out in Indian schools. The term 'corporal punishment' adds a lot of underserving structure and civility to a teaching practice that is rooted in brutal dominance and chaos (but that's just me). But all children in India are exposed to this, some obviously much worse than others. It's still around because it works; it's incredible what you could get people to do for you if you put the fear of the lord in them.
At the heart of it, though, the efficacy of corporal punishment comes from the threat of further execution of it, and not from the literal execution of tempering the steel. What that leaves children (and eventually, adults) with is the Pavlovian urge to submit when facing the threat of physical punishment. Personally, I'm not a fan of training the future of my race to readily submit. As highlighted, that's a personal opinion. I think there are definitely some thought threads that are ready to accept a submission-prone proletariat; but I think it is highly unbecoming of the world's largest democracy, not to say counter productive.
(cue: drama) What is learnt may never be unlearnt.
It might sound dramatic, but I do believe 'un-training' years of a particular habit is extremely difficult.
I think it's interesting to see altercations between people in India - especially road rage incidents - the way one aggressor will violently raise his hand above his head in preparation to strike, take one step forward and menacingly bite his lower lip - the curious thing being that no blow is ever struck (well, sometimes at least). In a way, the aggressor is just trying to imitate what his teachers (or anybody in authority) did to him when they needed him to submit when he was younger.
(aside) I suppose sometimes we are merely reflections of past deeds. Or that there exists a learning morphic field around us. http://www.sheldrake.org/homepage.html
(aside: I wonder what happens to creativity in tasks that have potential corporal punishment payoffs)
There are many reasons why corporal punishment is still quite prevalent in India; none of them good. I don't think it's enough to just make it 'illegal' without addressing the issue at its core. Since schools are extremely well versed with (dis)incentives, we should be doing more to incentivise schools to stomp down on it.
Reality:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11617206
"Out of the 13 countries which were the subjects of the research, India was ranked third in terms of the estimated economic cost of corporal punishment."
"The study, Prevention Pays, found discrimination by caste and gender was the major cause of violence against children in India." Discrimination? Woah, whole new terrifying dimension. Though they do seem to be talking about 'violence against children' as a whole.
"Teachers tended to justify their actions by saying they were overburdened with too many pupils." I'm not even...
"The study found that even many students believed corporal punishment was sometimes necessary.
Plan reckons anything between $1.4bn and $7.4bn was being lost every year in India in social benefits because of school violence.
The cost is based on estimates of how the larger economy is affected by the impact of corporal punishment on pupils' attendance and academic performance."
3 comments:
I automatically completed the phrase 'the fear of the Lord' with 'is the beginning of wisdom' in my head. What is learnt cannot be unlearnt, indeed.
The RTE bans corporal punishment, but surprisingly parents (in addition to teachers and apparently students) are big advocates of it too.
It's one thing to allow a teacher to be wielding a stick on a student. It's another to have an unfair attack on a usually smaller and definitely unarmed victim.
Maybe students should be allowed to fight back. Solve the problems once and for all.
I for one have definitely seen the wrong end of one too many of a teacher's vent for probably what was domestic frustration.
That's true, parents are big advocates. Honestly, I think that's just because they were exposed to it when they were kids and it's quite hard to come to terms with the fact that you were wronged as a kid. Denial is a beast.
I too have, Maulik. I think the reason students don't get hit too much when they enter the 9th/10th is mainly because you can fight back - not because they are suddenly trying to treat you with respect.
Post a Comment