Reflections on
2007-10-R7
(Copyrighted
2007
by Don M. Tow)
An event that occurred more than 50
years ago still sticks in my memory.
My older brother came to my grammar school on
that Saturday at 12:00 noon, as usual, to pick me up to walk me home.
Like many other grammar schools in
The punishment was to write the
most complicated word in the Chinese language 1,000 times.
Since that word has 26 strokes, one can write
at most 10 words per minute when writing at a very fast pace.
This means that even if one writes continuously
without any pause or rest break, it would take at least 100 minutes to
finish that assignment.
It was no wonder that my brother had to wait
for about two hours before I was allowed to leave.
Very tired in my right arm and eyes,
as well as my whole body due to hunching over my desk and writing furiously
and continuously for two hours, I was very upset at that teacher for being
so harsh.
After all, this was just grammar school, and not the
army training for war.
It was a harmless mistake that did not affect
anyone else, and not some mistake that created a life-and-death situation
for someone.
Even if I needed to be punished, surely the
punishment could be something less severe than a useless two-hour exercise
that forced a young boy to miss his lunch and more importantly caused his
mother waiting anxiously at home and wondering why her two children still
had not come home yet.
Keep in mind that in the early 1950s in
My brother was also annoyed.
He had to waste two hours just waiting for me.
He was also very hungry and did not get to eat
lunch until much later.
More importantly, being older, he knew that our
mother would be worried by our absence; thus the incident also caused him
unnecessary stress.
I often wonder under similar
circumstances, what would have happened to me at a grammar school in the
In spite of the fact that I felt
that the punishment was way too harsh for the deed, I did learn a lesson.
After that day, I never forgot to bring my
notebook to school again.
I wonder if the punishment had been to stand in
a corner facing a wall for five minutes, would I have learned the lesson and
would never forget to bring my notebook to school again?
That kind of
punishment, although not necessarily that specific punishment, was actually
representative of a strong disciplinary approach in the Chinese society at
that time, not only in schools, but also in homes and society as a whole.
For example, it was very common for parents to
spank their children when they misbehaved.
I, as well as my brothers and sisters, had
personally experienced many spankings delivered by our father using a
cleaning-feathered-stick.
As a matter of fact, it was also common for
teachers to give out physical punishments, such as hitting a student’s hands
with a ruler if the student misbehaved.
Although I was never a bad kid, I also had
experienced that kind of physical punishments from my teachers in
Looking back at that incident more
than 50 years later, I still share most of the feelings I had at that time.
I do not mind that the teacher gave me
punishment for forgetting to bring my notebook to school, but the punishment
that I received was definitely too harsh for that single act of
forgetfulness.
If a teacher does that today in an American
grammar school, he or she definitely would receive at least a strong
reprimand, and probably would even be fired.
However, having lived in both the
Chinese society and American society and noticing the amount of serious
disciplinary problems in American schools, homes, and society as a whole, I
often wonder whether a more disciplinary educational system in the
I do not necessarily mean that we
have to dole out physical punishments, but I do believe that our youths
should be taught more discipline, and they should be held more accountable.
They should expect that there will be adverse
consequences to them if they misbehave and violate the rules of society.
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