I woke up that very morning; my mind was refreshed, blank. The weather was right, seemed like a very good day. Suddenly I remembered it was a school day. I had to go to school, checked the time, it was almost 7:00 am and morning assembly was at 7:30 am.
I usually had a chore or two every morning to do. I did my chores, took my bath, put on my school uniform, took my breakfast, said farewell to my parents, took my lunch money; all in a great haste and then I was off to school on my bicycle.
I got to school; all students were already seated in class. Damn! A mischievous wind blew past me. I knew there would some reckoning for coming to school this late. Right about then I heard something that sounded like someone being whipped and it was continued for a while. A never ending Stroke after stroke: I had lost count. I took a quick look inside the school compound, lo and behold, there were quite a number of students lined up receiving several strokes of the whip one after the other for coming to school late. I was mortified cause I knew I was about to get some.
Anyone who knew me then would testify that I was someone who really feared the cane. I just could not stand there receiving strokes of pain. Being a good boy as I was back then, I had to present myself to receive the cane. I received 15 strokes that day from my Integrated Science teacher. I never forgot it. It ruined the whole day for me. The only reason I did not cry was that there were girls around. That was the short-term effect; the long-term effect was that I never concentrated in my Integrated Science class ever again. Never fully anyway. I just hated the man from that point.
That was just one of my experiences with the cane. The whole point of caning was to get the child to obey the rules and/or perform better in class. In my personally opinion, there more effective ways to get the child to do what is expected of him. Getting the child to do some physical activity, perhaps, would be a better option, if you need to discipline a child. Giving a child motivation and incentives when they do better in class can increase a child’s performance in class.
Most schools nowadays are under the no cane policy. In Ghana, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has decreed for this no cane policy in all schools across the country. Not only is this a good thing but also a challenge that is being thrown to the teachers to come up with new methods and techniques to enhance the teaching and learning process. We are in a world of endless possibilities. The rise technological advancements in education is steep. Teachers need to capitalize on this and stump out the backward tradition of using the cane.