The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Two complaints about CanadaÕs residential schools were that students suffered from brutality at the hands of teachers and were not allowed to speak their language. But this was common in schools ÐÊpublic and private, residential or not Ð if we go by todayÕs standards. At one time, a common method of discipline was caning, which evolved into strapping on the hands. My friend Dave relates a strapping he received in elementary school for a snowball thrown by a friend. He got 16 on each hand and was numb for a week. Strapping was a common way of enforcing the rules until it was banned in Manitoba public schools near the end of the last century. Years ago, new teachers, including this writer, received their classroom strap on orientation along with the class register. This weapon was about three inches wide and a foot or more long, and was used frequently. For serious misdeeds, students would be sent to the principal or vice-principal for the punishment. As a vice-principal at an overcrowded junior high, I strapped the first student of the school year on the first day of classes. His crime? Slamming a Grade 7 girlÕs hand in the locker door. Even he felt he deserved the punishment. Caning was used in private and even Evangelical schools to enforce discipline. I met the principal of one such institute back in the Ô70s. He was an interesting person, a native of Texas in a school that used lesson plans and books from the southern USA. He rigidly enforced discipline and prayers in his school. He told me he would cane the transgressor on the back and rear end, then they both would get on their knees and pray for redemption. In one tough high school I taught at, a lot of parents told their children that if they got capital punishment at school, they would get it again at home. As a result, few incidents of strapping were reported to the parents. This time has fortunately passed, but there are complaints that some classrooms lack discipline, unruly students are suspended or expelled, and learning is poor. Speaking of discipline, the un-elected Canadian Senate, dominated by Liberal appointees, is now promoting the idea that any form of spanking by parents be banned and the parents charged with assault. This is just another attempt by government to interfere in the lives of families. What will they think of next? What about students being forced to speak only English at residential schools? It was the law in Manitoba that classes at public schools be conducted in English (except in French communities). This rule was widely violated in non-English areas, and students were talked to in the various languages of the community, as they were in residential schools, in spite of what we have been told. In public schools, when the school inspectors visited, English was the sole language of instruction Ð until they left the building. How about another form of brutality, the discrimination against left-handers in the school system. A true lefty, this writerÕs mother was not allowed to use her natural hand in class. Any attempt to was a rap on the hand with a ruler, though she was allowed to use her left hand to pitch softball. Classrooms were designed for right-handers Ð desks, window location, and so on. The same went for universities. Southpaws like myself had to get to class early to secure one of the few lefty desks the university provided. Brutality in our country, past and present, is nothing like the recent run-off election in Zimbabwe. Opposition supporters were beaten and killed, allowing that criminal Robert Mugabe to claim victory. Western governments were outraged, but the UN will do nothing because of Russia and China. They should send in troops to save the brutalized people. Mugabe has destroyed his country and is an embarrassment to the world, as are African countries like South Africa. Sanctions promised by Canada and the US are needed but will not solve the problem. Sometimes military force is necessary. RogerÕs Right Corner runs Wednesdays.
