About Cane

Well, although my official duty is to teach the subject of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) – Computer to deaf children from Primary-4 to JHS-3, my official post name is called “Youth activities”, which requires volunteers to cultivate children’s aesthetic sensibilities as well. It means that we, volunteers, are supposed not only to teach academic studies but also to develop socialization of children. Human being is not human from the birth but becomes human with proper education and discipline. In short human being is born as an animal and grows up as a human. However the deaf aren’t given right education as human in family because parents don’t know sign language, so they can’t communicate each other even if they live in the same house for a long time.

Therefore it’s very important for teachers to show proper behaviors as human. Essentially children are all the same: they cheat, they steal, they lie, they fight, they refuse etc. regardless of deafness or hearing because they are immature so you have to wait until they change themselves with their wills. I think that Discipline is more important than academic studies at their age. The thing is that how you give Discipline. Ghanaian teachers use “Cane” for it, but I can’t use it because it’s against Human Rights and above all, I don’t want to use it because they are not animals. I always say to my children: “Cane is a language for animals. If you don’t change your attitudes with words, you are the same as animals.” Nevertheless there is, in fact, the moment that I have to give them some physical punishment. In that case, I use my “hand” to slap and “fist” to hit them instead of Cane.

 So what’s the difference between Cane and Fist? They are both physical punishments to give physical pain on body. But “you” don’t feel pain with Cane while I feel pain on my fist when I hit them. This is the big difference. And children feel pain on body by caning but unless they feel pain in their heart, they’d never change their behaviors. I believe that I can pass something to children through my hands. And I can’t forget the face of a colleague when he caned children in the dinning hall, which was the first time for me to see caning on the spot in my life. I felt it was no longer a human face but a face of animal or evil. He is a really nice man but once he holds a cane in his hand, he becomes a barbarous beast and can whip children cruelly and aloofly. It was a huge “culture shock” and brought me disgust. If you don’t feel pain on your hand, you can be a cruel creature.

Needless to say, Caning is against Human Rights and GES (Ghana Education Service) warn teachers not to use cane, but many teachers insist to use it for discipline. They say, “Caning is the most effective way for children!” Is that true? Have you ever tried other ways to discipline them? It’s the easiest way for teachers to “feel” discipline, but in reality children never learn right behaviour with it. On the other hand, teachers are not punctual, not reliable, don’t keep promise, come late, even skip class, and they always excuse themselves, saying “Oh, I forgot it.” What amazed me was that in Ghana “forgetting” is not wrong, but it can be a “reason”. Sometimes I feel it should be used rather to teachers than to children; if they’re entitled to cane students, I’d have to use it to teachers.

The first time I saw caning children was in an animated cartoon: “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and I got stunned and felt “barbarous” with the western culture. For there is no such culture in Japan; we traditionally educate and discipline children with words. Caning would’ve been imported from Western world with “corruption” into Africa in the era of Slavery, so it’s a heritage of Slavery. Caning reminds me of slave owner, thus I never use it. Now is the time for Africa to “Look East”.