Tune your radio or TV set to any of the stations in town from Accra to the smallest village in Ghana and you will realize that Ghanaians really seem to hate corruption and all kinds of ungodly behaviors.
If you think I am lying, check when Anas comes out with a new investigative piece, majority of us make corrupt people think twice for a moment. But it looks like everyone love to see a funny mad man on the street twerking but none of us is ready to have one mad man in our homes.
As a people, we are trying our best to fight corruption from different angles but consciously or unconsciously, we pay a huge sums of money for our kids to learn how to be corrupt as they grow up and you may be wondering where and how on earth would sane people of Ghana pay for their children to be trained to be come corrupt?
Well, we enroll our future kings and queens into schools to learn how to become good citizens at least that is our innocent wish but, just like many of us do not read the terms and conditions and the licences agreements for the various apps and computer software,
We do the same, when we send our children to school in Ghana especially, the schools under Ghana educational system because, there is a hidden curriculum on how to become corrupt from KG to the university.
But, before my noble and hard working people at GES, come at me, let me put on record that I am not by any means saying GES is evil or they deliberately, take our children through this process intentionally. As a matter of fact, 99.9% of the people managing our education systems in Ghana are themselves victims of this hidden curriculum.
So before this piece turns into another Indian soap opera, let me go straight to the point: and ladies and gentle men, this powerful hidden curriculum is caning a child for getting a class work wrong or getting a question wrong like they used to do during dictation and mental sections in the 90s at least that is the earliest time I remember been beaten for answering 8 to 1+1+2+4+8 and I joyfully wish metal and dictation are abolished or reformed without caning.
HOW DOES CANING TEACHES OUR KIDS TO BE CORRUPT?
Once again, let me be fair to GES and all teachers in Ghana by saying that, many of them actually have good reasons for caning children for getting questions and assignments wrong or caning in schools in general.
But it is one thing having good intention and it is entirely another thing what the long term psychological and future behavioral effect of caning on this beautiful ones will be.
Many of the things in our lives have expiring date including our very life and so do class room education and it's accompanying tools like caning and examination. But when it comes to caning, in particular, it is strongly supported with religious quotations like, Proverbs 13:24 which says, "He That spareth His Rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes".
And because of this quote, anyone who try to draw attention to the fact that, this system is gradually becoming an ancient institution which has finished it usefulness to our society will be tagged as evil or Satanic who hate the word of God.
But let face it: anytime you beat a child for getting a class work or an assignment wrong, you subconsciously to teach the child to cheat or use any dishonest means to get the correct answer if he or she has not got the understanding of what you are teaching him or her.
And painfully, that will be the first time in the life of that innocent child when he realized, there are short cuts to heaven.
And henceforth he is going to learn more means of avoiding caning by getting the correct answers even when he does not understand what is been thought.
Now let go into details why they use dishonest means to get the answers, no one like been disgraced not to talk of been beaten in front of the crowed, so right after that shock of humiliation, his survival instinct go to work to find solution to this unsolicited public disgrace.
At this point, GES, the teacher whose job is to help this school children and students to become problem solvers, are aiding this kids to learn how to solve problems for only a short time thereby, making them grow to become a people who live on their survival instincts and there is nothing backwards and dangerous that a race of people who work just to survive.
One will say but this kids when they grow will change because, even dough this beaten is forcing them to learn a bab way of solving problems, they are also thought basic ethics in the same class room therefore, it is their duty to see the punishment as a necessary evil.
Well my verdict on the above argument is, you cant eat your cakes and have them back in that, there are some chemicals the moment you mix them up you get a totally different result so the idea of instilling discipline in children through fear and pain can only produce two outcomes.
When you try to use fear and pain to discipline or get a certain outcome from kids, it is highly possible that, they will cut corners to avoid pain and disgrace and that process of cutting corners will stay with this kid in their subconscious mind where most of our good or bad behaviors emanate from.
Psychology has proven that, any act or behavior we practice over a certain period time becomes part of our life effortlessly therefore, we put those acts or behavior into action anytime there is the need to do something to survive.
And what are some of the times we as humans switch into survival mode?: When we are to say the truth but that truth will deny us some short time opportunities.
When we know we don't have passion for a particular job but, because we need a job to survive, we pay bribe to get that job at the expense of a highly qualified person with passion for that job.
When we pay monies for our sons and daughters to to become military officers, Police officer, Fire Service, Navy, Immigration officers, Nurses and teachers where we know deep down our hearts, we have no love or passion for these sensitive positions which demand people who are dedicated for the job.
But because we have been trained from KG through to the university to always cut corners to survive, we now see nothing wrong with being corrupt because it has been the norm since class one.
I know by now many of you are wondering how a simple act of caning a child in school for getting an assignment or a class work wrong can make them corrupt.
But it is simple and effective, the very first time your child escaped disgrace or caning in school by cheating because of the fear of punishment, was the very day she or he got initiated as a corrupt person.
Because anytime he or she is faced with anything that threaten their comfort or anytime we are to go through a systematic process to achieve something, we quickly remember all the times when we came face to face with such situation, and the solution we used in the past.
And from the mental records, we only know one simple way of coming out of these situations which is cheating in other words, we have been using corrupt means to avoid difficult situations.
Instead of learning to understand why somethings are the way they are and why it is important to fully understand issues rather than jumping into a conclusion instead of moving into a solution based on knowledge.
Now this therefore means that, corruption is not just thought in schools but, it is actually institutionalized by all of us because, the education system did not know how this caning is molding me to become, a short term solution giver rather than a long term solution provider.
The teacher who is instructed by the educational system to use force, pain and public disgrace to help me pass all the exam papers without a sign of any academic weakness also have no idea that, as noble as their profession is, they are the very people whose hands are used to help institutionalizes the very thing we all speak against corruption.
our proud parents who sends us to school because they want the best for us, ironically love their children who get the best grades without finding out if they got the good grades through understanding and unfortunately neglect the ones who try to understand instead of cheating.
which will force the child who want to gradually and systematically learn and understand, to also start using short cut to get the answers without thinking about the consequences of cutting corners.
It is just like how the Church promote abortion without knowing they are pushing their young girls into what they preach against just by disgracing the first young girl who got pregnant.
Instead of sitting the pregnant girl down and let her know, this is part of life and that, if she can stay away from men after giving birth, she can become whatever she want to become and also start organizing sex education for the rest of the young girls in the Church, rather they prefer to punish and disgrace the first girl who got pregnant.
Thinking the rest of the girls will stay away from sex because the first girl was disgraced, no the girls will still engage in sex and rather think of a plan B so that when they get pregnant, nobody get to know to avoid punishment and disgrace.
So, just like the boy who device meas to avoid caning even dough he still does not understand what he is been thought, he will cheat to get the correct answer and this act or behavior stays at that part of the brain where the person go to any time he or she is faced with a moment of truth or a time he or she is required to be honest.
This person will effortlessly remember that, anytime there is a punishment or a disgrace coming his way he can lie, cheat or manipulate things to avoid being disgraced.
So now you see how that, seeming simple act of caning has prepare this person to be confidently dishonest, a lair and a corrupt individual all because he is thought to live in fear instead of living with knowing how and understanding which is the number one killer of fear.
Because we only fear what we don't have knowledge about and don't understand. Before I end and continue in another episode, I will recommend a nice movie titled, "EVERYTHING EVERYTHING" and how a mother tried to use fear to prevent her only daughter from getting sick by going out.
This woman told her child that, if she goes out of her room she will be infected with a virus and eventually die so this girl stayed in doors for 18 good years but one day the girl got to know that she is actually not sick and that her mother is been over protecting because of the fear of losing her only child.
We all know that there is nothing wrong with protecting our loved ones but because this woman tried to protect her child out of fear, the girl finally find out, she is not sick and she can go out and nothing will happen.
Eventually, when the girl got to know her mother was using fear to protect her, the girl left home and the mother lost her forever that is the effect of trying to use fear to achieve a good result which in many occasions, turn out to produce negative result.
In conclusion, all that I am trying to put across is, you can never get a positive result out of someone by using fear, punishment and disgrace.
In the case of class room caning, for instance, the children after the first punishment will start devising a means of escaping caning which turn to stay with them for major part of their live.
Even though I am aware of GES' directive to abolish caning in our schools, the implementation and the advocacy is very low to my liking and it is my wish, this will let parent in particular know why they should help GES train their children on the principles of truth, knowledge and understanding which will produce less corrupt citizens rather, honest and confident citizen when they grow.
Thank you for reading and if you find this interesting, help others to see it by sharing on all your social media platforms.
Send me email:evans.tawiah1@gmail.com whatsapp on +233247785986
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