Have cane will teach

When I was sent to Sek Men Abdullah Munshi for my first teaching practice, the Principal gave me a cane and said, 'If the boys misbehave, wag them with this cane.'

Armed with the cane, I went into the class ready to teach them Integrated Science. The boys were so well-behaved that the cane lying on the teacher's table became a white elephant. They seemed so interested in carrying the experiments that the problem did not arise at all. I thought it was plain sailing teaching in the school but I was wrong.

Came Physical Education period, the boys began to disobey my instructions. I was supposed to teach my students basic skills in football. Initially they listened meekly. However, when they were to do the hands-on, they started to play a football game. I had a hard time wielding my cane and threatening to cane them to get them to do what they were supposed to do.

I learned quite a lot in dealing with disobedient boys in the school. They were not scared of being caned. In fact, they accepted the punishment like gentlemen. Anyway, the cane did instill some discipline in class so that teaching could be carried out without disturbance. Nowadays if a teacher were to cane a boy in school, the parents will beat him up or sue him in court.

When it was my last day of teaching practice there, I received quite a number of gifts from my students some of whom really made life terrible for me as disciplining students would be assessed by my lecturers too.