This is a letter I wrote to a newspaper:

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Dear editor

I would like to respond to the letter published on 14 Dec entitled ‘Learning to be Respectful’, and to all the other letters I see wanting physical discipline back in schools and homes. I know there is a general lack of respect for teachers from pupils and I think it is wrong. But I take the opposite view on this issue. I finished school in 2004 and the memories are still clear to me.

My father grew up with corporal punishment in schools. He told me stories of how it was done at very unnecessary times. He said he was spanked simply for holding hands with his girlfriend in the street while wearing school uniform. That kind of thinking is ridiculous. My father was not in the wrong. This type of thing apparently happened often in those days. If there is to be any corporal discipline in schools, it should be targeted at the bullies. They are the ones who do the real damage. I still have many emotional scars from being bullied throughout my school career.

I am glad the government has banned parents from spanking their child. Some parents use any excuse to hit their child. They take their anger out on the child even when the child has done nothing wrong. I was a victim of parental abuse. I endured my parents throwing stones at me, beating me with a log, pulling me across the floor etc. It was very traumatizing. The memories still haunt me today. In Matric I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and ADHD. That proved that most of the time I was punished when I did not understand what I did wrong. I cannot control a lot of my behaviour. It was not my fault after all.

Physical punishment should be controlled by the law because people take it too far, with far reaching consequences.

Sincerely

Truth speaker

Pietermaritzburg