For these few days, Indonesia, once again, has been surprised by another viral video of a teacher beat one of his students up in Bangka Belitung, a province in Sumatra Island. Based on the video and the news, the kid did not call him with the word “Sir” or “Pak” in Bahasa Indonesia, which is considered mandatory for a younger child to call an older person with it. When the teacher heard it, he directly beat the kid up until, according to a news, he needs to stay in a hospital.
Even though there are people who condemn the act of abuse that happened, there are still people who justify that act by saying that no matter what happened, it is the kid’s fault for not calling his teacher by the word “Pak.” One little mistake that can be follow up by telling that kid that what they did is wrong but, some people choose to beat them up, make them scared, and rather than teach them to respect, they teach them to fear. Besides that, these people said how this generation being ‘too soft’ and ‘too weak’ when it comes to things like this.
I still do not get why people support as little as pinching and slapping a kid is okay and still seeing adolescence being proud that they were raised that way. Punish them by physically abuse them (yes, pinching and slapping a kid is a physical abuse, if you do not know) will teach them how to fear, not respect. They will think that it is okay to hurt someone like that rather than educating them on how to act towards the older people.
Second, why are you still have the proudness when it comes to your own experiences with child abuse? You told us on how “back in the day” you get slapped by your parents and/or your teacher(s), then said how my generation is ‘too soft’ because some of us condemn such act. The reason for you to get that kind of action from the older people already embarrassing as in you are being naughty, and now you want to be proud and said how it is the right thing to do to raise a kid. It is not right and there is a chance that the kid will do the same to the younger ones when they are older. Do not forget that the actions that you support for this time can cause depression and anxiety to the child who becomes the victim. That depression, that anxiety, or any mental disorder that they got is because of a wrong, disgusting actions that apparently people still justify.
Then when it comes to how my generation is “too soft” when it comes to this issue, we are “too soft” but it because we know how to think and how to treat people. We know that it is not okay to slap, pinch, even attacking a child. We know that we rather choose to educate them, be assertive about it, and, more importantly, never feel proud that our parents and/or our teachers have done something abusive towards us or our friends. We want to be a loving parent that treat and educate our children with respect and how to respect. We want and will stop it because we know one thing for sure and that is there is no place for violence.
Like what one of my high school teachers said,
Education is about empowerment, not about power over others. Teachers should coach, guide, encourage, motivate, listen, redirect. Pinching and slapping has no place in that list.
