Bad teachers
I have had a pretty good life, but mention my primary school years and it drives all the joy away.
We grew up in times of regulated physical abuse and no one meted out more bloody discipline than female teachers.
"I'm going to beat English into you," promised *Mrs Mathibela, our rural and frumpy Std4 English teacher as we got acquainted for the first time in 1985.
With a tummy that could fill a tub, she wore a black belt (a real karate black belt) and did push-ups to exhibit her strength.
She kept her word and bashed us up so much we ditched our childhood games to pass English with flying colours that year, scars and all.
But Mathibela was no worse than Mrs *Ndongeni. My Std2 teacher was a whirlwind who once rolled back her sleeves to beat up a partially blind boy for having accidentally replied: "Heh?" when his name was called out.
Teachers can make a misery of a child's life. But it's only when marks drop that parents get worried.
Troubled teachers let it all hang out in class and leave an array of broken hearts and bodies, not to mention traumatised souls, in the wake of their actions. Parents are the last to find out.
To put to bed the grudge against Ndongeni, I asked my mom, who'd worked with her husband, what was with the pencil stiletto obsession and the violent streak.
It turns out the couple battled infertility and Ndongeni was on hormonal treatment that year.
With the abolition of corporal punishment, verbal abuse is the order of the day.
"People have to realise that a teacher's role is demanding," says relationship counsellor Tami Rasmeni.
"On top of the fact they are dealing with an ever-changing curriculum, they go through break-ups, financial difficulties, bereavement, health problems..."
I tell her about Ndongeni's hormone issues.
"That's shocking," she says. "Such treatments can alter everyday performance and should be declared."
Rasmeni says some teachers need psychiatric intervention.
"Even shrinks see shrinks in times of distress, especially as teachers have not one or two kids in their care during the day but as many as 30 in some cases," she says.
Rasmeni says the teachers may be using meanness as a tool to cope with the stress because those who bite the bullet suffer more.
"The department of health or education should help these poor souls," she says.
* Not their real names.
- ngudlea@sundayworld.co.za
