Dear Editor,

It is with some reluctance that I have decided to enter the School Corporal Punishment debate-"To beat or not to beat". Fortunately, I can identify with Lorri being his contemporary.

I attended school when flogging was as fashionable as clothes. In both public including primary and high schools, flogging was on the curriculum. Thus one was forced to endure years of torture until pre adolescent age. Though I was hardly on the receiving end, it was the brutality and sadistic manner in which it was inflicted which left me scarred for life. As an adult, I would have dreams of school in session only to awake in sweat and be relieved that it was but a nightmare.

The "executioners" all had names in High school. One teacher was adept with his wrist movement of the cane, like an opening batsman he drove hard to the delight of the class. You dared not smile, as the next lash was harder as if to prove a point. Another one depended on speed- one had no time to counter the blows as they rang out staccato like. Girls were not exempt from this barbaric performance.Flogging did more injury than good for me. It was my overseas education where I sought to make up for what I had lost locally.

In my home there was no corporal punishment-even though we were from the "old school", my parents disliked flogging and preferred to discipline us otherwise. All their children grew up respecting God, their parents, man and the law.

As I write this letter I can see the floggings all again and hear the agony of those being punished. Learning must never be absorbed in this manner. For me, it was a bitter cup, which added nothing positive to my life.