An episode of an online Radio commentary Tulfo in Action involving a teacher disciplining her student went viral.
Tulfo asks a teacher to be sacked for disciplining a student
Online radio commentary of a local station in the Philippines “Tulfo in Action” broadcasted over YouTube had another episode going viral over social media.
The episode involves a public teacher complained by a parent and the grandmother for the public humiliation and possible use of corporal punishment on their child.
Program anchor Raffy Tulfo patched a phone call to reach the side of the teacher under complaint. The teacher admitted her lapses on how she reprimanded the student, and she explained that it was just a way of disciplining the student as expected from being the child’s second parent while in school.
The grandmother won’t accept the explanation and wants to press legal charges against the teacher, but Tulfo in Action anchorman handed over the decision to the parents. To provide an option for the teacher to evade criminal charges, Tulfo gave a second option, that the teacher will voluntarily resign and get stripped off of her teacher’s license. The teacher asked again for an apology, chose the latter consequence, and ended the conversation.
The ire of the netizens
The actions made by the radio commentary quickly earned the ire of netizens, both followers and casual viewers of the show.
Netizens showed sympathy towards the teacher while bashing the sanctions imposed as compared to the softness of the act.
Shown on the CCTV footage of the alleged humiliation done on the student was the teacher dragging a chair outside of the classroom followed by a student carrying his bag, the teacher on the video ordered the student to sit on the chair and left him out as the others resumed class. The student was bowing his head during the entire length of the video.
The parents and Mr. Tulfo took this as a sign of public humiliation and assumed that it caused trauma on the student. The parents also come up with a story that the teacher allegedly made some corporal punishments on their child, like hitting their son’s head with a comb on several occasions. (yet to be proven. just verbal accusations)
Corporal punishment in school
With the issue of “corporal management”, not shown in the footage of the Tulfo in Action episode, netizens shared their own experience during their time. They joked about how soft the child’s experience compared to theirs.
In Filipino culture, it is always the school as a reference whenever a child develops an ill trait.
The saying goes:
“Iyang ba ang natutunan mo sa eskwelahan? (Is that what you learn from school)”.
That is the reason why teachers labeled as second parents are strict in disciplining students for them to develop traits and manners acceptable to society. Teachers are allowed to reprimand students, especially those who lack discipline from their households.
Corporal punishment is not the way to discipline students. Teachers must always practice self-control and maximum tolerance, especially on students who are too stubborn and not taught at home.
Though, in some cases, as mentioned by netizens following the issue, they experienced worse cases from their teachers in the past, but never did they went for such bold moves in sanctioning their teachers, as they understand that it is part of the discipline. It helped them realized their mistakes later on.
What is your take on the issue?
You can view the video here
Featured image by Pinastify
