Punishments are part of the learning process and a lot of kids wouldn't have become responsible adults if punishments were not applied to counter their bad behaviours towards learning and others. The fear of the punishments that might come as the consequences of our actions have successfully prevented many people from doing a lot of terrible things even as an adult.
I was a bit stubborn as a kid but very serious with my studies. My stubborn nature made me get punished severally in school and only one thing earned me those punishments. I was a slow writer because my handwriting was terrible and catching up in class during note writing was difficult.
Picture of myself in Polytechnic
Our teachers don't write notes on the board in JSS 1, they give lesson notes to the class captain who wasn't my friend. The guy writes and clean immediately not considering those who are slow and because the teachers weren't doing their jobs properly, they punish me every time for the same issue. I always felt cheated and the punishments meant nothing to me since no one would listen to my story.
Those punishments were unforgettable but they had no impact on me but when I got into JSS 2, something happened and it turned out to be one experience that had a huge impact on my life from that moment.
A lot of my classmates were struggling with maths so our teacher started taking a junior school combined class once in a week just to help the struggling students.
It was a big class and I always enjoyed it. On that fateful day, teaching was on as usual and the teacher decided to ask us a question immediately after giving us examples.
He called me first to answer the question and I did but he didn't mention if I was right or wrong. He called another student from a senior class and the guy gave an answer different from mine.
Master told me to stay at one corner of the class and the senior at another corner. He began calling other students one after the other and they were all getting the same answer as the senior.
I began to panic, was I wrong?, Why is no one getting the same answer as mine?
I checked again to be sure and still arrived at the same answer but I was restless as I watched the other students join the senior where he was standing. In the end, over 40 students joined the senior while I was standing alone.
The teacher turned to me and asked if I was right about my answer. My heart began to race and I was sweating profusely.
He gave me chalk to solve the question on the board and my hands were shaking as I did. The other students were laughing and gossiping as I solved the question and that made me more terrified.
The look on my teacher's face wasn't helping matters as well, I wish that I could see through his mind because I couldn't tell if he was angry or not.
I finished solving and immediately he asked if I was sure about the answer, I said No.
I said the other students were right and he told me to join them. He went on to solve the question and I was right. Immediately, I wished that I didn't doubt myself.
He told everyone to go and sit except me, he told me to ride an imaginary bike for the rest of the teaching period. After the punishment, he told me never to doubt my capabilities. He told me to trust and believe in myself, he punished the other students after the class for getting it wrong but not as much as he punished me.
That day remain unforgettable for me and the lesson the punishment taught me remained in my heart till today.
This is my entry to the Hivestudentshub weekly prompt
feel free share your unforgettable punishment as well.
Thanks for reading.
