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When
I was in primary school at Ura in Bumthang in the early 90’s, hearing the word Lopen
simply sent my heart racing. I conjectured images of getting into trouble,
or having done something wrong and then, thoughts of the unbearable stick would
come to mind.
As
a child the word Lopen was firmly associated with the idea of corporal
punishment. I don’t think that this is anything new. For many who belong to my
generation it is common knowledge that this was the modus operandi of teaching -
to beat and punish children with the notion that they were “educating” and “disciplining”
.It was so common and accepted that nobody ever questioned it; nobody knew
whether it was effective or not. Nobody ever asked, did the children really learn?
Hence nobody saw it as being wrong either.
Where
I went to school, the beatings and punishments were so frequent that my
imagination involuntarily tied a teacher with punishment and hence instilled
nothing but fear in me. In retrospect that was truly unfortunate, for I am a
teacher now, and I wouldn’t consider it very flattering if my students had that
image of me… (Full article in The Raven (magazine), Issue II)
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