The French school I went to was considered prestigious there. The teachers almost never punished students. They just talked to you but at the same time asked you to think and react logically and responsibly, even at the age of 7. The only punishment I had there was report writing. With limited vocabulary, I had to report the incident to the teacher, explain the reasons and make suggestions. Then I had to explain my report to three other teachers and seek their advice and make changes to my report before turning it in to my class teacher.
It was a trivial but useful school experience.
After spending three years there, my dad got relocated to Singapore.
That was the start of my nightmare.
The Singaporean school was also a famous local school, but for academic excellence. Every day we were assigned a lot of homework. When the French kids in my previous school spent 30 minutes on homework each day, their Singaporean counterparts had to spent on average 3 hours -- sometimes more when there were dictation and tests.
At that time, I had to be tested for all my core subjects each month. Every returned test paper had to be signed by mom or dad. Initially my parents were not that demanding when it came to grades, maybe because I was a new kid there, and Singapore ranked #1 in almost all international tests at that time.
I knew some of my Singaporean classmates got caned by their parents if they had poor test scores. Their cane was not as heavy as the ones in British public schools ages ago but probably looked like a nursery cane that my mom used on me back in France.
That kind of cane was sold every where in Singapore. It came with a funny hook like this:
My mom also kept two at home. One was put on the desk of her study. Another one was kept somewhere --- just in case I threw away the one in her study.
Unlike France, corporal punishment was (is?) still allowed at schools in Singapore. My school was one of the best in terms of academic results but teachers never spanked students because of their scores. Actually teachers rarely had to punish kids. They just made you feel that you must study very hard and do all you can. The entire atmosphere made you feel as if you were weird if you did not try your best.
While the French school stressed logical thinking and responsible behaviors, the Singaporean school stressed diligence, diligence and more diligence.
I never had to worry too much about school, until one day I got the grade report for my first exam.
Scores for every single subject were in red, which obviously meant I failed. To make things worse, there were some numbers beside each exam score, like 150/150. It was not my score over the full score, but my "rank" among all students in the same year. Surprizingly I was ranked the last for every subject except Music, English and PE. And the teacher's comment was "needs improvement for most subjects", which was obvious.
My mom was a bit upset but she only said "do better next time". She knew it just takes time for a new kid to fit in.
They had four exams a year, so it did not take long until I got my second exam report.
This time I did much better and passed most of the subjects, including even mathematics. But the teacher's comment was "does not take school rules seriously".
The next day my mom called my class teacher for an appointment, and they talked all about me for over an hour.
When I was home, I was scolded for a long time. It felt like hours.
On the very same day, I experienced the Singaporean canes for the first time. It was just three strokes over my pants but it felt like there were 100 bees stinging my bottom at the same time. My mom did not use just one but two canes at the same time, and she did not stop between strokes.
And my mom said it was a suggestion from the teacher. That a punishment should be short, sharp, shock to be effective.
Since then, my mom had lots of punishment ideas from my teacher in Singapore. Sometimes it was spanking but most of the time it was something else. They did work, and by the time I finished my first year of study there was a tremendous improvement in my grades and behaviors. The two years there eventually let me skip one grade when I studied in a rather competitive school in England later.
Till now I am not sure if the liberal French way or the controlling Singaporean way is better.
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