THE USUAL PUNISHMENT AT STATE HOUSE

We are all shocked by the recent revelations of assault and physical abuse at Bush. It's clear that more schools need to get investigated; there is probably worse goings-on in the bundus schools. As I read that article I couldn't help looking back to the days I was in boarding school, in Stato. There was no bullying there and certainly no form of physical abuse whatsoever. Yet obviously, I didn't know how good I had it then.
But by the time I was in my final year, having attended funkies and sports events in almost all provincial and national schools based in Nairobi, my respect for Stato grew immensely. Let me just go on the record here by saying State House Girls' High School gave me the best boarding school experience I could ever have asked for...(though I envied Bomerians sometimes, sigh!) I am grateful.

Was it always fun? No. A big fat NO. I was punished to clean the deputy head girl's room on my very first day!!! And since then, our class (of 96') did a lot of thorough cleaning in the washrooms, dining hall, classroom, prefects rooms, administration block corridors... At Stato, "cleaning" was the standard form of punishment. A much nastier punishment was to dispose of used sanitary towels in the incinerator. This was reserved for the worst offenders, but was otherwise a rotational weekly duty that every student carried out with her 7 roommates. So, is cleaning a good form of punishment? I wonder.

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Yes and No.

YES: I think, whether you like or dislike cleaning, when it's a solo punishment, you will definitely hate the feeling of having to clean up someone else's mess. You'd rather be somewhere else, doing anything but cleaning. You regret your poor choice of judgment and maybe even get reformed. You stay out of trouble, for a while at least. So the punishment works.


YES: Since it's a punishment, it is expected [of you] that you must do a VERY good job, with very little resources. The pavement slabs that usually just get sprinkled with water, now get a scrub with detergent and a broom with a broken handle. As a result, the school is shinier thanks to your efforts. Honestly, sometimes after a good cleaning, I was proud of my work. Cleaning as a punishment was painless and might I add, it kept your dignity intact.

NO: Quite often, this punishment was rather enjoyable, especially when it was done as a group puno. In fact, it was a bonding or unifying activity. The students won't have any remorse for their wrong doings and so as a result, the punishment backfires. The students go away happy and cheerful and get into trouble yet again just couple of days later.

NO: If cleaning is used as a standard form of punishment, the students slowly but surely develop a negative attitude towards the activity of cleaning. Very rarely (in fact, NEVER) would you find a student cleaning a toilet on her own accord, just because she liked clean spaces.

State House Girls' High School

Which makes me wonder, why do I like cleaning? Well, I don't always like cleaning. Who would? Yet when I do clean, it's with so much passion, because when I'm done, it feels sooooooo good. It's therapy. Would I make my kids clean their bedrooms, bathrooms or anything for that matter? As a DUTY, yes. But as a punishment, no. Maybe because I do it for a living. And also because I really don't think cleaning is a good form of punishment. What do you think?

Here's a big shout out to all my Stato sisters! And "Salute" to those we have lost along the way...


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