My son's first detention

Recently, my son had his first experience with an "official" tool of punishment - detention. Of course he had been scolded verbally by teachers, for minor offences like talking in class and so on. Many of us were similarly punished before, so I did not blog about it. It was nothing worthy of writing about.

However, detention was something very different. Of course, detention in primary school is slightly different from the secondary school. In secondary school, the students stay back in school and cannot even participate in CCAs. This mode of punishment is of course not suitable for primary school children as they are unable to go home on their own. In Catholic High, detention means going to a classroom and reading a book till the last ten minutes or so. Then they are allowed to eat food in the classroom. In other words, the parents need to ensure they have some food to eat. This of course means home-cooked food.

Now back to what happened. Actually I think it was a very silly reason why he was punished. The father of boy, let's call him XY, complained that my son had hit his son with his water bottle. After some investigation, the form teacher had discovered that XY had started the whole thing by first hitting my son and my son retaliated. Well, people who throw stones shouldn't live in glass houses. So his boy started the problem and he complained about it. I see. As a result, both of them were sent to detention. What a great job by the father! I know my son is wrong. But you see, if you go to any boy's school, you will realise that many boys do hit each other, and they go away, come back the next day and are friends again. I can tell you how many people who have thrown a rubbish bin at me, taken a blade to threaten me, etc. and I speak to them now. Yes, I am actually still friends with these people. Anyway, I believe that the form teacher had to punish both of them because it was a complaint by a parent.

A bit more about this XY. Recently, he had been hitting other students and other parents had complained. He had also been punished before. And when XY told his dad that my son hit him, I think his dad wanted to prove that XY was not always the aggressor. Of course, his son did not tell him that he was STILL the aggressor. Last I heard of this boy is that he has been 'promoted' to sit beside the teacher at all times due to him hitting another boy. Again. So I think his dad probably wouldn't complain about his son being hit in the near future. His son probably started it.

Anyway, my son served his detention. He was very tight lipped about the entire detention process. He knew that he was being punished and was quite embarrassed by it. I hope he has been chastised by it.