Beating school children

I met some friends in Ramallah yesterday who work for the Ministry of Education, meaning they’re teachers in public schools. One was telling me he had to dye his hair, because the stress of teaching is causing him to go prematurely grey. He teaches English to classes of around 40 students. His friend is the equivalent of a school counselor and says his jobs involves dealing with fights between the pupils, and also fights between the pupils and the staff. I’m somewhat taken aback by this idea, but my friend say he hit an eighteen year old guy across the neck and slapped him in the face the other day, and then this kid wanted to fight and they had to be pulled apart by staff and pupils. Part of me found this hilarious, especially since my friend isn’t someone you’d expect to be violent, but I also told them a teacher would be sacked and thrown in prison for hitting a pupil where I’m from. By contrast my friend was sure you’d get thrown in prison for kissing a girl (in public) here in Palestine. Sex, violence and geography.

(p.s. I’m know all my teacher friends and relatives back home are all probably now thinking that the education system isn’t so bad in Palestine if you can hit kids).