Teaching or Child Abuse?

I was shocked to see this new here about a teacher who pricked a child in her eye with a pin for failing to answer a question! This child, has been blinded, thanks to a person, who should have been responsible for her intellectual growth!

I don't have words to express what I feel! Just the other day, NDTV reported of how a child was forced to drink urine because he passed urine in class! The more, I hear of these stories, I wonder about our education system in India! While, I am sure that these kinds of horrible instances of child abuse is not widespread, general apathy amongst teachers is definitely there.

Who are the teachers who are shaping young lives today? When I was in school , I remember we had dedicated teachers, who loved their subjects and some of the things that they have taught me - I remember and value, even today! I somehow, doubt if that holds true, today. With the huge salaries that MNCs pay and IT and ITES booming, why would anybody want to be doomed to a lifetime of teaching? While, there are some very dedicated teachers out there, who still make a difference to so many young people, I somehow get the feeling, that the vocation, that was teaching, is no longer that! Has teaching become the last option for a career?

Or maybe, while we were at school, we did not have such a strong media to report all such incidents? What do you think?

Baby P - Hope you rest in peace...

A little over a month back, there was a lot of outrage in the media in the UK, about a story of a 17 month old toddler, who was tortured to death. It had broken my heart to read about him , but for some reason, I had not been able to write about it - until now..

The mother apparently, let her boyfriend and her lodger torture her son, and did nothing to protect him.. She just helped protect her boyfriend. The kind of things that were done to this defenseless , little toddler - was simply unthinkable.

Apparently this little boy had been in the radar of the child protection agencies and that he was seen 60 times by case workers and yet he could not be saved. It has become a huge issue here. Some heads have rolled in the children's services at that borough.. I can somehow , even overlook the fact that the child protection services had failed.. I simply cannot believe that any mother could let this happen to her child... Most of us, can't even bear to see a scratch on our babies.. Can't imagine what this mother must be like, to let this happen to her baby!

Praying that that little boy , has finally got some peace.. and that no other child has to go through this...

Some articles about this..
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5140511.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/baby-p-the-official-files-1023092.html