OUR Civics teacher at Munali Secondary School in the 1980s was introduced as a disciplinarian. I was in form 3 at the time, what is now called grade 10.
He left us in no doubt when he explained that in his home, if children misbehaved, he started by beating up their mum first. He then beat up the children with his belt in her presence.
The deputy headmaster’s office had a room selected, especially for caning of students. In case you are not sure what that is, it was a room with a stool and a hippos tail(what was commonly called a sjambok).Each day there was a list of students to be officially caned by the deputy headmaster.
We heard that at some schools the sjambok was dipped into chilly powder so that as the whip cut into your flesh it also deposited the sting of the hot powder leaving a nasty reminder of the consequences of misbehaviour both on the backside and etching it indelibly on the mind.
Students, who were caned had a hard time sitting straight on the hard wooden chairs we had in the classrooms.
We made it a hobby to count the scars left on each others backside at the end of each term.
In our house, at home, my parents had a cupboard where a short horse pipe was kept for whipping wayward children. My mother, however, preferred the raw branches of the mulberry tree.
They left stinging marks on your back and the sap of the stem soaked into the cracks like someone had rubbed spirit into your wounds.
I recall at one point the Inspector General of  the Zambia Police Force, as it was called then, was interviewed on radio about the increasing incidence of violence in the homes, on women and children.
His answer reflective of the time, was that the primary duty of the police was to fight crime, domestic matters were not within the domain of the police. He went on to add that he took the liberty himself to occasionally apply physical discipline on his wife and children as the need arose.
The biblical injunction “Spare the Rod and Spoil the child” was interpreted very liberally at the time. In fact if you were found in any mischief, any adult was at liberty to both  beat you up, and take you to your parents , who would thank him and also give you an encore.
Nowadays of course if you did that you would face difficulties, not only with the parents, but also quite likely with the police.
Times have changed remarkably now of course, there is the Victim Support Unit of the police, which primarily ensures that the rights of women and children are upheld. I am sure the old Inspector general of Police would have been extremely surprised at how things have changed.
Physical punishment of pupils in schools is frowned upon.
This perhaps is as it should be, but it poses a challenge on parenting and how to deter young people from certain vices. Some of which may put their health at risk.
In this respect perhaps my dad was a little ahead of his time, he believed in the force of reason. He gave you a good caning of the mind, it was an experience not easily forgotten. So nowadays our only resource is to apply the force of reason. In relation to this, I want to answer two questions. The first is why are teenagers so difficult?
The second like it, is, what can we do to ensure the good health of our teenage children.
1.Why are teenagers difficult? The teenage years are a transition period, the period from childhood to adulthood. During this period there is a change in the levels of body chemicals called hormone that help the body do the work of physically changing children to adults.
So for this reason, it is a period of rapid physical, emotional and biological change.the boys develop a deep voice, beards and height.
While the girls develop  breasts, monthly flow (menses), feminine shape and longer hair, like any period of transition this period poses challenges to teenagers and parents.
(Professor Kasonde Bowa is Professor of Urology at the Copperbelt University, he is also the Dean of the Copperbelt University School of Medicine. kbowa@yahoo.com; He is the Author  of the popular motivational)