I’m Thai. Went to high school in Thailand and yes, this happens (still is happening today) and is super normalized.
Our culture really really really revolves around respecting the elders, teachers and parents — and teachers are literally worshipped as some kind of saints, *because they teach you things so you must always respect and be grateful to them* which is pretty funny because our country treats them as though they teach students for free and weren’t paid to do so as their literal job lmao
Anyway if you’re wondering what does being respectful to elders and teachers have anything to do with this? Well it’s because we’re taught — and it’s rooted deep in our culture — to never question or challenge anything teachers, elders or parents do, because we must always respect and be grateful to them.
So if a teacher cuts your hair in front of your classmates, you deserve it because you broke the rules (the hair policy) and you must be punished *so that you grow up to be a responsible adult who knows how to follow the rules*.
I am not excusing it because it’s stupid and yes it is a violation of our autonomy. And no, students don’t actually deserve it. I didn’t deserve it. But I thought you might be interested in understanding why my country does it and why it’s normalized and seen as okay (even though it’s not).
That said, we mostly just laughed and joked about it when I was in high school. And teachers weren’t physically abusing us beside the stupid hair cutting thing, which is not physical abuse, I can see how it can be a form of abuse, but it’s not physical at least.
We still laughed and joked with the teachers too. Yes, we laughed and joked with our teachers too, and we were comfortable with them to tell them about our problems — and teachers would actually help us, protect us and keep us safe. So they weren’t these power-hungry evils. Because teachers mostly just do what our culture has taught us all, including them, to do.
And I genuinely believe that our teachers don’t think they’re violating our autonomy. They just do what they believe will help us grow up to be responsible and successful adults. Again following rules and being respectful to elders/teachers/parents are very important to our culture.
I am NOT defending any of this. Just give you my perspective and an insight of what’s going on as someone who went through it. High school was overall still a good experience for me and I actually miss it, I miss my classmates and my teachers too, even with these stupid rules.
And teachers weren’t evils even though they were assholes for what they did to our hair and our autonomy. I can say this because I went through it, I know my teachers and I know the difference between “publicly humiliating kids because you’re a sadist sick fuck” and “disciplining kids who broke the rules to teach them consequences of breaking the rules and help them be more responsible moving forward”.
STILL a fucked up method when you violate someone’s autonomy, sure. But I can understand that my teachers meant well and they did what they thought was right, they did what our culture taught them and me.
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