Reading log - Tales of Childhood

This book depicts the life journey of a child named Roald Dahl before he starts taking up the first job he has after graduation. Roald Dahl goes through this initial part of his whole life journey without his father. The lost of the family main income is supposed to bring tough life for Dahl’s family but this does not happen. Dahl is being educated in well-known schools and his school days are fantastic and full of interesting stories. There are the tricky one, the funny one and the injustice one. These are the events that make his travel a wonderful and fabulous one. Besides school days, he also spends his holidays in Norway, which is a trip that he enjoys very much all the time. His shift from a place to another with different environment is never a dull journey. The mixture of dissatisfy, sad, happy and amusing moments are the spices that turn his childhood and teenage years into a great one.

Today, there are cases where teachers are bullied by their students and some of them even give up this noble job just because they can’t stand the rebellious behavior of nowadays students. However, it is totally opposite during Roald Dahl’s school days. Those who are given the authority will abuse their power to suppress the people below them. No one is allowed to go against them even though they are the one to be blamed. Disobeying their leader or any grown-up is only suicide and they will get an even heavier punishment than before they complain. For example, Dahl is given six strokes by the headmaster for talking in Prep, lying and trying to cheat during Prep even though the teacher on duty-Captain Hardcastle is too far away to be certain that he is asking for answer instead of asking for a new pencil. Oppression can also be shown through the example that Dahl serves as Wilberforce’s favourite bog-seat warmer everytime before Wilberforce want to use the lavatory. Therefore, it is clear to see that those days power is everything.

Overall, there is no character in this novel that I specifically like but I do hate all the masters in schools that Dahl has been to. All of them share one similar disgusting characteristic, which is arrogant. They have their eyes on their head simply because they hold the power to control the students in their schools. They misused their power and treat their students like criminals all the time. They pick on them very frequently and unreasonable punishments are given to those who they assumed have broken the rules. They punish students without having a deeper inspection into their wrongdoings. Besides, they pay no intention to students’ explanation and they show no mercy to the pain their students suffer but feel proud of their deed. To them, the more they have punished, the more powerful they are. They instill fear to their fellow students to stop them from voicing out their unsatisfactory, so that they can always keep their schools in good reputation.

Oppression happens in schools between teachers and students in the past and we should feel lucky that this is no longer occurs in schools now. With the introduction of internet, there is a greater transparency on events happen in schools. The solution to enhance school running system and students’ performance is discussed during the parent-teacher meeting. Besides, canning students who go against the rules is not practiced anymore but the merit system. This is because students nowadays can endure less pain and if their parents find out about their children being caned, the headmaster will be in trouble and the school reputation will be flawed.