When teachers were feared: Remembering the dark days in Kenyan schools

A teacher in class at Moi Avenue Primary School [File/Standard]

The ease, familiarity, and openness with which today's children interact with their teachers is both heart-warming and, to those of us who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, utterly astounding. It represents a seismic cultural shift-one that replaces the iron-fisted authority of yesteryear with something softer, kinder, and infinitely more human.

Gone are the days when a teacher's presence triggered dread. In those earlier decades, educators were not so much respected as they were feared. Fear, in fact, was often mistaken for respect. Teachers held unchallenged power - power that was rarely questioned and frequently abused. Their methods of discipline were harsh, their demeanour severe, and their tempers ever-ready to flare.