It was a Friday and I had chosen to play alone.

I must have been in Primary 4 or 5 because this was after my Primary 3 teacher nicknamed me ‘devil.’

I was busy having the fun of my life playing with the sand and building and dismantling castles. I was busy enjoying the company of myself and that of the sand. I knew it was a short time of enjoyable fellowship as the bell would soon ring and we would have to return to the classroom.

I was in the midst of that personal blissful moment that a female student showed up with one of our teachers and she pointed at me and said, ‘he is the one.’  Immediately, I was bundled into the staffroom. I was given one of the biggest beatings of my life.

The most painful thing was that I was not asked till today what I did wrong. I also do not know even as I write now what I did wrong.

I was simply guilty without charge. ”He is the one’ is an empty accusation and not a charge. A charge has particulars of what you did wrong and what consequences you would face and be offered an opportunity to defend yourself.

This was injustice meted to me and registered in my psyche forever without any attempt by my primary and secondary parents that right the injustice anyway. They were not even aware of the injustice in the first instance.

Many of our precious children today who are found guilty without charge.

Let us check areas today in our relationship with our precious children as primary and secondary parents where we found them guilty without charge and where they are charged for wrongs that do not exist.

‘Ignorance of the law is not an excuse,’ goes the legal axiom. The question, I leave you with you today is, does the law punish for an offence or wrong that does exist according to the letters or the law? What laws have we establish as the key to our culture and values, which we communicate and exemplify as primary and secondary parents?

Let us continue to ponder on this till we meet again.

Do have an INSPIRED Easter Sunday.