Educators must recognize their social, psychological obligations<\/p>\n
Simon Marcus Gower, Principal, Harapan Bangsa High School,
\nTangerang, Banten<\/p>\n
The following is the complaint of one teacher with over ten
\nyears of experience teaching in Jakarta high school.<\/p>\n
\"I'm a teacher. I teach the material in the book, that's all I
\ncan do really. I don't have time to do anything more. I know
\nthis is not good for my students, but what can I do? At the end
\nof the school day, I go home and then go to my other job. The
\npay isn't enough as a teacher.\"<\/p>\n
These are the rather sad and even prophetic words. Viewed over
\nthe long-term, what is being prophesied is nothing short of a
\nfailure of education and a failure for the students. It is clear
\nthat many schools, teachers and students still exist with the
\noverbearing pressures to meet curriculum targets and cram in as
\nmuch content as possible.<\/p>\n
In these conditions, almost inevitably, teachers will \"teach
\nthe material in the book\" and fail to consider the students and
\ntheir human needs.<\/p>\n
The 'human needs' of school students can be great too. They
\nare, after all, in the very vulnerable and sensitive formative
\nyears of their lives. Each day they will be experiencing new
\nthoughts, ideas and feelings. Inevitably the students' emotional
\nstate will be an influencing factor in their school life but too
\noften the emotional and mental welfare of students in Indonesia
\nis not sufficiently thought of and cared for.<\/p>\n
Learning and education has developed to appreciate, and try to
\nunderstand as much as possible, alternative forms of
\nintelligence. Now it is quite common and entirely reasonable for
\neducators to talk of multiple-intelligence and consider the
\nemotional intelligence of students but as yet these concepts
\nstill seem quite obscure to Indonesian teachers and education
\nplanners.<\/p>\n
In essence within Indonesian schools today, teachers and
\nstudents are still caught up in a whirlwind of knowledge and
\ninformation that has to be presented and mostly memorized,
\nwhilst true understanding and learning seems to be only on the
\nperiphery of what is happening in schools. Students are
\noverwhelmed by both too many subjects to study, and too much to
\nbe studied within each of those subjects.<\/p>\n
In this context the maxim, and guiding philosophy, of 'less is
\nmore' seems to apply and if only it were applied school students
\ncould both enjoy their school lives more and ultimately achieve
\nfar more successful and long lasting learning. It seems, however,
\nthat schools exist within the notion of pushing more and more
\nupon the students that leaves the students dumbfounded and even
\naffected detrimentally psychologically.<\/p>\n
The kinds of mental pressures that are exerted on students to
\nperform and attain high scores can, in fact, leave mental scares.
\nTake the example of one second year high school student, she had
\nbeen achieving some very good scores for her school work but
\nhalfway through the academic year she was struggling to keep up
\nwith the breadth and depth of subjects that she needed to study
\nto attain the grades she wanted and needed. Finally this pressure
\ntook its toll and her scores dropped.<\/p>\n
So great was the mental burden that had been placed on her to
\nperform that this drop in her scores lead to nothing short of a
\nmental breakdown. She wept openly in front of her friends and
\nteachers and long sessions of counseling were required to get her
\nto feel a little better about herself and be able to return to
\nher classes.<\/p>\n
The burden of expectancy plus the burden of an over congested
\nschool timetable had conspired to render her a nervous wreck. The
\ntears flowed and her whole body shook with the nerve shattering
\nexperience that she had had.<\/p>\n
This 'nerve shattering experience' is one that will probably
\nlive on in her memory for quite some time but it is also
\nindicative of a major problem for Indonesian educators. Too great
\na concentration on the presentation and acquisition of knowledge
\nleaves the great responsibilities that educators have for the
\ndevelopment of psychologically balanced and socially aware
\nstudents and young adults on the sideline.<\/p>\n
But the reality is that schools and teachers have to have some
\nskills in educational psychology and they must be able to help
\ndevelop their students socially. When a child first enters a
\nschool it is, in essence, that child's first encounter with
\nsociety. It is a first opportunity to see where they fit into a
\nwider community.<\/p>\n
It is a first opportunity to make more friends and it is a
\nfirst place at which to learn of social responsibility. But these
\nopportunities for human interaction are often neglected and not
\nfully capitalized on by educators to provide positive learning
\nexperiences that will help the child grow as a student and
\ndevelop psychologically and intellectually.<\/p>\n
Educators are entrusted with an enormous responsibility to
\nlook out for and offer guardianship for the social growth and
\npsychological well-being of school students. Having been
\nentrusted with this responsibility it is incumbent on educators
\nto enhance students' social and psychological experiences.<\/p>\n
This s not to suggest that they must manipulate their students
\nor engage in mind games, but it does mean that they have to fully
\nexercise care and guardianship to ensure that students are not
\ndetrimentally affected or afflicted by what they encounter in
\nschools. Ultimately a school is a social entity; it is a
\ncommunity into which people must try to fit and actively
\nparticipate and hopefully succeed.<\/p>\n
At present in Indonesia, however, the social context of
\nschools and schooling is not sufficiently recognized. The
\npressure of too much to learn in too many subjects carries with
\nit the potential stigma of failure that can harm psychological
\nwelfare and undermine intellectual development.<\/p>\n
Psychologists recognize that true peace of mind most often
\nemanates from human connection and interaction. Educators should
\nbe wise enough to similarly recognize that true peace of mind
\ncreates a conducive condition for learning to take place. So by
\nnurturing social interaction in schools, teachers can help foster
\na social and mental state that will intrinsically help their
\nstudents to learn.<\/p>\n
Indonesian teachers would surely benefit from giving greater
\nthought to their social and psychological responsibilities and
\nthat benefit may be passed on to their students in the form of a
\nbetter school life.<\/p>",
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