Orientation weeks are just hazing sessions<\/p>\n
Simon Marcus Gower, Executive Principal, High\/Scope, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A recent email message from a high school student reads, \"I
\nhate the way they treat us at this school. Every year it is just
\nthe same. Orientation weeks in my school are just a nightmare.\"
\nIt seems like a terrible reflection on the state of schools in
\nIndonesia. These comments and others like them have been received
\nover the past few weeks, as new school years have been getting
\nunderway.<\/p>\n
Do they reflect students' unreasonable expectations of their
\nschools or do they represent a genuine concern and need for
\nimprovement in the way that schools are managed?<\/p>\n
Educators could just dismiss these kinds of reflections as the
\nnatural misgivings of students beginning a new school year.
\nHowever, such convenience does not exist for educators here.
\nThese complaints about the behavior exhibited in schools during
\norientation weeks represent something that are at best
\nregrettable but more likely unnecessary, foolish and even
\nfoolhardy in the potential damage that it may do to the students
\nwho are subjected to this, at times, ridiculous behavior.<\/p>\n
The kind of foolish antics that both seniors and teachers are
\nprone to get up to during orientation weeks represent nothing
\nshort of the kind of offensive \"hazing\" that has been exhibited
\nin military boot camps. Seniors often take pleasure in
\nhumiliating their juniors in school.<\/p>\n
In almost every circumstance, this kind of behavior has to be
\nlooked upon as also quite offensive and even disgraceful. What
\nmakes this behavior even more disgraceful and even more
\nunacceptable is the manner in which quite often teachers stand
\naside, watch and even condone this kind of behavior.<\/p>\n
Students are always liable to behave in childish ways and play
\npranks and practical jokes on each other. But often in Indonesia
\nchildish behavior is allowed to go unchecked and pranks are
\npermitted that can be damaging and represent something very
\nsimilar to bullying.<\/p>\n
The kinds of childish antics include insisting that peers walk
\nabout with nothing on their feet and run the risk of injury. Boys
\nwill be required to wear girls clothes and even make-up. It is
\nhard to imagine what educational value is to be found in such
\nbehavior.<\/p>\n
Girls too are liable to experience things that are less than
\nuseful to their school lives. At one school in Jakarta the girls
\nfrom one class in the school were called upon to visit the
\nteachers' staff room. They went along thinking that the purpose
\nof this visit was to introduce them to teachers. They went back
\nto class in tears.<\/p>\n
The purpose of their visit to the teachers' room was to
\npresent an aggressive warning demanding obedience and
\n\"appropriate behavior\" from them throughout their time within the
\nschool. The teachers had considered it appropriate to shout and
\nscream at the girls, making them leave the staff room in a state
\nof literal nervous shock.<\/p>\n
What, effectively, these school girls had experienced would be
\nbetter placed in an army training camp, rather than a school that
\nis supposed to be welcoming and introducing its students to a
\nlearning environment within which they should feel comfortable
\nand well supported.<\/p>\n
Teachers that conduct themselves within this kind of
\nmentality, with this kind of disrespect for their students are
\nliving in the past. They are living in an environment that does
\nnot treat students with respect; instead it considers students to
\nbe objects; to be little more than creatures that must be
\ncontrolled, that must be put in their place and that is a place
\nimmediately and emphatically beneath their seniors and most of
\nall beneath their teachers.<\/p>\n
Educators that are stuck with this kind of mentality are
\neducators that fail both themselves and their students. They are
\nliving in a world in which they think it is appropriate to
\ncommand and demand respect rather than showing that they are
\nworthy of respect and earning respect through their actions. They
\nare then, in short, doing far more damage than good.<\/p>\n
Educators must be respectful of their students. By showing
\nthat they possess this kind of respectful and honorable mentality
\ntowards their students, (towards those for whom they are
\nresponsible for in education), they are showing an example which
\nwill benefit the students and allow them to pass on the life
\nenhancing and honorable character trait of respect for others.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/orientation-weeks-are-just-hazing-sessions-1447893297",
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