The examples teachers set<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): At the now defunct Ngawi (East Java) High School
\nof Teacher Training (SPG), where restrictions outnumbered
\nfreedoms, one teacher, Mubini, was the most beloved enforcer of
\nthe regulations.<\/p>\n
Unlike other teachers at the school, who enforced the
\nregulations with such physical punishments as ordering offenders
\nto run around the principal's office, Mubini punished rule-
\nbreakers with allusions and jokes.<\/p>\n
\"Hi, you Yanti, you must have been so busy dating that you did
\nnot have time to wash your undershirt,\" said Mubini, \"punishing\"
\nmy classmate Haryanti who broke the rule requiring all students,
\nmale and female, to wear an undershirt beneath their uniforms.<\/p>\n
\"Listen up everyone, Riyadi here needs the help of his mother
\nto cut his fingernails,\" Mubini announced one day after noticing
\nthat my fingernails were too long.<\/p>\n
That was one of the unwritten regulations established by
\nMubini himself for his students.<\/p>\n
Of course, other teachers had their own unwritten regulations
\non top of the written rules, such as the one requiring all
\nstudents to wear black shoes, white socks, gray pants and white
\nshirts from Monday to Thursday.<\/p>\n
Our gym teacher, Naryo, for instance, banned all students from
\nsmoking, even outside of school. Once he spotted one student
\ncontentedly puffing away in a movie theater. The next day, Naryo
\ninterrogated the guilty student in front of the class.<\/p>\n
Naryo, Mubini and all of the other teachers at the school
\nconstantly emphasized that as future elementary school teachers,
\nSPG students had to learn good habits and abandon bad ones, so
\nthat when we became teachers we would set only positive examples
\nfor our students.<\/p>\n
Thus the saying \"Guru kencing berdiri, murid kencing berlari\"
\n-- which literally means \"Teachers pee while standing, students
\npee while running\" from the belief in rural areas that it was
\nmore polite for men to squat while urinating -- was popular among
\nthe SPG teachers.<\/p>\n
Naryo, for example, announced to the class after interrogating
\nthe student he had caught smoking: \"If you smoke cigarettes, your
\nstudents will smoke cocaine.\"<\/p>\n
That kind of warning may sound strange now, but we took it
\nseriously.<\/p>\n
As future teachers, we could not drink alcohol or frequent
\nplaces that could be seen in any negative light, such as cafes,
\nbars or even movie theaters, where prostitutes sometimes trolled
\nfor customers.<\/p>\n
Some of my classmates eventually went on to become elementary
\nschool teachers. And, I would assume, they are good, responsible
\nteachers, even though they have to do side jobs such as farming
\nor trading to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
One such former classmates, Sumardi, who recently visited me
\nin the capital, said he did some work as a middleman for people
\nwho sold everything from bicycles to houses.<\/p>\n
He also has a fishpond near his house in Sukoharjo district,
\nCentral Java.<\/p>\n
The money he makes as a broker and from his fishpond
\nsupplements the meager salary he earns as an elementary school
\nteacher.<\/p>\n
Sumardi assured me, however, that these little extra jobs did
\nnot in the least take away from his work as a teacher. He still
\nhas time to offer his students extra-curricular activities free
\nof charge.<\/p>\n
When I asked him if he still went by the saying \"Guru kencing
\nberdiri, murid kencing berlari,\" he said it was even more
\nimportant now. He asserted that upstanding elementary school
\nteachers inspired their students and encouraged them to be good
\nand to succeed.<\/p>\n
Most elementary school teachers, I believe, are good and
\nresponsible people. Most of them, I would say, are the products
\nof those rigid educations at SPGs across the country, before they
\nwere abolished in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
True, demonstrations and strikes were never part of the SPG
\ncurriculum. Nevertheless, teachers did stage a massive protest
\nlast year, demanding better pay. And the government met their
\ndemand and gave them a raise.<\/p>\n
\"It was a significant increase. I think it was the highest pay
\nincrease in my 15-year career as a teacher,\" Sumardi said.<\/p>\n
And now teachers are making headlines again. This time, they
\nwent beyond demonstrating and staged strikes in a number of
\nareas, pressing local administrations to make good on the back
\npay owed them from January.<\/p>\n
As one might expect, the sight of teachers walking out of the
\nclassroom resulted in vigorous debate. The national education
\nminister weighed in with his opinion that teachers should not
\nstrike, but instead should engage in talks to reach a settlement.<\/p>\n
But Sumardi thought the strike was understandable because
\nlocal administrations continuously failed to recognize teachers
\nas the assets they are, and as a result continued to neglect
\nthem.<\/p>\n
It is hard to rebut his argument because, after all, if you
\ndevote your life to helping students take their first and most
\nimportant steps on the path of life, you must have a leg to stand
\non yourself.<\/p>\n
-- Riyadi Suparno<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-examples-teachers-set-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }