Instilling learning discipline in schools worth retaining

Instilling learning discipline in schools worth retaining

By John Phillips

This is the second of two articles exploring the good and bad
sides of American and Indonesian school learning processes.

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Early childhood education experts have
stressed, for many years, the importance of the example of the
parents and their attitude towards education as being crucial in
a child's socialization to education. Thus, we did not just say
how important we thought education was, we lived it and in the
process provided a strong foundation upon which Iin could build
her own educational values and her willingness to participate in
learning, not just attend to it. The lesson here is that parents
(and teachers) lead best by example.

The fact that we had a house filled with books is another
factor in our daughter's success. In fact, it is an absolutely
crucial factor in national development as well.

President Soeharto struck the right note of urgency in
exhorting the nation to read more books. For in them one finds
the keys to economic development, technical, political
development, basic skills needed for democratic institutions and
social development, adapt to increasing international integration
and cross-cultural communication.

In fact, the decline in the effectiveness of the "American"
educational system can be traced directly to a decline in
literacy and a decline in the ability of children to acquire
lateral and critical thinking skills as a result. Reading is a
"habit" that once acquired is almost never abandoned. Readers, in
turn, by virtue of the act of reading and reading widely, become
thinkers adept at processing information and, even more
importantly, ideas. Knowledge (not just information) is the
ultimate power and it leads to the ability to control one's own
destiny to the extent human beings are capable of doing so. Thus,
another lesson of our daughter's success is that reading is the
foundation of education and a society that does not promote it,
promotes its own decline.

Importantly, Iin also had plenty of opportunity to achieve
educational excellence. Her schools in the United States, even
the average ones, had a lot of resources that would be considered
a luxury here in Indonesia. The teachers had a lot of education
and training. They were also paid a "living" wage though not an
extravagant one, meaning that most had to work only one job.

And, the society itself has a lot of media resources including
extensive libraries, educational television, and "free"
educational materials. More importantly, Iin has benefited not
only from our example and willingness to sacrifice for her
education (including allowing her to remain in the United
States), but she has also benefited greatly from her "guardians"
providing her with not just a place to stay, but also a place in
their hearts and minds.

These people who were unrelated to her and who received really
only enough money from the living arrangement to take care of her
needs still provided all of those things that children need to
succeed in school, including love and understanding.

In many ways, their sacrifice in terms of "privacy" as a
retired couple and inconvenience was much greater. This is a
lesson that cannot be ignored, and that is that "opportunity" is
not just an abstract idea but combined efforts of individuals and
society to provide whatever is necessary to ensure that each
generation has the opportunity to become educated and productive
members of the society.

This includes paying taxes, committing money and time, and
making choices that lead to increased opportunity for those
willing to take it. In recent years the American commitment to
providing this kind of opportunity has been declining at the same
time that the Indonesian commitment has been increasing. It seems
to me that in terms of the direction these societies are going
in, Indonesia has the right idea. However, there has also been
another decline in educational "health" in the United States in
an already weak area in American schools, "discipline". By this,
I only partly mean the same kind of discipline I think Lee Kuan
Yew means.

Basic discipline which is taught by parents and by schools is
only the first stage of learning how to be disciplined. This kind
of discipline is often based on social and legal restrictions
specified by authorities who "sanction" any violation of these
restrictions.

As any parent or legal authority can testify, this kind of
discipline is the most transient and least effective means for
"controlling" behavior and it is even less effective in
persuading people to do "what is good for themselves" when they
have a choice in the matter.

In fact, since it removes from the individual the real
responsibility for making choices and attempts to coerce them
into the "appropriate" behavior, there is little if any
commitment to the desired behavior. There is an old saying that
"you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink"
which expresses the essence of the problem.

People, especially children, who have to be forced to do
something, do so unwillingly and half-heartedly. Unwilling and
half-hearted learning is not learning at all; it is simply
conforming.

A nation needs citizens who do not "just conform", but who
willingly participate in the hard work of building a nation, of
which learning is no small part.

So, the kind of discipline that a system needs to encourage
and to build into its educational system is "self-discipline".
Students, like everyone else in the society, must make choices
for themselves which include postponing gratification, working
hard for "future rewards", and willingness to expend time and
effort beyond the minimum requirement.

Former U.S. president Richard Nixon may have had an abundance
of faults and may not have been the most brilliant of statesmen,
but he "succeeded in accomplishing many of his goals by having
what he called an 'iron butt'." That is, in order to achieve his
goals, he knew what he wanted and he was willing to work harder,
sacrifice more and persist longer despite setbacks, unlike most
of his contemporaries.

This then is the true meaning of discipline in the educational
context as it is in the social context. If citizens are to be
truly educated, it must be accomplished by them, not for them,
through hard work, sacrifice, commitment, and "self-discipline".
And this is the true meaning of my daughter's success. In the
final analysis not only must one has the will to succeed but one
must also have an "iron butt".

John Phillips, is an American educator working at the Gadjah
Mada University, Yogyakarta.