More democracy needed in classrooms

Simon Marcus Gower, High School, Harapan Bangsa School, Kotamodern Tangerang, Banten

A major concern for parents in Indonesia, and indeed for Indonesian teachers, is the need for discipline in schools. Parents will consistently question their child's school principal and teachers about how they maintain discipline. So great is the concern for discipline that some parents will even be insistent that their child receives harsh, practically militaristic, discipline.

Indonesian parents are by no means unusual in their desire for good discipline within schools. In the West discipline has for decades been one of the primary concerns for school parents, rivaled only in importance by the relatively recent worries of drugs in schools. But discipline that is truly beneficial to the child and successful in maintaining order can be quite illusive. Furthermore, without the right kind of approach to discipline a school's whole educational philosophy can unravel and become irrelevant.

The nature of the information and global age is such that schools that are successful can no longer be viewed as assembly- line factories within which educated people are produced. More and more schools must recognize that they are not dealing with machines or creating an output of robots.

The challenges of the information age create very human problems that require thinking skills and adaptability that only humans can bring about. Machines or robots lack such a sophisticated and flexible touch. In this sense schools have to become a kind of "second home" for students.

But how is disciplined maintained in such a "home" where groups of students have to be controlled in some way so as to maintain order? Some would claim that militaristic methods are most appropriate, as they will make the students understand where they belong, their position within the school and what they must do to conform and, in effect, survive.

In such a militaristic mode of discipline the teacher becomes the center of attention. All authority lies with the teacher and the students are both consciously and subconsciously forced to be submissive.

What this creates, then, is teacher dominance that borders on dictatorship. Any hope of democracy in the classroom is squashed as the teacher makes all decisions, determines the rules and keeps all the control. Students, in their enforced submissive role, are left with the perception that someone else is really responsible for their control. They must hand over control to someone else more responsible.

This is a truly sad predicament. Look up the word discipline in a dictionary and you may find it defined as "training oneself or somebody in self-control." Dictatorial, militaristic discipline robs the person of self-control and leaves them without responsibility. The message could be read as "they are unable to control themselves" -- effectively learning disabled.

The search for alternatives does not mean simply handing over control to students. That would represent loss of control and the likely end of discipline. The best and most disciplined and educationally valid approach has to be one in which control is shared between the teacher and the students. In this mode the classroom operates, and will likely succeed, as a democracy.

This has to be the most appropriate way for schools to respond to the disciplinary challenges of the early 21st century. Creating and nurturing a sense of shared discipline gives students the opportunity to appreciate and understand their own position of responsibility within a community -- the school and the community in which the students live and will become active citizens of.

In Indonesia there has been a consistent tendency towards maintaining authoritarian control within schools -- a style of militaristic discipline that coerces rather than encourages students. Discipline then becomes a concept that the student may reluctantly obey rather than willingly and truthfully respect.

But the application of these methods in Indonesian schools has all too obviously not had the desired results -- students run riot on city streets. So severe has school violence become that it has led to deaths and increasingly Indonesian teachers are living with the fear of becoming victims of violence themselves.

In our changing, and challenging, times militaristic attitudes in schools are doomed to failure. Teachers can no longer exist in the belief that they are controllers and inspectors of their students. Teachers have to be mentors, guides and leaders that the students may genuinely respect rather than reluctantly and grudgingly follow and obey.

Militaristic styles of discipline undermine the possibilities and potential for students to take responsibility for their own actions and so gain a sense of self-discipline that is truly an effective learning experience. Dictatorial teachers are caught in a trap in which motivation is dependent on them rather than being in the students' domain. Discipline becomes a near mindless adherence to rules, defined by the teacher, rather than students gaining self-discipline.

Perhaps most disturbingly, though, schools that adopt militaristic style regimes towards discipline are implicitly designating the student as a product. In this sense students are not really viewed as learning people but as the product of learning. Students should, and really have to in our modern world, be the active creators of and participants in learning. Where authoritarian and dictatorial discipline is applied, it is implied that the students are merely passive and submissive objects that are shaped and molded by an educational process over which they have no control or influence.

Indonesia, as a whole, needs to grow and develop its own sense of democracy. What better place to help with this growth and development could there be than schools? By definition schools have to be concerned about helping to foster the best possible prospects for future generations. It follows, then, that where schools are able to make their classrooms more democratic places, where students have a voice and can take on responsibilities, that future generations will be better placed to appreciate and work within a more democratic society.

The quick-fix mentality of dictatorial, militaristic, enforced discipline should not be allowed to undermine the chances of a more sophisticated, responsive and empowering discipline to emerge. Discipline that is shared and based on a consensus is far more likely to be lasting and fruitful in establishing and keeping order.