Problem-solving ability here still poor

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

An Indonesian living and studying in California, U.S. recently sent an email to a friend in Jakarta. He expressed his sorrow about the news that he was hearing about Indonesia. His list of complaints was familiar and quite long.

It was easy, however, to see how some of his complaints had obviously been unrealistically added to by the sources of his news. Western media tends to dramatize and can make a minor, isolated event seem like the collapse of a government or economy.

The picture painted of Indonesia in Western media is often a bleak and desperate one. There can be no denying that Indonesia has suffered from some bleak experiences which have led people to take desperate measures.

The ease with which many in Indonesia have resorted to violence shows a weakness of mind and of willpower to solve a problem with peacefulness, thoughtfulness and equanimity. Too many have fallen into the trap of being willing to do anything to apparently get them through their problems; without so much as a second thought or regard for others. Many have been willfully content to tread on the backs of others and violate their rights.

With greater humanity, greater willpower and greater education, acts of desperation will always be sidelined. And this is perhaps the greatest misfortune and sorrow to have been visited on Indonesia. The lack of willpower to find a humane solution to problems has left a fertile seedbed for acts of inhumanity. The lack of educated minds that are able to think ahead and consider consequences has left Indonesians to be victims of Indonesians.

Education can and should help to provide a better future for Indonesia by giving students powers of thought -- thought that allows people to plan and really consider what may or will arise as a consequence of their actions. In desperate times disputes are always more likely to occur. People become more sensitive, more reactionary and more vulnerable to the mood swings and vagaries of being more emotionally charged up. But the educated mind is better able to keep emotions in check and reduce the dangers of reactionary behavior.

Schools and education systems have to be fundamental tools in remedying these kinds of problems and so it becomes essential that schools and educators maintain policies and procedures that promote peacefulness, in particular peaceful dispute resolution.

Sadly, though, disputes and arguments in Indonesian schools are not used sufficiently as potential sources of lessons and learning. Sadly, too often the desire to punish, or to even take pleasure in punishing, is allowed to cloud or just wash away the potential to learn and gain understanding. Take the example of two high school students caught fighting in their school. What remedy was applied to their dispute? The teacher merely chose to use a classroom ruler for a violent purpose on both boys.

Another teacher/ student encounter reflects weak willed thinking on how to deal with "difficult" students. One student had been disruptive in class and his teacher's patience ran out and he decided it was time to act, time to punish.

But the student was told to choose between extra homework or a violent blow from the teacher. The student, being disruptive and lazy chose the latter. The student learnt nothing from this as he merely continued to be disruptive.

Equally signifying failure was the teacher's observations about this punishment, because he said it made him feel better personally -- "It felt good and I felt satisfied that I had really hit him" -- being his comment. This kind of attitude and emotional involvement in punishment is misplaced. It offers no opportunity for learning and can only be a short term remedy.

Indonesia needs to access more long term remedies. Schools and teachers need to be equipping their students with the thinking skills that will allow them to become problem solvers. Those thinking skills need to be informed by a sense of responsibility and humanity towards others.

Future generations are, after all, emerging from Indonesian schools and so if we hope to arrive at a time when Western reporters will only be able to report good news about Indonesia, it is essential that educators work hard to create a learning environment and habit within school students to be more considerate of others. Thinking skills, the ability to plan and organize and a real sense of belonging and humanity will be crucial. Teaching humanitarianism in schools now creates the possibility of a brighter future.