Redefining education as inherent to human growth

LSF Josephus, Teachers, Gandhi Memorial International School, Jakarta

In a limited seminar on Education Research Design held by Pasacsarjana students of philosophy from the University of Indonesia, I once stated that "Education is not a matter of transferring knowledge! It's an ongoing formation in an ongoing process." Many hands were raised, many questions were addressed, but all had me surprised.

The questions were far from what I meant. They dealt with the class-room phenomenon while I myself stuck with the essence of education itself. An ongoing formation in an ongoing process means that education, by and within itself cannot be separated from the story of human species as homo educandum (Latin term for human being as the only species capable of education) that explicitly denotes the existence of education.

Education will only disappear from the shape of the world within the end of the world. Three basic questions should be pointed out here! What is the essence of education? In what way it is an ongoing formation? In what sense it is an on going process?

The old paradigm emphasized that the most important role is on the shoulders of the agents of education, teachers and parents at home. Children were merely recipients, not the agents of the education. Then it developed into, Roma locuta, causa finita! What students have to do is to do what teachers and parents want them to do. No comments and no questions allowed! Causa finita! What Paulo Freire discussed is mostly true throughout many of the world's schools. Children are being treated as deposit banks for facts and figures, not creative human beings.

In the case of Locke's tabula rasa (empty tablet), the first teachers at home assume that information on pure knowledge, applied knowledge and science is what their children need to receive for seven or eight periods a day in classrooms are not enough. They want more for their child. Tuition, private lessons and courses should be added! They, then, make their own child their slave. What will the child be in the future depends on what they write on an exam paper.

This is what I call the dangerous aspects of education in practice. Parents (I hope not the teachers) reduce their child from the throne of humanity to an instrument of knowledge. They treat their own child as a mature person within a small body! They rarely consider the capacity of their child, they determine the future of their own child!

One more thing that seems clear in our modern times is that education is understood only as the responsibility of schools or teachers. Parents, who hand over their children to schools by paying a certain amount of money, act powerful. They spontaneously blame the teachers, when there is no progress, or when their children fail exams.

Punishment is aimed at teachers as they make the teachers responsible for their child. But this distributive unfairness never changes a teacher! Teachers are still teachers! They are still on their own post as heroes without honorable stars on their shoulders.

They do know what they are and what they should do in schools, in the structure of the whole system into which they put themselves in. They do realize the shift of modern family values. "Children, have become children of maids at home", as parents have no time for their children because of their busy schedule!

The above concepts and comments lead me to a partial conclusion that education, in our time, is limited as an intellectual activity at schools and good manner and right conduct at home. But, that is not education at all! That is only a phenomenon of the whole body of education.

Too much reliance on the essence of education from a school's intellectual or academic activities and good manners and right conduct at home give children the opportunity to express themselves as they are in the time and place between school and home, and vice-versa. Pressuring them to do what they have to do at school (You should do this or that!) and forbidding them from this or that at home trains them to be oppressive people.

The almost daily brawls between students from different schools signifies this quite clearly. They fight as a medium of self-expression. They want to show that they are something, not intellectually manipulated objects at schools or behaviorally manipulated objects at home. They are human beings that should be treated as human beings.

So, what needs to be done?

Reducing the essence of education as the only function of the school and home will lead the whole system of education to a sorrowful calamity. The personality of the child as a human being is broken into pieces. He or she is conditioned to behave well in front of the teachers as well as in front of his or her parents, but, that is not their true-self.

In front of teachers, he or she will behave as a student of a teacher as well as a son or a daughter of a pair of persons at home, his or her own parents, but he or she is something, he or she is his or her own self and that should be expressed! He or she, then, may do whatever he or she wants to do even if the teachers and parents forbid him or her to do. This is the reason why education should be redefined urgently!

In redefining education, we have to deal with the concepts and ideas of 20th century educators and thinkers, such as John Dewey and Ivan Illich. For John Dewey (1859-1952), education is, "to give a chance to children to experience their life." Dewey has blown a new aroma here. Education is a matter of creating a condition in a certain sphere in which the child may receive and express himself as person in being with others.

It is a collective responsibility (parents, teachers, students and society) of what the student will be in the future rather than just a knowledgeable person! The same voice comes from the radical philosopher and educator, Ivan Illich (1926-2002) within his concept of "convivium". Education is a matter of cum vivere (living together).

Like John Dewey, Illich declares education to be an experience of a life as togetherness. Education is the responsibility of the whole society in which parents, teachers and students are the main components.

Starting with the brilliant concepts of John Dewey and Ivan Illich as the foundation, I come to my topic: Education should be redefined! Concepts of education as an activity of transferring knowledge since ancient times to our time, that gave important role to teachers at schools and parents at home, failed in producing integrated persons! Education is more than an activity of transferring knowledge and skills.

It is an inter-active communication, between parents, teachers, students and environment or society. An interactive communication that results in self-awareness and self-confidence. Self-awareness and self-confidence will produce awareness of one- self and confidence in one-self, and finally, people geared to face their society and environment. In being aware and trusting others, one will obtain his or her integrity.

Finally, in interactive communication with togetherness, not only may a child learn to be a mature human being of integrity but will also fit into society as a whole. Teachers also will learn to be prototypes of truth, goodness and excellence, and more out-reaching to others. Therefore, education is an ongoing formation in an ongoing process of a child's growth in the convivium or togetherness! That should be the education for today!

The writer is a Postgraduate Student of Philosophy, University of Indonesia