Schools can help end conflict

Simon Marcus Gower Jakarta

It is truly sad that the youth of Jakarta seems so often to be engaged in violent conflict. Adolescents in their school uniforms may still be seen running amok on the streets of Jakarta as they enter into, what appears to be, nothing short of gang warfare. Even college students engage in street battles, as evidenced by the problems experienced in the Salemba district of the city.

Why is this happening? Does it not suggest that something is going wrong with the education system when adolescents end their school or college day with violent conflicts? Perhaps there really is something wrong here. Perhaps these adolescents are not getting lessons in conflict resolution and peaceful problem solving.

Evidence from some quarters might suggest that this is indeed the case because sometimes efforts from teachers with regards conflict resolution are nothing short of conflict instigators and creators. For example, in one school recently two rule-breakers were dealt with in a, frankly, disturbing manner.

Their teacher instructed them to stand at the front of the classroom and then their classmates were required to, one-by-one, slap them both across the face. Offensive physical punishment was being made worse by having the classmates effectively humiliate the transgressors.

Such actions are not going to solve problems but are far more likely to suppress or deepen them and engender new hatreds. As the great British philosopher Bertrand Russell observed, "To hate other human beings can only do harm, and it is monstrous that education should instill such hatred."

But education that does not constructively teach of how to deal with conflict and give examples to students of how to peacefully resolve problems between each other is liable to become a source of 'instilling hatred'; particularly when it resorts to physical punishments.

It would be naive to suppose that we can live entirely free from hatred entering into our lives at some point or indeed to think that we can grow up without experiencing hatred. But we can certainly learn how to better deal with and dissipate hatred.

Some research has been done to try to detect at what age a child may first show signs of hate. The results have suggested that a child is essentially incapable of hate until about three years of age. It has also been suggested that hate is something that is acquired and learned; which might be taken to mean that it can be unlearned as well. But perhaps this is too idealistic. Once hate has entered into the panoply of our thoughts it is probably there to stay. What we must do is equip to reduce its effects.

The Swiss researcher into children's thought and development Jean Piaget identified what he considered to be the various stages of children's cognitive development. He suggested that the ages of two to seven years old were the ages at which a child has become egocentric in thought and action. But the child progresses on to have logical and systematic thinking by the ages of seven to 11 and from 12 to 15 a child is capable of abstract and logical thought.

Along with this development of thought comes the ability, by those early teenage years if not before, to enter into problem- solving including hypothetical problems. It is, then, clear that school age children are well capable of learning and responding positively to lessons in conflict resolution. But are they getting such lessons and are they learning the skills needed to facilitate positive and peaceful solutions?

Simple steps can and should be taken in schools to allow these skills to be practiced. Some basic examples illustrate how this may be achieved:

o Setting and getting agreement on rules helps build cooperation, participation and a sense of ownership and responsibility to abide by rules;

o Teachers starting constructive discussions and even role- plays that anticipate problems and conflicts and allow students to think of how they might or should react if such things actually do happen;

o Democratically identifying needs, interests, concerns and fears;

o Encouraging conflicting parties to stop and listen to each other;

o Understanding and describing the viewpoints of others;

o Creatively solving problems in a results orientated way;

o Building relationships through communication and understanding;

o Encouraging genuine listening, listening and yes more listening.

Simple steps such as the above can quite easily be taken but sometimes teachers excessively impose their control in a classroom that creates a condition in which students are coerced into behaving as the teacher desires rather than cooperatively responding and participating in the life of the classroom.

Teachers need, therefore, to have skills in conflict management. Among the things that they should be able to do is coolly handle conflict and turn it into something constructively. Conflict is often inevitable because different people have different needs, interests, concerns and fears. Teachers have to accept and anticipate this and so use conflicts to creatively develop and improve relationships.

Early intervention helps to prevent the conflict escalating out of control, so teachers need to be aware and observant. But when conflict does occur it is important that the focus is more on the problem than on the people. Focus should be on the underlying needs rather than the immediate demands that may be made in the heat of the moment.

Conflict, well managed, can help to build on a student's experience rather than being destructive of relationships or property. Again, naively should not make us blind to the possibility -- even likelihood -- that conflicts will arise but they should be reasonably well anticipated and, effectively, integrated into our learning. In this way they can become one of life's lessons; never necessarily pleasurable but not necessarily painful or violently damaging.

A key factor, too, that should not elude teachers is that they provide a critical model for behavior and responses from the students. It is therefore essential that teachers keep their tempers under control and most certainly do not resort to physical violence to punish a student. The loss of temper and the use of violence will send particularly undesirable messages to students; and the danger of them reproducing such behavior is perhaps evidenced by school and college students literally running riot on the streets of the capital.

As we approach a new year perhaps we can hope and plan for this year, and following years, to be more successful in guiding students towards conflict management and so diffusing the tensions that often erupt upon the streets of Jakarta.

The writer is an education consultant.