Social pressure may lead to teachers' violent behavior

YOGYAKARTA (JP): An observer attributes a recent spate of reported violence in classrooms to social pressure and the changing status of teachers in society.

Sociologist Dian Paramita of Gadjah Mada University reviewed a report yesterday about an elementary school teacher in the Central Java town of Pati who burned eight students with a heated nail for failing to do their homework.

She also referred to an earlier report about a teacher in Riau who forced six primary school students to run naked in the school yard as a form of punishment.

Dian pointed out how before the 1970s teachers played a central, respected role in society and were seen as the source of information.

"They were considered the model of respectable members of society," she said. "This has changed. Social status is no longer felt to be sufficient, especially in the face of economic pressure.

"No matter how respectable your job is, if you don't have any money, how can you keep your social prestige?" she said.

"People find it strange to see a lecturer, for example, go to work walking or riding a motorcycle. It's hard for people to accept that a lecturer has no house and no facility," she said.

The value that the community places on material wealth has become a strong drive for teachers and lecturers to strive for the same things, hoping they will boost their social status.

Teachers are then often forced to live beyond their means, thus inflicting even greater pressure on themselves.

Improving teachers' welfare, therefore, would be a good way to start the campaign against violence in the classroom, Dian said.

Educational expert Ahmad Badawi of the state-owned Teachers Training Institute in Yogyakarta conceded the role that social economic pressure played in the "creation of bad-tempered teachers".

He urged teachers to learn to separate their domestic problems with those in relation to educating children.

"The duty of a teacher is to help children behave, but it should be done in an approach that is humane," he said.

"Punishment is necessary but it should not cause pain nor shame," he added. "Even in the old days, when corporal punishment was still acceptable, teachers would not mete out punishment arbitrarily.

"Instead, teachers used to give students extra work, perhaps in the form of physical exertion such as push-ups," he said. (swa)