Students not merely 'empty bottles'

Simon Marcus Gower, St. Laurensia School, Serpong, Tangerang, Banten

In the words of a somewhat exasperated Indonesian education professional, "In Indonesia people still think that the children are empty bottles and that we, as educators, must just pour the knowledge in." He had experienced international education (principally American) methods.

Sadly, it does seem that school students are still being widely viewed disparagingly as "empty bottles". Walk into any typical Indonesian school and you are likely to witness students sitting passively and teachers mundanely 'filling them up'.

The danger of viewing students as empty bottles is two-fold. First, of course, it is patronizing, if not dismissively offensive, towards the person. All students (all the people and developing personalities) within a school or classroom are being viewed erroneously as a homogeneous entity.

A collective entity of which it is said 'this is the measure of the bottle' -- no more or less, nothing different or unusual in shape, size, make-up and so on. It is then an highly simplistic approach and definition that is irresponsive to subtleties of difference -- such as different learning speeds, styles, various levels of academic ability or the most obvious of human differences that inevitably exist in each and every class -- people/ personality differences.

Secondly, the 'bottle effect' is also to prescribe, and likely to preclude, the scope of learning. By supposing that the school child is an 'empty bottle' it is implied that the educator, teacher or curriculum designer can determine precisely how much the 'bottle' can or should contain.

It has an immediate limiting effect that is misplaced in the context of education for opening up opportunities and thinking skills for children. For education to be successful it must show and act upon a knowledge of the students -- responding to and assisting in meeting learning needs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote "what school, college or lecture bring to men depends on what men bring to carry it home in." Where Indonesian educators presuppose that they know the measure of the 'bottle' in which education will be 'carried home in', a dangerous assumption is being made. One that inevitably limits rather than frees, challenges and extends learning.

Probably the greatest danger facing Indonesian education is the limitation rather than increase of thinking skills. Too often it seems that the mode of education adopted here and the mentality of educators is limiting and thus counterproductive in the pursuit of creating autonomous learners that are able to think and create for themselves.

This kind of educational philosophy or state of mind literally insists upon passivity of the students rather than encouraging them to be the central and most active participants in education.

Consistently examples occur in which students are attempting to break free from the shackles of a quite oppressive -- even dictatorial attitude. In so doing students are trying to perform as active and autonomous learners.

Take the recent example of a thoughtful, attentive and conscientious student who upon having heard her teacher state something that she felt was contrary to what she had previously learnt, raised her hand and questioned the teacher about the apparent contradiction.

What was the teacher's reaction to this classroom contribution? Was it interested and grateful that a student could be seen to be listening? Was it appreciative of the fact that evidently someone was thinking about what was being presented? Sadly -- no -- quite the contrary -- the teacher's response was irksome and even petulant and definitely not encouraging of further contributions.

Immediately this active student was told that she was wrong and that the teacher's definition was right -- and more emphatically -- the right answer. The student politely pointed out that the whole class had learnt something rather different previously and even the most passive of students were giving slight nods of their heads to signify this. With much petulance the teacher was then heard to state that the previous learning was wrong; there was no further need for discussion and that the inquisitive student would have to accompany the teacher at the end of the class so that she could see the exact textbook answer.

In this example the teacher had shown quite extreme obstinacy and indeed to such an extreme that it left the teacher looking ignorant, not the student. For as it turned out the teacher was not providing a definition but merely an interpretation and thus the student was entirely right to thoughtfully point out that the whole class had previously learnt of something different. Another interpretation that was evidently outside of the teacher's thinking or experience.

This is, then, an example of the unfortunate rigidity and intransigence that may be seen to exist in Indonesian education. Often a quite myopic adherence to a belief in 'black and white' answers prevents real thinking and learning. A simplistic and rather naive belief in cold definitions in 'black and white' -- definitely right or wrong answers stilts real thought and learning. To truly learn and to think with originality and creativity students need to be shown the great range of colors and shades that exist in the kaleidoscope of the world and of life.

This is education to enrich and empower people to contribute to society. Education should not be so far removed from society that it merely exists as a means of measuring students' performance and hoping and expecting that they will conform to and attain preset and prescribed performance levels. Students should be equipped with a greater understanding and appreciation of the world that provides them with a richness of quality and a power to advance society.

It is evident that Indonesian education has at times been allowed to become less than relevant and disconnected from the needs of society and the modern world. Only recently the newly elected rector of one of Indonesia's most renown education institutes -- the Bandung Institute of Technology -- acknowledged in his inauguration speech that institutes of education had become "ignorant about [their] own society" and allowed themselves to be "inaccessible" to society.

Educators throughout Indonesia need to be encouraged to be more 'accessible' and more open to the challenging and ever changing mission of education. Obstinacy, intransigence and rigidity in education policies only lead to the creation and sustenance of ignorance. Education cannot be thought of as a closed, finished book. It must be a book that continues to be written and read ad infinitum.