Students not merely 'empty bottles'

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.