Better Citizenship and Disciplining in Schools

When visiting schools and interacting with teachers, one of the questions that keep coming is regarding disciplining of students inside the school. Looking at the need for disciplining of students (whatever the reason might be) and the aims of education especially in the creation of a better citizens, one of the question that arises is: Does disciplining (a strict one) will create a better citizens out of the students by conforming them all to a desired ways?  

One of my views is that, strict disciplining will lead to conformation, which the parents also expected the teacher to do out of their children, will lead to a better citizen who would cast their vote every election, follow traffic rules, and conform to the law everywhere without ever questioning.  

On the other hand, the creative children that we want to raise are taught to be a free thinker, questions everything, and act accordingly.  Free thinker will not blindly follow the rule, free thinker will have the audacity to question the rule...

One of my experiences is that people who are more highly educated and more aware of their rights are more likely to not cast their vote on election days with the excuse that there is little or no choices, or that they break and then questions the law itself.  

Another way to view is that we can say such people are contributing to the nation building though their criticism and actions, which are not always desirable. But then again we can argue that, each rules and laws are enforced only after a proper, if not thorough, thought with a certain goal of common good.

But in the end, we have to have trust on our children and hope that they will, through their free thinking, think of the common and greater good, and contribute to the nation building through their free will.

Reflections on John Holt's How Children Learn (Book)

In the introduction to his book, John Holt wrote that his book can be summed up in two words – Trust Children.  In other words, he’s saying leave the child on their own and s/he will learn on their own.  This is indeed a very simple yet difficult option before any caring and concerned parents.

Leave the child alone to learn? Most parents would ask that sarcastically, but what most parents never asked was how a child learn their language, or to differentiate they variety of dogs (in term of colours, size, breeds, etc.) from one category of just ‘dogs’ to a category of ‘different coloured dogs’, to a category based on the size of dogs, and category of breeds of dogs.  They all are dogs, but they are different, and the child still come to learn and categorize that all these animals of different size, different colours, different looks, and different shapes, no matter, they all belong to the category of dogs.  Whereas, something that is similar to a dog, like a cat, are not called a dog by the child.  We never taught the child how to read our face and facial expression, yet they know when we are angry or happy. The child learns to categorize all these animals on their own, they learn to read our faces, and if they can do all that complex and even abstract thing, all we need to do is trust them to learn on their own as well.

Leaving the child alone to learn is difficult for parents to do because to trust children, parents must trust themselves first, and most parents grew-up to believe that they are not trustworthy.  Since such perception, or lack of confidence become so ingrained in the parents, they are bound not to trust their children.  What parents need to do is break this long downward cycle of fear and distrust, and trust their children the way they were never trusted.

Children have this capacity to learn in the most natural and powerful way, and they know how to use their mind in a special way.  Their way of learning fits their condition, their capacity and physical abilities.  But parents, being concerned that their children are different, and not aware that they had been messed up, will try to school and teach them to use their way of thinking in such a manner that they will end up like their parents.  The child knows how to make sense of their world, but in school setting, we want them and try to teach them to make sense in a way that makes sense to the adult. When we try to teach our children to think and make sense of the world the way we do, we are interfering with their natural way of making sense, and this make the child believes that they are not worthy, making them scared and discouraged.

A school should not change the way the child make sense of the world, but instead, the child should be encouraged to utilize the environment provided in the school to use and enhance their natural abilities to make sense of the world in a much more effective way.

For a Special Friend

---for a special friend (you know who you are ;)

I surely can’t remember when it all started,
But surely now I’m shattered!
Surely it must be my birthday,
the day you started saying to me, hey!

But it doesn't really matter anyway,
For I’ll never forget that special day
But I’d rather remember you forever,
For all that you bring, mostly laughter
‘coz I can always be my silly self
When you are always there to help
And around you I can always be weird and crazy
‘coz you are weirder and crazier than me
And together we can always make the world go hazy!

Oh it doesn't matter by the way,
For I’ll never forget them anyway,
But I’d rather remember you,
for all the silly things that we did,
Like the endless phone-call talking nonsense?
Making silly plan which we thankfully never carried out,
And the stupid plan that are all sell-out?
Those were the greatest day!

Oh that doesn't really matter now,
For I’ll never forget them anyhow.
But I’d rather remember you
for that baritone voice of yours
That sent a ghostly chill down the spine
Like watching a horror movie,
And make a freak out of me!

But it seems everything matter now,
For I will never forget any of them now
And I would always remember
How you make the world so colourful
Even when its only black and white!
You are the best friend one could ever ask for
'Coz you are always there, always there!

And how can I forget you,
when it is so easy to fall in love with you,
for I never had to try, to pretend to be someone,
for I never had to hide, when you know me better than me!
And I hope that you know, when you lived in my heart
and know all that is in my heart, that you are the only one living in my heart!

THE TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVE: FROM A THEORETICAL POINT OF VIEW

It might be wrong to make theoretical assumptions without a proper research, but we can definitely argue about the level of seriousness of the teachers regarding the in-service teachers’ training.  And I think we can safely argue that at least half of the teachers are not serious about the training; and I think, we all can make certain valid assumptions on why the teachers are not serious.  A few arguments could be made that (a) the teachers had attended such training for so many times without any visible or observable benefits, (b) the frequency of the training made them took it for granted, (c) based on their previous experience, they have no or very less expectation from the current training, etc. 

There are two concepts from psychology that can help explain the above behaviours/perception of the teachers, and understanding those concepts will also help us in understanding what we can do. The two concepts are (i) self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977, 2004) and (ii) learned helplessness (Peterson & Seligman, 1993; Fogle,1978).

Psychologist Albert Bandura has defined self-efficacy as one's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations. One's sense of self-efficacy can play a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and challenges. So, how do our teachers see themselves, their performance and effectiveness, and the challenges they faced every day in the form of their students whose learning need to be facilitated in such a way that we can fulfil the aims of our education?  The aims of education is not only about moving from one grade to another, and then find a job.  Education has a much broader objectives such as those value laden qualitative concept like justice, liberty, equality, democracy, good citizenship, etc. which are practically impossible to be achieved.  Unless one understand that we are not going to achieve those goals overnight, and we can only work towards the achievement of such aims, one is bound to doubt our capabilities in the process.  Besides, the teachers’ effectiveness is measured through observable results inside the class-room, and if the students are not learning or progressing as expected, the teachers are going to doubt their own ability to help the students learn.   

The other concept, Martin Seligman's concept of Learned Helplessness says that people who had tried and failed many times before have an attitude of hopelessness and passivity towards everything, including their jobs, based on their past experience. Such people will fail to respond even when there are opportunities available to them to improve.  Such people have seen and experienced many things, and their attitude is based on their personal experience.  Many teachers started out their teaching careers with high hopes and many interesting teaching methods and/or passion.  They started with much enthusiasm and inspiration, trying to improve our education system.  But in the first few years of their careers, they have seen and experienced an inflexible and unresponsive system, an unappreciative colleague and seniors, etc. and as such, they gradually lost their enthusiasm and inspiration, and become a part of the system that they wanted to change so much.  They tired and made many attempts and efforts to change or help the system, but their efforts were not appreciated or not even acknowledge, and thus ultimately they are forced to give up. Their passivity is learned and thus real, and you have to ‘move a mountain’ to earn their trust and be able to inspire them again.

In both the situation mentioned above, the solutions psychologists gave are very simple, though it is difficult to achieve.  People who have self-efficacy issue must be made to realize that self-belief and self-confidence come from our understanding of our own capabilities and capacities.  Teachers need to be encouraged and motivated from time to time, not just financially, but also verbally; and ISTT is one good opportunity for us to encourage and motivate the teachers, and take full advantage of the opportunity. 

Regarding those teachers with an issue of ‘learned helplessness’ must be assured that they have our full support in their desire to provide quality education, and bring change.  The only thing we can do for them to put their belief back in what they have already given up is to build trust and let them see our seriousness and commitment towards our goals.

And one precautionary note is that, we should try to avoid directly criticizing and belittling the work being done by the teachers during the training, doing so will serve none of us any good.