Not Everyone Can Be an Educator
Many people can become teachers, but do not necessarily have an educational pattern that is oriented towards liberating their students.
This article has been translated using AI. See Original .
About AI Translated Article
Please note that this article was automatically translated using Microsoft Azure AI, Open AI, and Google Translation AI. We cannot ensure that the entire content is translated accurately. If you spot any errors or inconsistencies, contact us at hotline@kompas.id, and we'll make every effort to address them. Thank you for your understanding.
Illustration
Many people can become teachers. Only a few can become educators, especially for the poor and marginalized. That is what I finally concluded from my experience of interacting with a number of teachers.
The most important thing needed in our educational system, especially for those who are poor and marginalized, is not money but teachers or lecturers with an educator's spirit. From the experience of interacting with several teachers, there is a big difference between teachers with a teaching-oriented spirit and teachers with an educator's spirit.
A few years ago, I spoke with a fellow teacher in Tumbangtiti, Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan. In that conversation, we discussed an idea to restore the essence of our school's presence, which is to empower young people to become independent individuals in their respective regions. The approach we once chose was to provide additional skills in the field of agriculture.
Then I offered a project to create an exemplary agriculture and livestock project. What I envision is for the project to become a laboratory and training ground for the creativity of young people and the surrounding community in carrying out agriculture and livestock using methods that are affordable but provide optimal results.
Also read: Creative Education
In my imagination, through learning various agricultural creativity, one of which can be obtained through Youtube, young people in our school can experience cool farming and animal husbandry activities. I offer a water-saving farming model, simple composting, raising chickens and fish with maggot, and other creative agricultural and animal husbandry management.
In the end, I imagine the instinct for creativity and the courage to explore creativity will surge. The shrinking shell of creativity is exposed. Thus, after they leave our school, they become independent human beings who are full of creative power, have the courage to live life because they are used to managing life's difficulties by practicing various ways and creativity in solving problems. problem.
At the end of that idea sharing session, my friend said, "We don't have the funds to do all of that." At that moment, I promised to find funding through a donation agency for the project. And so it happened.
After receiving tens of millions of rupiah for the project for several months, my friend still did not start the project immediately. He said that the funds were too large and he was overwhelmed in spending it. Finally, with a struggle, he spent the donated funds. Several agricultural tools and activities were made, but the agricultural laboratory for youth and the surrounding community never materialized.
Done with yourself
I experienced a similar case with several other friends. Every time I offer creativity student empowerment or society, the spontaneous response is that there is no funding to make it happen. Then, when funds are obtained, these funds are not utilized optimally. There are those who spend the funds only for temporary projects, there are also those who manipulate them for their own projects.
In this experience, it feels as though the educator requires a person to have a sound mental condition whereby they have resolved internal conflicts within themselves. Those who have not resolved their inner conflicts are at risk of exploiting, manipulating, and using others around them as well as other things for their own personal interests or projects. This can manifest in ways other than just monetary corruption.
The satisfaction of a teacher or lecturer who is not yet complete within themselves is when they receive praise or other forms of appreciation for the educational activities they have conducted. Usually, they like to make educational activity statuses on social media in hopes of receiving appreciation or praise. In fact, all educational dynamics should be oriented towards empowering students, not for oneself.
In this experience, it feels like the educator requires the mental condition of someone who has finished with themselves.
Stephen R Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, states that the first and foremost thing in life must be orienting and fighting for public victory. In the context of education, what educators should strive for first and foremost is student satisfaction and success, not self-satisfaction or fame.
Thus, building a good education actually assumes the occurrence of sustainable development in the lives of educators so that educators become more independent from their selfish desires. This aspect is often overlooked and even not realized. As a result, there are various forms of violent and exploitative acts in our education system committed by teachers and lecturers.
The role of the state
Another reason why teachers are reluctant to perform creative activities that empower students is the lack of time due to administrative tasks. Whether true or not.
Others, particularly private schools, are struggling to enroll students due to the massive expansion of public schools by the government. Their time and focus are consumed in seeking new students to save their school's survival. The survival of private schools will determine the survival of the teachers in that school.
Also read: Intelligent Education
From this last fact, however, the state plays a role in causing teachers to not have educational patterns that are oriented towards empowering and liberating their students. Unfortunately, the worst victims of this kind of educational governance by the state are poor students, especially those attending poor private schools.
