Becoming A Spiritual Ambassador of Life

Author's Note: this is an essay I submitted into a local essay contest, the theme is "what I will do if I become the ambassador of education". This tells about my opinions on the education system in my country, Indonesia. I revised it a bit so it can fit to Kiya's contest. Thanks in advance for reading!

BECOMING A SPIRITUAL AMBASSADOR OF LIFE

         When we hear the word "education", we instantly think about schools, teachers, and textbooks. We imagine a crowded classroom filled with uniformed kids and a glasses-wearing old man reading a thick tome monotonously. This is what education is for most people. But is education really that limited?

         According to Wikipedia, education "encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgment, and well-developed wisdom[1]. It also means "'to draw out', facilitating realization of self-potential and latent talents of an individual[2]. By this definition alone, we know that the concept of education is not as narrow as the concept our government and schools tend to believe in.

         Education isn't all about getting good grades or being the most attentive student in class. Education is maintaining emotional stability, harmonious relationship, and self-discovery; it is a fulfillment of one's inner needs for something more abstractive: compassion, self-assurance, security, attention, confidence, recognition, friendship, and so on. It is absolutely false to assume that such things need not the slightest form of education, for in reality, these are the ones that need our utmost concern.

         The problem lies within the assumption made by the government and schools in general that they have given enough attention in students' psychological needs and should just focus on bringing out the formal education to its fullest extent. After all, they do provide counseling and periodic seminars to teach students about how to deal with their problems and so on. But often, these counseling and seminars are not more than empty shells wrapped in a form of repeated speeches and compulsory modules; something done out of obligations and responsibility, not out of genuine concern. Clearly, students' psychological needs are understated.

         What is more perturbing is the fact that our students today live in an era where ignorance plays a significant part in the society. If you can't adapt, you will be shunned by the society; and this is particularly distressing to students since they are mostly in their teens and haven't developed a proper mental stability to cope with the emotional and social problems in their lives. Frequently, they find themselves in a situation where they seem stuck with a problem they can't solve - worse, it seems as if no one is there to help them.

         Take the recent case of 57 SMK students who got involved in a fight after finishing their National Exams. The headmaster, when interviewed, admitted that those students were only looking for sensation after finishing the tests, and that they would be "internally processed" by the school.

         This is the problem in our education system: when the delinquents are caught, they are given a form of punishment so they won't repeat their misbehaviors in the future. The school never sees their devious acts as a form of repressed emotions without an outlet that is released in a destructive way - something the school has to fix rather than suppress.

         The school's tendency to punish rather than help is in accordance to Marshall Rosenberg's borrowed theories of "domination culture", in which a school only "prove who's right and who's wrong (towards the concept of grades); teach students how to obey authority; dispense labels, evaluations, diagnoses, and moralistic judgements (e.g. Learning Disabled, Special Needs, Emotionally Disturbed, Culturally Disadvantaged, Hyperactive, ADD, and so on); and motivate desired behavior through punishment, reward, guilt, shame, duty, or obligation[3]. If we do nothing, we are only going to create more dominating culture in our school which eventually forms a vicious cycle in our schools.

         In light of such vicious cycle, there is also another different yet similarly disturbing case in most of our schools regarding the school's support on extracurricular activities. The conditions and requirements to create a certain club are grueling and simply discouraging to those who have the desire and need to improve themselves in the fields they are interested in. Not only that, some schools also have complicated bureaucracy in asking for permissions to join a competition, let alone asking for a teacher to support and accompany the students to the competition venues.

         Undoubtedly, some schools think of these activities as nothing more than a diversion from a child's duty as a student. Therefore, not many teachers regard a student who join competitions or get involved in extracurricular activities as someone who has the potential to grow and become a man of good standing. And because of such approach, all previous excitement to join a club or win a competition is crushed.

         All of the above cases might very well be detrimental to the psychological growth of the students. Students might develop feelings of inferiority and low self-esteem, and they might not be able to function normally in the society. Perhaps they might act normal towards others, but they are actually crumbling inside.

         According to experts, low self-esteem can cause "poor school achievement, criminal and violent behavior; being the victim of bullying; teenage pregnancy; smoking and the use of alcohol and other drugs; dropping out of school; depression; and thoughts of suicide, suicide attempts, and suicide. Also, children and teens that have low self-esteem have more physical health problems than those with higher self-esteem[4]. With the increasing numbers of aforementioned cases among teens, it is clear that serious actions must be taken to prevent and solve these problems.

         And so, based on my concerns on the effects of our education system today and the fact that other aspects of education remain untouched by the government and schools in general, I think we should focus in fulfilling students' psychological needs.

         I will divide these psychological needs into three groups: emotional, social, and intrapersonal needs. These needs are what I believe as the ones the government and some schools have yet to fulfill.

         First is the emotional needs; what is meant by "emotional needs" here is the need to be "cared, understood, recognized, listened to, forgiven, free, happy, safe, satisfied, secured, treated fairly, supported, understood, and valued[5]. Many of our students today have conflicting emotions and bouts of strong emotions they can't contain, and it's usually because they don't know how to handle losses or tragedies that happen in the course of their lives.

         I think it would be good if the schools give seminars for teachers in general and school counselors in particular to retrain them in understanding more of a student's behaviors and discussing the likely reasons for some students' unaccepted antics. Hopefully by doing this, teachers will have more understanding about their students and will contribute more of their time to solve the problem rather than avoiding or repressing them.

         It is also important to hold similar seminars generated towards students so they can learn more about how to handle their emotions and how to act when a certain strong emotion is felt. But rather than seminars with adult speakers, we should gather youth speakers to speak about their own experiences when dealing with a certain loss or tragedy. This way, we can give hope to the students that they, too, will be able to get over their negative experiences and stand on their feet once more.

         Next is the social needs; what is meant by "social needs" here is the need to be accepted in a society, included in group activities, cherished and valued by one's peers, get involved in relationships, and be useful to others.

         Friends and relationships are crucial parts in a student's life. Unfortunately, social skills are something that most people think can be acquired automatically without an appropriate education. This leads to lots of hardships and pains from being betrayed in relationships. Students must be taught about how to behave in social relationships; how to avoid getting tricked by ill-minded groups, and how to handle break-ups in some relationships - be it amorous or not.

         This can be done by having periodical seminars similar to the ones intended for fulfilling students' emotional needs. But more specifically, we have to ensure students that they are worthy; that they have the right to be accepted in the society. We need to ensure them that they don't need to pretend to be someone else just so they can be accepted in a society, nor should they impose rules and conditions in befriending someone. We need to tell them that we all have the same chance to get involved in social circles and that they just have to be themselves and be proud about it.

         I will also encourage more group-based assignments in schools. The teachers have to think of a way to create the feeling of unity in classes so that the bonds between students can be forged and strengthened. And eventually, students will know how to behave and act accordingly in a society.

         Last but not the least, the fulfilling of students' intrapersonal needs. Intrapersonal needs here consists of "the need to understand oneself, of knowing who one is and one's place in the world, what one can do, what one wants to do, how one reacts to things, which things to avoid, and which things to gravitate toward[6].

         A student can have good emotional and social skills, but we often hear students saying that they don't know what they want to become in the future or whether they want to get to this faculty or that faculty. This is also a serious matter since, sooner or later, they have to grow up and decide their own future.

         The best way to solve this problem is to support and encourage students to be involved in extracurricular activities and competitions. When a student tries different fields of expertise, they have a greater chance to find out their interests and goals in life. What I am going to do is to promote extracurricular activities and find sponsors who will hold recurrent competitions in several fields, so that students who have the desire to compete are able to channel their interests and energies into something positive.

         Finally, I just want to say that the missions I described above are not easy to execute and implement, and I am sure there will be hindrances and errors along the way. But if we can make a change, even the smallest bit of change, in our education system, I believe that our country can become big - not only because of the intelligence of our people, but because of their understandings about themselves and others.

         And if we manage to make such things come true, then we not only become the ambassador who promotes academic and formal achievements, but an ambassador who promotes inner-peace, well-proportioned relationships, and self-actualizations - a spiritual ambassador of life.




References:

[1][2] https://www.en.wikipedia.com/Education
[3] https://www.en.wikipedia.com/Marshall_Rosenberg
[4] http://www.answers.com/topic/self-esteem?cat=health
[5] http://eqi.org/needs.htm
[6] http://www.chariho.k12.ri.us/curriculum/MISmart/intra.htm
http://www.ypha.or.id

Word Count According to MS Word (references not included): 1,770 Words.