EVERYONE HAS THE WANT TO LEARN
EVERYONE HAS THE WANT TO LEARN …
EVERYONE HAS THE WANT TO LEARN …
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It’s so easy to fool a kid, right? The saying, ‘Like taking candy from a baby’ comes in to play. That’s what I see a lot in these modern days. The Indonesian teachers that taught me through my school years, I would say more than half of them at least once in their lives said
“Kamu memang tidak ada NIAT BELAJAR!”
To me, this is a lie. It’s sad that most of the times, the students believe in this lie. From then on, they start to think that learning is a hassle. We go by the logic, if you are forced to do something, that meant that it was bad. Chores, school, curfew, jobs, these are examples of things that are forced upon us. We don’t like being forced. When I say we, I mean humans. It’s in our nature to do the things we want to do, not because we’re told to do so. Studying should not be forced upon us, but rather we as students volunteering to do so.
When a teacher says this, it shows that she has given up. Why? Because everyone has the want to learn. It is in our nature to learn. It’s just that sometimes, the teachers don’t see this side in them.
I had this high school friend back in the day, who was the average delinquent. He said to me “I was in an airplane yesterday and the plane vibrated. It was in the air! ‘quote: kok geter2, mang ada polisi tidur apa?’” I just smiled. I myself didn’t know the answer.
The point of that simple event in my life was that even delinquents have burning questions inside. Teachers need to take advantage of this. It’s the questions we ask that make us POTENTIALLY smarter. I say potentially, because questions themselves don’t make you directly smart. The real magic is in finding those answers. (This is a technique I used for studying)
He asked me and not the teacher because I was closer to him. The teacher needs to get close to their students and show them that it’s okay to ask questions. The main reason students don’t ask questions is because they’re scared that they’ll get laughed at by the whole class.
There was also an event in my life where this happened:
It was Geography class, 10 minutes to the bell, I suggested to my friends that it would be a good idea to ask questions and stall the teacher from giving us schoolwork. I asked about earth’s core, my friend about the reason for the sky to be blue. There was a girl in the back who asked the question, “Are there aliens?” I guess you can predict what happened here. Our teacher laughed at her saying that aliens is pure fiction and a way for Hollywood to make a living.
No question should be laughed at. Usually the craziest ideas are ones that succeed. Why? Because it’s thinking out of the box. People thought Newton was crazy. People thought Britain’s tilting train was crazy. Now for a topic like aliens, even scientists who studied for years (maybe even their whole lives) are stumbled by this question. Is there life out there? The fact that most alien sightings are fraud does not mean that there are no aliens at all.
This is the first step in showing that everyone has the want to learn. Why? Because information is not knowledge. Knowing something isn’t the same as understanding it.
And after this first step of simple questions and answers you are ready to go deeper and travel the deeper questions. But the question and answer strategy should always put into play. Don’t study if you don’t have a reason to do so. It’ll be useless. Midway, you’ll be asking yourself, why am I studying trigonometry?
The stuff you learn should benefit you langsung. Not a month later when you receive a test, not decades later until you get a job. The stuff you study SHOULD have meaning. Otherwise, why study? Einstein didn’t do all those crazy genius stuff because he had too, but because he wanted to. Not because he would be punished by his parents if he didn’t.
The teacher should provide a suitable environment for the student to ask questions. The teacher should also grasp the students attention in a Tanya-jawab way to bring out their curiosity.
Example
“Anak-anak. Bapak cerita dulu ya sebelum kita mulai Pelajaran.” Students love these kinds of things. It’s like they’re rebelling, a change of pace, changing the system. “Minggu bapak pulang kampung naik pesawat terbang. Nah, pada saat itu, bapak berpikir, kenapa pesawat it bisa terbang? Padahal pesawat lebih berat daripada udara? Ada yang tau gk disini?”
This is bringing emotions into play. This is bringing the 5 senses into play. This is the real way to teach. Answers without questions are pointless and dull. Planes fly because … Boats float because … Computers work because … Rockets work because …
Why do we study this way? Because the government wants to produce workers faster. Most school books are like this, mainly because it explains so much with using less paper. IF TEACHERS IMITATE SCHOOL BOOKS, I’D RATHER READ AT HOME.
The job of a teacher isn’t to give students information on a silver platter, but to use the 5 senses to bring out their curiosity and emotions. In fact, teacher’s purposes are to GIVE THE STUDENTS A REASON TO STUDY. If you’re not doing that, then you’re not doing your job. Why? Because students are smart enough to learn by themselves.
Learning is not studying. Learning can be about bikes, how they work, car brakes, how they work. Ships, how they float. Then after studying the basics of bikes or planes what not, they could go professional and into the deep formula’s and complexity of aerodynamics. This can all be done if students were given some freedom in what they learn. Right now, the way our system works, no. You don’t get a say in what you learn. The standard curriculum is just that, standard, all the same, boring as hell with lots of formula’s that yet to have meaning. You know, the government thinks us kids can’t teach ourselves. That we’re not ready to have the freedom we wanted. We are forced to study what THEY think is good for us. But who knows what’s better for you, than yourself?
Thanks for reading. This is a lot of counter intuitive stuff, hope you can follow up :)
