3 Reflections on Educating from a Teacher
Things I only got to truly understand from someone who has directly impacted lives — one little soul at a time
Aside from the pandemic, 2020 was arguably one of the best years of my life. One of the highlights of the year was when I got awarded Beasiswa Iman Usman, a merit-based mentoring scholarship with a selection rate of just 0.13%. There, I met 19 other amazing individuals from across the country who are between my age and somewhere in their early to mid-20s. One of these people I’m closest with was Eleazar Evan Moeljono a.k.a. Ezer, a then-English major who just graduated and is now teaching at Sekolah Kristen Lentera Ambarawa, a school somewhere near Semarang (still no idea where exactly, really want to visit someday).
We’ve had lots of chats throughout the years, and I certainly learned a lot from him every single time — which, by the way, can also be said by others that have exchanged conversations with him. This is a summary of lessons about educating from his days teaching kids in kindergarten, elementary, and junior high school.
Educating is a combination of heart and mind
One story he told me left a mark. It was about what he faced when teaching a kindergarten class. One boy, in particular, had a sudden tantrum and kept on crying throughout the day. While other teachers failed to make him stop, Ezer did. The difference between his approach and the others’ was that instead of asking the boy to stop, he looked the child in the eye, asked him why he was crying, and agreed on a solution. By the way, the reason the boy cried was that he “wanted to become a policeman”, and so they agreed for him to become a policeman in the classroom (yes, that was the extremely severe problem that made him cry).
The other teachers at the time really tried to comfort the boy, hugging him and weeping his tears. At first, I thought that was a good thing. But as we heard, the boy only stopped crying when he was heard. It’s not like the teachers did not care for the boy, it’s clearly shown that they did. But that may just be the problem. Only using the heart is not sufficient to educate. It takes the mind too, and vice versa. Quoting what Ezer told me, what the boy needed was not only a hug or wipe in his eyes, but rather someone to listen and understand what he wanted — to be treated like a whole person that is respected in his way of seeing, listening, and doing things.
On the other extreme, we see people in the system (talking about the government) and even private entities (startups) that are highly rational. These people who usually grew up in a privileged background and went to top universities tend to see things from a macro perspective and a more idealistic point of view. As a result, they produce things that are far from the realities of most people that are going to be affected by their work. The heart, in this case, is missing.
The best practice, as observed, is to combine both heart and mind. A use case of this would be when an educational technology product is made. The mind (rationale) should be used to come up with an objective and formulate ways to achieve it. The heart (compassion) is used to elucidate how it comes into practice, understanding the challenges students will face when using the product.
It doesn’t take a village to raise a child, but a country
If there’s anyone I’m rooting for to become the next Minister of Education, that would be Ezer. When I brought this to him, he asked me a counter-question, “Why not the Minister of Social Affairs?” He then answered his own question by adding that most of the ‘learning’ happens outside of class. As a matter of fact, some of the most contributing factors to a child’s growth aren’t even learning.
From his experiences visiting the homes of his students and getting to know their parents, he found that the reasons some of his students don’t excel at school vary a lot, from divorced parents to a lack of proper food on the table. Here’s the harsh revelation. We can have all the best people at the Ministry of Education (literally, we now have McKinsey consultants making beautiful PPTs there) and teachers who graduated in the top 2% of their class just like in successful education systems, but if children still only eat small portions of food with poor nutritional values twice a day, students will not grasp anything effectively.
This doesn’t stop at the state level, though. Private stakeholders such as startups and learning institutions also play significant roles in shaping the way students think. Innovation, especially those targeted at solving the fundamentals of one’s aptitude fundamentally, should be supported. This is why when people ask me why I decided to build in education, my answer would be that there is still so much room/gap in our education that may only be addressed by entities whose hands are not tied to any bureaucracies.
Impact in quality, not quantity
This is something I sort of realized than listened from him. I once asked if he had a plan to work in the government, per se the Ministry of Education to create policies. This was quite early in his teaching days, since at the time, I thought he was going to take some time working on the ground to garner field expertise which he would use to eventually formulate policies that would be used at a larger scale. This was a super logical question since according to my view (and many others’), his talents are too good not to be used for the larger purpose.
His answer? No. I was surprised at first, but his reasoning made so much sense. He said that there is a difference between making policies or curricula and actually being the one to deliver that to the children. There’s a very unique and satisfying feeling when you see a child grow up in a better condition than they would’ve had you not been there to accompany them. Designing courses that hundreds of thousands of teachers use is great, but you can’t be the one to ensure that the materials will get to change someone’s life.
This semester, I’m taking a class on the philosophy of law. As a believer of utilitarianism in its conventional meaning, I was quite intrigued by the concept of qualitative utility that J.S. Mill brought up. We must always keep in mind that no alive being ever deserves to be treated as a statistical figure. The idea of making a visible contribution to the bigger picture sure seems cool and all, but there is also beauty in changing a single life in a big way. On that note, I would like to thank every teacher out there who has impacted the lives of children. You are all heroes without capes.
By no means am I saying that his take on education is the only valid one there is and that everyone should do things like Ezer. At the end of the day, he is a teacher, I am a startup founder, and Nadiem is a minister. Everyone plays a uniquely important role in improving equitable education for our future generations. So, what role will you play?
Want to get to know Ezer more? Visit his personal page.
Don’t hesitate to reach him out directly by knocking his DM!
