By Eva Cipta Mega (XII IPA-1)

The 1st Winner of the National Essay Writing Contest

 

In the process of building a nation, there are many aspects that should be improved such as economy, social welfare, the ethics of working of the government and the citizen, national security, as well as education, a very important aspect which can determine the existence of a nation. Improving education obviously means improving young generation of the nation as they are the ones who will continue the nation’s current accomplishments to keep existing as a nation in the future. Indisputably, improving young generation can not be separated from the great role of teachers in educating them in school since they have power to transform the young generation the most. So, teachers can also decide the fate of this nation in the future. This essay will discuss how teachers have power to transform our education.

First, teachers are the first ‘helpers’ for young children in early education to get to know with the ‘world’ other than their own family,  as well as to be introduced to basic knowledge. A group of people can be considered as the young generation of the nation since the day they were born. (www.indonesianembassy.org.uk). Even if they cannot talk or interact yet, but since then, they are already admitted as one of the nation’s citizen who will be taking a role in the future. It is expected that they will make a great progress for the nation’s future. But unfortunately, due to some reasons, not all the expectation can be realized because they are not well-handled since they were kids. Schools can be the place where children learn how to interact or communicate with others besides how to learn basic knowledge around them, and the main ‘helpers’ is the teachers.

Secondly, teachers are character builders. Apparently, many people think that school is only a place for students to gain knowledge and skills. But actually, school is also the place to develop their affections by building their characters. A school and its education can be considered to be the media that helps the children’s growth in their cognition, and again, in affections because they have teachers. Teachers are supposed to know how to make children or students learn and how to build their characters. With the motivation, guidance and supervision of teachers, they can learn to be responsible, honest, tolerant, persistent as well as independent. Other than that, teachers will also help their students to raise their empathy towards the others and maintain their spirituality.

Thirdly, teachers have power to shape the way of their student’s thinking. In teaching, commonly teachers understand how a student thinks about something as they know the thinking stage of their students. Teachers will understand that not every wrong answer is wrong, and not every right answer is right as well, especially on essay test. Even if a student answers the question wrong, but there is obviously a reason why they answer in such a way. With their teaching competence and experience, teachers can practice their students with thinking skills which suit the students’ ages like identifying, analyzing or evaluating. Teachers can also guide their students to give rational reasons because they may not write precisely as that the book writes. As long as their answer is in the same meaning or justifiable, then there is nothing wrong because what matters the most is they can explain what is on their mind when they answer the question and justify it. By doing this, in the future the students will have a critical thinking skill to solve problems and to make decisions so that they will not be easily influenced by other people nor by the negative impacts of this global era..

Concerning these roles, teachers can be said to be the trainers of self-qualities who are making the students ready to face the real world in the future. The simplest example is when a teacher tells a child in kindergarten that it is actually okay being away from his or her parents. Indirectly, teacher is teaching the student to be independent which is one of many qualities that a person needs in the future. There are still many self-qualities that teachers indirectly teach in school besides the examples I have mentioned above.

To sum up, being aware of and attempting to actively play their roles, teachers can be great power to transform our nation’s education which also means to improve our nation’s future. There are many ways that teachers can and should carry out to realize this. Teachers should be the ‘helpers’ in early education to help their pupils learn basic knowledge and other life skills needed, build students’ character during the learning process in school, and lastly, shape students’ way of thinking. That is how powerful a teacher’s role is in transforming education. By focusing on their roles, the fate of this nation will be guaranteed to keep existing as a developed or improved nation.