Ellena Brilian
Foundation of Teaching and Learning
Iwan Syahril
15 November 2019

From my interviews with two teachers in SD Kupu-Kupu (Ms. N & Ms. D), I got many new insights on why people want to be teachers and why people do not want to. The first teacher that I interviewed was Ms. D, here are some questions that I asked and also the answers given by both teachers:
What makes you want to be a teacher?
Ms. D: “The beginning when I decided to be a teacher started when I was in university because I took special needs major, so it is obvious that I was going to be a teacher. I indeed had started teaching since the first semester as a private teacher and stuff, and in the 5th semester, I have started teaching in SD Kupu-Kupu. Before I graduated from university, I have started teaching. So if asked, I have always wanted to be a teacher, but since I took special needs major, I did not teach in extraordinary schools and I was supposed to teach there, I chose this school because this school is an inclusion school.”

Ms. N: “For me, it had always been my dream to be a teacher, I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. I went to IKIP Bandung which is UPI now. From the beginning, I have always loved children, if I was asked: “what do you want to be in the future?” I would answer “a teacher”, but my dream was a kindergarten teacher. As time flew by, I had a PPL in a high school in Bandung, but seeing the situation in high school and junior high school nowadays, I thought I would not be able to handle them. I finally decided to be an elementary school teacher.”

What do you think makes people interested to be a teacher?
Ms. D: “In my opinion, what makes people interested to be a teacher is because there will always be new things to be discovered every day, the jobs are also not monotonous because it is related to kids and human beings. We can explore what we have for them.”

“From a religious perspective, it is said that knowledge will stay forever. And also for the working hour is unlike the employee’s which is from morning to afternoon. Meanwhile, we know that women have to take care of households, so I think being a teacher is suitable for me because it is flexible.

What do you think makes people not interested to be a teacher?
Ms. D: “In my opinion, it is because the issue says that the salary is low, there is no career stage, I think it is more into that kind of stuff because it is heart’s calling, isn’t it?

“Perhaps people are not interested to be a teacher because, in the past, it was the prosperity issue due to the salary, I think. And it is not that well-known if people are asked “what is your job?” it would be cooler for them if they answer that they work in the bank or as marketing, perhaps it is still about the salary. Even though for me, being a teacher is fun, we can get to know many types of children, there will always be challenges to face. Especially because this is an inclusion school, so it is not monotonous, every batch will be different.

How can you attract people’s interest to be a teacher?”
Ms. D: “To change people’s perspective, sometimes when I hang out with my friends we love to share our working life, and then they would be interested in the flexible working time. Because usually, teachers’ working time is unlike the employee’s, the minimal time is at 3 PM the maximal working time is until 4 PM, there are also many holidays because when the students are having a holiday, so do the teachers, so I think they are more interested in that aspect. However, since certain major is required to become a teacher, but if they do not have it, they would usually be interested to see the time flexibility, they would be interested to be like a private teacher due to the flexible teaching schedule and also how it helps their financial condition.”

“If we see it now, it already prospers in my perspective about the government’s hard work. For example, I already got the certification so I got something from the government, there are also grant funds from them so our profession is more taken care of now. So to attract their interest, I think we can explain the equality between the teaching profession and the others by the funds and stuff although perhaps it is not applied all over Indonesia yet. But in Jakarta, based on what I know is already pretty good.”

What do you think are the biggest challenges in being a teacher?
Ms. D: “Based on my experience, actually, the problem in inclusion school is not that hard, but there was once a student here who liked to do physical violence if he got mad he would throw things away. If people heard that story, they would think “why would you want to handle such thing?”, so the challenges are more to the children itself.”

Ms. N: “I think it is more like how to look happy all the time in front of them even if we have many problems in mind because they will not understand our situation either since they are still kids, it is more like the challenge to be professional all the time.”

There are some differences and also the similarity in the answers given by both teachers and Ayer’s points. For the first question, it is related to his point where he said that teaching is a powerful calling. Both teachers stated that it has always been their dream to be a teacher which means that it is their calling that comes from the heart. However, when being asked about what will make people want to be a teacher nowadays, they focused on the prosperity given by the government for the teachers and also time flexibility, they did not mention anything about how teaching is a respectable thing to do, unlike one of Ayer’s points where he said that teaching is respectable, meaningful and relevant.

For the reasons not to be a teacher, they both have similar points just like Ayers’. They stated about people still think that teachers are badly paid and have no future, how a teacher is still seen as a low profession and the challenges they have to face in class that people would rather avoid such as naughty students and stuff. However, in the part where people think teachers are badly paid, they both claimed that teachers’ prosperity is much better now compared to the situation in the past, so that assumption is no longer relevant.

In the Indonesia context based on my own experience, I agree with most of their statements. I think a teacher is a very promising profession although the salary may be vary depending on where they work, a teacher is also seen as a noble profession nowadays. I also agree that the biggest challenges in being a teacher are professionalism and the ability to deal with any kind of situation because it requires self-control and endless patience. In conclusion, I can say that it is a very challenging profession with many flaws and unpredictable things waiting ahead but still, it can also be a world-changing profession.

I am eternally grateful for the opportunity (and also obligation) given by my university as a FOE student to have School experience program (SEP) because it truly gave me new insights about education and especially children. In the beginning, i had no idea about how things would be, i just tried to follow all the instructions and advices given by my amazing lecturers. I got the placement in SD Kupu-kupu which is located in Jl. Bangka VII. I am glad that i had already got the overview of this school even before i stepped my foot there because i got to meet one representative who explained me so many interesting things about it on a faculty session.

My first day was on 30rd October 2019, i was a little bit nervous when i entered the 2nd grade class. Fortunately, the teachers were so friendly and warm, they welcomed me nicely and even introduced me to the students. Some of them even came to me to introduce themselves and ask me my name, i found it really heartwarming and cute to see how enthusiastic they were when i first came. After that, i started observing them to choose which one is the most interesting to be observed. I finally chose one of them which is “A”.

I chose “A” because he is ‘special’ compared to the others, he could never sit still and remain silent and would always find something to do, which i found interesting. He was the kind of student that the teachers often remind to be silent and yet he still did not stop. The interesting thing is that he did not like teasing or bothering his friends, but he would usually have fun with his own world and imagination. The teachers explained me that he is considered as hyperactive but he is currently on therapy to reduce that side.

On the next week, i had to choose another children to observe and i chose one named “D”. The teachers told me that he is indeed the kind of children who likes to do uncommon things such as making unnecessary body gestures and noisy voice. However, i found it unique because he was never afraid to respond to the teachers or to talk to me. Some of them were very shy to even talk to me, they would just stare at me with curiousty in their eyes, but he was different.

Time flew by and everything had to come to an end, my SEP ended on 12 November 2019. I personally feel that 2 weeks are too long to be used only for observing 2 children, but it is too short for me to spend my time with them. I had to say goodbye when i had got very close with some of them, there was even one kid who would always come to me just to ask for help. She would say “Ms. Ellena, please help me wear this hijab” with her eyes shining so bright, she even shared many things about her family, pets and her baby little brother. One of the most memorable moments were before the teachers ended the class, Ms. N gave me the opportunity to speak on the front of the class to say goodbye, they were like “Miss why do you have to leave? I want to follow you” which successfully touched my heart.

This 2 weeks have been completely lifechanging for me, i got to spend my time with Ajeng, Rey, Luvita and Rani everyday, we got to share how our day went at the canteen and laugh on each other. I got to learn and broaden my perspective about teachers, children and education. I became more aware that teaching is a never ending process that we, as educators will have in lifetime. I did not only observe their behavior as a student and children, i also observed and learned the amazing learning process that the teachers created in the class. I am completely excited to see what the future has in store for my upcoming SEP, i truly can’t wait!