Students First Days in School Need to Be Made Constructive

       In the past days and weeks schools across Indonesia have been opening up their doors again to receive students entering the new school year. Naturally enough, this has been a time of many trials and tribulations as existing students join new classrooms and new students try to find their way around a new school.

       Such times would be difficult enough for even adults. In adult life we need time to adapt to new settings and find our footing and direction to settle in and come to terms with what lies ahead. This kind of experience, difficult enough in adulthood, can prove extremely challenging for the, as yet, still young and forming hearts and minds of school-age children.

      During the first days back at school great opportunities exist to try to develop a sense of community that will help students settle in and have a firm foundation on which to build their studies during the coming year. There are almost constant complaints that there is too much to study for school students and yet time is, every year, wasted on negative and useless orientation day pranks and fooling around. Surely, when time pressures are of such a concern and teachers complain that they have too much to teach from the curriculum, the first days of school would be a great time to help students prepare for the challenges ahead. Constructive team- building and guidance towards much needed study skills would serve these students far better than nonsense tasks and ridicule.

        Schools should design these days carefully and not let them be so negligently and dangerously wasted. The benefits of good early learning experiences can be considerable and the duty that schools should exercise to consider a child's psychological welfare really have to leave little room in the first days of school for such waste and ridiculousness.

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