TEACHING METAPHOR

TEACHER IS A FARMER

IKA FITRIANI

Teachers have an important role in our daily. They are the real hero for this country since they have been working hard in order to make the young generations are able to write and read. The young generations can know the new knowledge due the teacher help them to transfer it. Thus, we can say that teachers are noble job in this world.

We can say that teaching is quite challenging job. It is not as easy as we imagine. Teaching activity is like a farmer who cultivate paddy in the field. Perhaps, some people will be curious about what the relationship between a teacher and a farmer as both of those jobs are absolutely different. However, if we analysis those two jobs have similar philosophy.

To begin with, we would like to discuss about farmer philosophy. Farmer actually is not an easy job as what many people think about. A farmer has a lot of jobs before and after cultivating the field. His/ her jobs are like an endless cycle which is always rolling every day. One more important thing, farmer is not a job toward stupid or uneducated person. That statement is quite wrong as a farmer has to have a lot of knowledge as well as skills about everything related to agriculture.

One of knowledge that a farmer has to have is about weather, condition of soil, and characteristics of plants. Those three points above are what a farmer has to consider before cultivating the field since they are related and affected one another. Paddy, for instance, is a plant which needs a lot of water and usually planted in a lowland area. Based on the characteristics above we have to know when we should plant paddy. Should we plant it in dry or rainy season? Is it appropriate when we plant paddy in the highland with its cool temperature? Can we plant it in the shore or sandy soil? For whom who do not know this knowledge, of course cannot get good quality paddy.

Besides, a farmer has to have ability as a designer and manager. What does it mean by designer and manager? It may become the questions which come up in your mind. Designer means that farmer should be able in designing the field whether we will plant the crops in form of horizontal or vertical, terasiring, or tumpang sari system. Then, we also have to decide the appropriate distant between each crops that it can absorb the nutrition and grow well. Then, as a manager, farmer should be able in managing the time when he/she should plant seeds, give a pesticide and fertilizer, and have harvest in the best time.

Not only about designing the field and managing the time, a farmer still has to be able to solve the problem in his/her field. Of course, there will be a problem like insect, weeds, and others. They are actually the challenging things that should be solved. Farmer should have ways how to solve the pest that infect the plants. He/she has to decide the appropriate nutrition or pesticide for his/her plants. A farmer should not make a mistake since it will affect the crops, perhaps the crops will died or even unfertile.

Then, a farmer has to have a good ways how to harvest all his/her crops and distribute the product to the consumer. If the farmer has a good procedure in the process of cultivating the crops from the beginning till the end, of course he/she will have a good product. However, a farmer has to still consider the way how to harvest and to distribute the product in the right way in order to get the best quality and fresh product.

Those farmer philosophies above are quite similar to the teacher.  As we have talked, a farmer has to have large knowledge about how to cultivate certain plants. Farmer has to be good in learning about weather, condition of soil, and characteristics of plants and so does a teacher. Teacher as well as a farmer has to have good knowledge toward her/his students’ characteristics, how the condition of his/her school, the resources provided at the school, and other factors. By understanding those kinds of things, a teacher will be better to decide the most appropriate ways or methods based on the situation, condition, and characteristics of students.

Then, as a farmer who has to have an ability to design the field and manage the time well, teacher also is to be able to do so. A teacher is someone who is in charge in designing the teaching methods in the class. He/she has to be able to make the class is life and comfortable that students can absorb materials. Moreover, a teacher should be a good manager as well. Not only managing the time so that the material can be delivered to the students but also managing the class to make it run in order.

If a farmer has many problems in his/her cultivation process, so does a teacher. Both of them have to be able to solve the problem in his/her field. Of course, there are lot problems that a teacher has in the class, such as lack of student motivation, less of resources, and others. However, those problems are not the obstacle in teaching learning process. Teachers have to be creative and innovative in facing any problems. We can use not only conventional ways (lecturing in front of the class) but we also can use various ways by using games, discussion, songs, and other ways in improving students motivation. Then, improvement is also important that teacher should socialize and share with others to have some improvement that he/she is not stuck in his/her own point of view.

Furthermore, the statement that a farmer has to have a good ways in harvesting all his/her crops and distributing the product to the consumer are related to a teacher who is responsible toward students’ success. Teachers have to design the atmosphere which supports the students in gaining materials that students can be success not only in examination but also in their life. When students can pass the examination or get a job means that teachers are successful in his teaching learning job. Moreover, when the students become a successful person in his/her future is a kind of pride and happiness for teacher just like a farmer whose crops are good and have a high price in the market.

 In conclusion, when we talk about teachers’ job, we can relate it toward farmers’ job. Even though both of these occupations sound different, they are quite similar actually. From the philosophy, those two occupations have a lot of relationship, such as teacher is farmer, crops are the students, field is the class, pest is teaching problems, fertilizer and pesticide is the teaching methods, harvesting is teaching learning result.