Between Brick In The Wall, Oemar Bakri's Teachers And Young Undergraduates Who Are Still Relevant Today

JAKARTA We don't need no education, We don't need no mind control, No dark sarcasm in the classroom, Teachers leave them kids alone... That's a lyric from Brick in the Wall, which was popularized by Pink Floyd in 1979. The lyrics of this song are almost similar to the Sukatani Band, both tough and critically nuanced without fear.

In lyric, this song describes the experience of an individual in an authoritarian system of education and destroys children's creativity and individuality. The lyrics of this song criticize education that is too disciplined and separates students from the real world. One of the most famous lines of this song is We don't need no education which voice disapproval of educational systems that form individuals regardless of their potential creativity.

Another Brick in the Wall is also famous for its echoing chorus with students singing We don't need no education. This section reflects the narrative in the song where students try to fight systems that dampen their creativity. Also in the part of No dark sarcasm in the classroom, teacher leave them kids alone, Pink Floyd highlights insults or cynical attitudes that sometimes appear in academic circles.

This lyrics expresses the desire that teachers not treat students with violence or belittle them. Pink Floyd describes the need for space and freedom for students to grow and learn in their own way.

The songwriter, Roger Waters, said the song did highlight the education system at the time not only bad, but also had a very burdensome authoritarian role. In the music video, various pictures, sounds, and metaphors are displayed to express the argument that education with the model is meaningless.

According to him, the contemporary education system actually displays a lack of uniqueness and independence in students and indicates a poor education system that involves the authoritarian role of educational institutions that are based solely on the fulfillment of industry and moral enforcement.

Education observer from Unesa, Warsono said, talking about education is a fun thing on the one hand but also sad on the other. On the one hand, education is a way of civilization towards a better future, a humane future. Education is a human step. Education can explain various things on earth, from itself, the environment, society and even beliefs in God. The knowledge gained through education can open the horizon about the life of the world around it. Education answers human curiosity of something.

Therefore, education is an important step so that these various knowledges can be known by humans. So there are many educational approaches made by humans so that knowledge and awareness of humanity exist and appear within humans. Unfortunately there are so many cases, both tentative and structural ones that make education seem to lose direction. The educational approach is so formalistic, rigid, and even often full of intimidation," he said, Wednesday, February 26, 2025.

He considered that the song Brick in the Wall performed by Pink Floyd in 1979 could be one way to reject a rigid, formalistic, and even intimidating educational system. Education is not a fun path but a path full of torture that is not clear where it is headed. In other words, criticism of education from both the curriculum and approach system seems not to be just a local issue but is an issue that has been global.

Cases of violence in the world of education not only occur in Indonesia but also in many other parts of the earth. The dominance of teachers who play the role of the highest authority in class and school gives rise to dictatorships at the classroom or school level. In Indonesia, for example, in the era before 2000 the teacher phenomenon was the center of everything that was still thick. In those times, there will often be various stories of teachers who are fierce, like to be angry, threatening their students, not even threatening, but acts of violence often occur.

So it was familiar for students at that time to talk about their experience of the actions of teachers who threw lime, eraser, ruler on their students because they were considered to have made a mistake or had caused trouble. So it's not surprising that there is also a story of students who don't want to go to school because school is an angker place to visit. Because students are afraid of being scolded by their teachers or even because they are bullied by their school friends.

Schools are like a haunted building because there are scary incidents in them. When educational institutions become an institution that 'protects' and 'legates' various acts of violence and intimidation, it is in educational institutions that the culture of violence and intimidation develops and is embraced by students who do learn from their daily lives at school. At the time of acts of violence and intimidation carried out by educational institutions, it means that indirectly children have been taught to commit violence and intimidation in the future and this is considered the right thing," explained Warsono.

The culture of violence and intimidation is continuously reproduced in a system and culture in educational institutions so as to form generations who consider violence and intimidation to be reasonable and justifiable. Educational institutions will ultimately form new fears of students attending school. Schools create myths that successful education is education that is done in hard ways," he continued.

The former Chancellor of Unesa is grateful, in the eras after the 2000s, especially in Indonesia, gradually various approaches in the education system have begun to change, although it is still in the process and has not been fully successful, but these efforts are there and should be appreciated. One example that can be taken is the teacher's approach to students in the education process is no longer allowed to commit violence and intimidation. Teachers start teaching and learning activities in classes with a humanistic approach.

Teachers are more emphasized in taking a psychological approach to students in case of problems in the teaching and learning process. Schools are currently trying to be a fun place, not a scary one. Schools are no longer the walls of humanistic relationship barriers between teachers and their students," said Warsono.