Privilege To Complain

Back in 2000, I was caught up in the middle of a potential mass demo asking for a salary raise. The teachers' association invited all branches to come and have meetings in places which were changed based on anonymous text messages in a matter of minutes. It was like coming to a CIA meeting (I watched too many movies, I guess).

We had no teachers' association in our branch and so we had no chairperson or any form of institution. We consist of young, happy teachers who were happy enough to teach, had other life to live and did not even bother about the amount of the salary. As long as we could go to Puncak or Muara Karang for some yummy seafood dishes, we considered ourselves as 'the haves'.

Unfortunately, I was chosen as a rep to come to those meetings. Talking about how happy we were and how we despised any form of demo for our own reasons in those meetings would mean killing myself terribly. Everybody else seemed to be very eager to fight for the cause. I always consulted my colleagues and they came down to one agreement and one agreement only: never sacrifice the students because we felt that we had our own pride as teachers. As educators. Nope, they wouldn't agree with me. They'd eaten me alive for what my friends and I believed what teachers have to be.

Things got deep and the association wanted us to sign a piece of paper in the name of all branches. I immediately called for a meeting with my friends and asked what they wanted me to do. While other teachers from other branches signed the document, we were the only one who didn't want to. THE ONLY ONE.

Want to hear what my friends had to say in that meeting?
'Oh no. We are teachers. We are embarrassed if we go on a demo.'
'Yeah. Besides, people would know how much we earn once they know that this is all for money.'
'No way. Demo? Never. I won't care if they all agree to this. I am not going to.'
'It's not like we are satisfied with what we have. But telling the world how we are not satisfied? Over an amount of money? The world needs to know that?'

I was so proud of my friends. I still am.
The proudest moment is to know that they as teachers think so highly of their profession. I know it's not like they didn't want a raise. Who doesn't? But the pride and joy of the profession, as teachers, is hard to come by. It is not something that a trainer can deliver and make it ingrained in every prospective teachers. It is a given thing based on experience and self-calls.

So, what's the morale of the story?
The job deals with people who may not realize how important what they learn now for their future.
How a teacher views a happy environment at work depends a lot on how he/she sees things.
And last but not least, no matter how unsatisfied the amount of money a teacher gets, there's no way he/she has the privilege to complain, especially to the students who literally pay his/ her salary.

Whoever you are, you don't complain to people about your salary especially when you indicate that all you want is a raise because you (think you) have worked so hard.