You are going to have your first evaluation test this week. The first test will be on the subject of PKN (Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan - Nationalism), whereby you have to understand - or in your case to memorize - the five religions in Indonesia, also what their house of worship and religious celebration days are called. You are also required to know about different culture in Indonesia, their local songs and traditional dances. The subject is aimed to make us respect differences in our country.
On the subject of religions, I can see that all those words are hollow to you. Otherwise, you would have asked me why there are so many religions, while they all have the same intention. Or what makes one choose one? I don’t know how, but there must be a better way – rather just than just asking a kid to memorize what each house of worship are called – to make a kid understand the concept of respecting others’ belief, isn’t?
And when we talked about culture, I asked you whether your teacher have explained about Indonesia as the biggest archipelago, have your teacher showed you a map of Indonesia. And surprisingly (well, actually I’m not really surprised), they haven’t! Now, what good is it to know that the song Ampar-ampar Pisang is from South Kalimantan and Tari Piring (the Plate Dance) is originated from South Sumatera when you don’t even understand that Indonesia is the largest archipelago? Not to mention the words Bhinneka Tunggal Ika which must sound meaningless to you?
Another thing that I found it strange is about the number of books that you have for the various subjects. According to the national curriculum, first graders are not supposed to master reading and writing. You are supposed to begin learning about it. But contradictively, your entire lesson requires you to be able to read and write. You have books for every subject. You even have a multiple choice as part of your day-to-day practice. Isn’t it strange? Luckily, you have no problem in reading or writing since I hired a teacher to give you extra lesson twice a week when you were in the kindergarten.
---ooOoo---
Anyway, after dinner, you picked up a book about our planet, different countries and different seasons. Now, this was more interesting to you. You studied a picture of planet earth carefully
You: There is a lot of water on our planet
Me: Yes, our planet mostly consists of water. That’s also why you should never litter, to prevent flood
You: No, I never litter (Good!). If I litter, there will be flood, and when there’s flood, we will have more and more water on earth
You paused, still looking at the picture, then:
You: But how come the water doesn’t fall off from our planet?
Me: Because there is gravity. This gravity also makes us always stand on the ground
Then I went on explaining excitedly about galaxies and universe, up to a point that it’s getting too much for you. So you just laughed and shouted “Mama, I’m getting confused, you are being too animated …..!” Ha…ha…ha, this reminds me that I am talking to a 6-year-old, I shouldn’t be too excited!
Hm, I wonder whether you will turn out to be a good citizen of the universe, rather than just being a good Indonesian citizen as what the subject of PKN is trying to achieve. Who knows, maybe you will be the first person encountering a friendly alien? Or maybe you will be the one discovering a new planet with human beings? With the kind of interest and enthusiasm that you showed me, I believe it is not impossible.
(Written on September 4, 2006)
On the subject of religions, I can see that all those words are hollow to you. Otherwise, you would have asked me why there are so many religions, while they all have the same intention. Or what makes one choose one? I don’t know how, but there must be a better way – rather just than just asking a kid to memorize what each house of worship are called – to make a kid understand the concept of respecting others’ belief, isn’t?
And when we talked about culture, I asked you whether your teacher have explained about Indonesia as the biggest archipelago, have your teacher showed you a map of Indonesia. And surprisingly (well, actually I’m not really surprised), they haven’t! Now, what good is it to know that the song Ampar-ampar Pisang is from South Kalimantan and Tari Piring (the Plate Dance) is originated from South Sumatera when you don’t even understand that Indonesia is the largest archipelago? Not to mention the words Bhinneka Tunggal Ika which must sound meaningless to you?
Another thing that I found it strange is about the number of books that you have for the various subjects. According to the national curriculum, first graders are not supposed to master reading and writing. You are supposed to begin learning about it. But contradictively, your entire lesson requires you to be able to read and write. You have books for every subject. You even have a multiple choice as part of your day-to-day practice. Isn’t it strange? Luckily, you have no problem in reading or writing since I hired a teacher to give you extra lesson twice a week when you were in the kindergarten.
---ooOoo---
Anyway, after dinner, you picked up a book about our planet, different countries and different seasons. Now, this was more interesting to you. You studied a picture of planet earth carefully
You: There is a lot of water on our planet
Me: Yes, our planet mostly consists of water. That’s also why you should never litter, to prevent flood
You: No, I never litter (Good!). If I litter, there will be flood, and when there’s flood, we will have more and more water on earth
You paused, still looking at the picture, then:
You: But how come the water doesn’t fall off from our planet?
Me: Because there is gravity. This gravity also makes us always stand on the ground
Then I went on explaining excitedly about galaxies and universe, up to a point that it’s getting too much for you. So you just laughed and shouted “Mama, I’m getting confused, you are being too animated …..!” Ha…ha…ha, this reminds me that I am talking to a 6-year-old, I shouldn’t be too excited!
Hm, I wonder whether you will turn out to be a good citizen of the universe, rather than just being a good Indonesian citizen as what the subject of PKN is trying to achieve. Who knows, maybe you will be the first person encountering a friendly alien? Or maybe you will be the one discovering a new planet with human beings? With the kind of interest and enthusiasm that you showed me, I believe it is not impossible.
(Written on September 4, 2006)
No comments:
Post a Comment