We have just celebrated Eid al-Fitr. For a month, we practised\nself-restraint and sharpened our empathy. We concluded that practice\nwith mutual forgiveness, sharing joy, and reaffirming bonds of\nbrotherhood. We call it returning to our innate nature; returning to\npurity, to the purest humanity. But have we truly returned to our innate\nnature? Or have we merely stopped at the ceremony, forgetting its\nessence?<\/p>\n
Two months ago, on 29 January 2026, a 10-year-old child, a\nfourth-grade primary school student in Ngada Regency, East Nusa\nTenggara, ended his life. He left a letter for his mother. He departed\nnot because of violent conflict, not because of bullying, not because of\na natural disaster. He left because he had no money to buy notebooks and\npens costing less than Rp10,000.<\/p>\n
Society was shocked. Various comments emerged on social media.\nOfficials spoke out. Then came the next news: thousands of flood victims\nin Sumatra were still surviving in evacuation tents as Ramadan began.\nThen a tax official was caught by the Corruption Eradication Commission\nwith a modus operandi of laundering trillions of rupiah. Then Kontras\nactivist Andrie Yunus was doused with acid by rogue TNI members after\nrecording a podcast on remilitarisation. Bad news comes one after\nanother without end, until some of us decide to stop being angry. Not\nbecause the situation has improved, but because we have run out of\ncapacity to care. Society experiences what Figley (1995) called\ncompassion fatigue. There is a feeling of exhaustion from being\ncontinuously battered by bad news that does not lead to positive\nchange.<\/p>\n
Society gets angry briefly, then moves on. It repeats like that, and\nthe system that produces the problems continues to run. Unnoticed,\nindifference eventually becomes normal. From an educational perspective,\nthis situation can be interpreted as an ongoing learning activity. It\nhas no syllabus, but it is presented every day to the growing\ngeneration.<\/p>\n
UNPLANNED LESSONS<\/p>\n
Philip W. Jackson, in his book Life in Classrooms (1968), introduced\nthe concept of hidden curriculum. This curriculum consists of a set of\nrules and values not explicitly taught to students in school, but which\nthey can observe. He showed that children do not only learn from what\nteachers teach in class. They also learn by observing how teachers and\nadults around them treat each other, how power is used, and what happens\nwhen someone makes a mistake.<\/p>\n
Paulo Freire, through his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968),\nreminds us that education is never neutral. Every environment always\nteaches something, whether intentionally or not. Children always learn\nfrom their surroundings. The question now is what are the people around\nthem teaching today? What are they internalising?<\/p>\n
Children witness that those in power can act as they please without\nequal consequences. Children also see that rules apply differently\ndepending on who breaks them. Children observe when someone voices\ncriticism, but is responded to not with arguments, but with threats,\neven violence. Children witness empathy being shown only when cameras\nare recording. Children also realise that we no longer discuss the\nprimary school student\u2019s suicide in Ngada less than a month ago.<\/p>\n
Ki Hadjar Dewantara urged us adults to ing ngarsa sung tuladha (be an\nexample when in front\/in power). An example that is not just a slogan,\nbut a living example. An exemplarity seen in every decision, every\nattitude, every way we respond to injustice. If those in front fail to\nbe examples, do not be surprised if those behind learn the wrong\nthings.<\/p>\n
If children continuously see harmful behaviour without equivalent\nmoral consequences, they will learn to normalise it. More worryingly,\nchildren will lose empathy. Empathy requires consistent examples of\ngoodness from the adults around them who show that care is real, not\njust formality or image-building.<\/p>\n
COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY<\/p>\n
Ensuring that our children learn about innate nature and live it is\ncertainly a collective responsibility. Not just the task of teachers in\nschool and parents at home, but also all members of society wherever\nthey are, especially in the digital era with no clear boundaries.<\/p>\n
In school, teachers capable of teaching humanity need their burdens\nand support re-examined. We do not lack committed teachers, but\nunfortunately, they are marginalised. Their burdens keep increasing. Not\nonly teaching burdens, but they are also saddled with administrative\nmatters unrelated to their main task as educators. Teachers\u2019 welfare is\nnot improved either. Teachers who should teach justice become victims of\ninjustice themselves (Jamshaid, Akram & Baber, 2024). Their students\nsee all that. They learn from how adults are treated, not just from how\nadults speak to them.<\/p>\n
However, that responsibility cannot be entirely handed over to\nteachers and schools. The hidden curriculum also occurs outside school,\nboth at home, in public spaces, and on the gadget screens that accompany\nchildren every day. In all those spaces, adults need to develop what\nFreire (1968) called conscientizacao (critical awareness), which arises\nnot from lectures, but from real experiences facing injustice and\nchoosing to respond to it with dignity. Without that awareness, we can\nnever truly be examples.<\/p>\n
Innate nature ultimately is not just about a clean heart after a\nmonth<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-innate-nature-we-have-forgotten-1774824646", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }