Experiment makes 'school' super for needy youngsters
Experiment makes 'school' super for needy youngsters
By Lucia Esti Elihami
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Mochtar Buchori's article, titled Super schools making inroads into RI society, which appeared in this paper on Jan. 6, 1996, and a subsequent letter to the editor by Nina Stoltz (The Jakarta Post Jan. 9, 1996) opened a discussion on the phenomenon of super schools.
The idea of super schools is usually associated with top facilities, English language instruction and high IQ students.
But super schools which emphasize superb facilities are only affordable for a very privileged few. Hence, they will contribute to the already widening gap between the haves and the have nots.
In the same vein, super schools which only serve high IQ students may be very useful for our country but this is also a kind of elitism. A person reared from the very beginning in a superior environment, either in school or in the family, may develop an intolerant attitude towards those who are not so intelligent or those who are weak, poor and handicapped.
What kind of super school would be good and healthy to develop?
There is no definite answer to this question. Nevertheless, Mrs. Stoltz's opinion in her letter is worth considering. Super schools must be characterized by the superiority of the approach and method employed to the learning-teaching process, and not by any other superficial attributes. Essentially, they must incorporate approaches and methods which are far more capable of meeting students' present and future needs than ordinary schools.
In Yogyakarta, an experimental "super" elementary school project is now under way. This is a joint project between The Kanisius Foundation, The Dynamics of Basic Education Foundation and Grasindo Publishing Company. Here, the word super is placed between quotation marks because most of the people involved in this enterprise are reluctant to use that term for this project.
Better methods and approaches to education are something basic, something all students everywhere deserve to have.
The Mangunan Experimental Basic Education is an educational experiment conducted in the Kanisius Mangunan Elementary School at Kalitirto, Berbah, Sleman, Yogyakarta. The elementary school was founded in 1964 by the Yogyakarta branch of the Kanisius Foundation, but the project was not started until 1994. It is scheduled to run until 2003.
The project is chaired by Y.B. Mangunwijaya, assisted by some of the senior lecturers of the Yogyakarta-based Sanata Dharma University, education experts from Grasindo, and teachers and social workers from the Dynamics of Basic Education Foundation and Kanisius Mangunan School.
Most of the instructional activities in this experimental school refer to the 1994 national curriculum. However, the application of the curriculum is adapted to the local situation and conditions, especially to the specific characteristics of the students attending the school, who are mostly poor. Special attention is also given to the students' stages of psychological development when applying the curriculum.
Children from poor families experience enough depreciatory treatment from their surroundings. They have had enough of the harsh treatment, abuse, mockery, ridicule, humiliation, anger and indifference, which are specific to the culture of the poor. These conditions may hamper their learning process.
For this reason, before being involved in the learning- teaching process, these children should first be cured of their fear. Being freed from fear of being rebuked, of being ridiculed, of being criticized when making mistakes and of being badly treated by teachers and peers will help students from the poorer areas to be braver, more eager to participate in learning and more willing to take the risk of exploring new territories of knowledge and science.
The educational atmosphere developed in the Kanisius Mangunan Experimental School is that of love and reverence. Both these concepts are inspired by our traditions of asih (love) and ajrih (awe and reverence).
Kanisius teachers must always pay attention to the students, listen to them, praise them. They are to be more of a guide and friend to the students than an instructor. Also, the spirit of competition is avoided.
Although the children are encouraged to attain the highest achievement possible, they must do so in solidarity with their peers. Success is not viewed in terms of individual performance, but in relation to the performance of the group as a whole.
In this atmosphere of love, caring and understanding, the students will see the school as an environment where they can be free to play with their friends, enjoy their friendships and learn to live together.
Besides functioning as friends of the students, teachers should also facilitate the children's assimilation of knowledge necessary to their way of life. During this process, the teachers might find they need to push the students do a certain task or occasionally find it necessary to rebuke the students.
Hence, awe and reverence of the teacher on the part of the students is required. To promote successful learning, the love and reverence in the learning-teaching process should be balanced. Students who understand that what teachers do is done out of their love for them, will not be offended or hurt when admonished.
The methods employed in Mangunan are a combination of the latest methods in education, which are relevant to the culture of the students. The teachers are periodically upgraded on these methods. The methods are especially designed to instill the children with explorative, creative and integrated personalities.
It is expected that when these goals have been attained, the students will grow into mature and independent persons, who are more prepared to face life, especially the realities of living in the lower part of the social stratum with all its fierce struggles.
Most of the Mangunan students will not go to universities, nor even to senior high schools. It will be necessary for them to be prepared to join the workforce. For that reason, learning by pure repetition is kept to a minimum. Emphasis is put on learning for understanding. It is expected that after finishing their studies, the students will be equipped with the basic knowledge and skills to deal with life and the problems life presents.
The majority of the educational activities in the school are devoted to outdoor learning. Outdoor activities include work experience, in this case learning to appreciate and do menial jobs. Other outdoor activities include learning to relate the knowledge the students get in the classroom to the tasks they may face in daily life. For example, in the lesson about photosynthesis, the students are required to look closely at a tree to observe the parts of the tree involved in photosynthesis.
The relationship between knowledge and daily life can also be experienced in music and social science lessons. Students are not required to know difficult and strange musical terms. Instead, the teacher encourages them to appreciate and enjoy music.
The music teacher asks the students to explore the world of music by creating music from simple things such as a piece of bamboo, or a bottle or a pan lid, and to enjoy the music they make. In the social science lessons, the teacher guides the students to explore their kampong, while at the same time explaining certain geographical concepts, instead of abstractly explaining difficult geographical terms.
To help develop explorative, creative and integrated minds in the children, the love of reading is cultivated among them. They are encouraged to love books and are trained to read effectively. Each class has its own library and there is one general library available to all students and teachers. There is also a display of several items taken from encyclopedias of general knowledge. The display consists of items picked from the encyclopedias which are furnished with illustrations which are made as attractive as possible. The display is open to all students and is replaced weekly with a new one.
The teaching of a language is a very effective means of attaining the school's educational goals. Special attention is given to either the Indonesian or the English language. English is taught from grade one. The technique used is that of playing with the language through games, songs, and the like. This is also to prepare students to work in the tourist industry later on.
Students are encouraged to ask questions. Every week there are set hours dedicated to question and answer activities. Each student is expected to submit two or three written questions that will be discussed the following week.
The questions could range from "Why is it that sometimes Dad quarrels with Mom?" to "What is the cause of lightning?"; or "Why is it that I am often jealous of my friend?" to "Why can an airplane fly?"
In the spirit of developing integrated personalities, religion is not taught in the conventional way. Since the school is open to children of all religions, there are no lessons in one religion. As an alternative, the students are invited to share their faiths with their classmates and teachers.
They are asked to tell their everyday experiences to their friends and then the teachers help them to see God's work in their simple everyday life experiences. In this lesson the emphasis put is on religiosity, on the formation of an active conscience and good attitudes towards all human beings.
The results of this experiment are not obvious yet, as it has only been carried out a short time. But the students in this project have progressed in some aspects. The students display more open and natural attitudes, more willingness to search for knowledge from various sources, courage to express themselves, and the most important thing, more happiness in learning.
At least from this experiment it can be realized that it is possible to provide quality education to ordinary children, if only we have the courage and willingness to sacrifice our time and energy to it.
The writer is a teacher and social worker at the Dynamics of Basic Education Foundation, Yogyakarta.
Window: To promote successful learning, the love and reverence in the learning-teaching process should be balanced.