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.