Local children's books fail to produce critical kids
Local children's books fail to produce critical kids
JAKARTA (JP): Most locally-produced children's books fail to
encourage children to be creative and sensitive, or to develop
their analytical thinking, an expert has said.
"Children need to have books that can stimulate their
creativity, their imagination, and their analytical thinking,"
Mariono Agus Moeliono, an education expert from the Kuntum Mekar
Children's Development Center, said at a workshop on storytelling
for children during the Indonesian Book Fair 2001 here on
Saturday.
Agus, himself a creative story-teller, said that many
children's books tended to indoctrinate kids, for example by
offering plots which led the young readers to one particular
conclusion, or to follow the same logical order.
"These kind of books do not teach children to be more critical
by learning how to draw their own conclusions," he remarked,
He further said that most books did not encourage children to
ask questions but instead taught them only how to answer
questions.
Agus cited the illustrated children's books that were popular
for young children in other countries, such as Japan and the U.S.
These children's books use simple words, and leave room for
children to be more imaginative as they can weave their own
stories by looking at the pictures, according to Agus.
"Books that offer unusual and illogical stories can also make
children more creative. These sort of books can enrich children's
minds, teach them to be creative and develop their emotional
sensitivity," he said, adding that such books, unfortunately,
were the hard-sell here.
He argued that it was not only children's story books that
failed to stimulate creative thinking, but also school textbooks.
He said that the prescribed textbooks written under the
national curricula had prevented children from expanding their
horizons.
Given this situation, Agus said, it was not surprising that
many Indonesian children were not creative or imaginative, and
lacked emotional sensitivity.
"Children need creative books that can stimulate their
imagination," said Agus.
Agus regretted the attitude of parents who tended to offer
their children simple books that did not stimulate their thinking
abilities for fear that the children would find difficulties
reading quality books.
"Never underestimate them. They are smart," Agus said.
Agus also criticized publishers who were competing with each
other to publish comic books so as to boost their sales, instead
of quality children's books.
"Publishers should help the members of the public to become
good readers, and not just consider them as a market for their
books," said Agus.
He, however, admitted that publishers often found themselves
in a dilemma.
On the one hand, they have the ideal of providing educational
information to the public, but at the same time they also have to
keep their businesses going.
"What they can do is set aside some of the profit they gain
from selling those comic books for the production of quality
children's books. Then idealism and profit can go hand in hand,"
he said. (07)