No picnic, but a school that's losts of fun
No picnic, but a school that's losts of fun
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Sitting quietly in a circle on the floor of a two-story gazebo,
the children can see their friends planting seedlings and playing
on a rope climbing frame in the garden.
"Can we learn math first today?," asked Alfa, one of the third
grade students.
His two teachers responded at once, asking the other students
for approval before kicking off the day with Math.
"It is acceptable here for students to negotiate with their
teachers. This gives them the feeling of learning because they
want to, not because they are obliged to," said Pepen Supendi,
the 29-year old headmaster of Sekolah Alam (School of Nature) in
Ciganjur, South Jakarta.
The school occupies some three hectares of land, mostly grassy
areas and gardens, and has 270 students.
"People think that quality education comes at a price due to
the cost of facilities," Pepen said. "In fact, we can minimize
all of that by learning from nature."
First grade students, for example, can learn the word "leaf"
better in a garden than in a classroom, he said.
Keeping expenses to a minimum, the school provides 12 wooden
gazebos as its classrooms. "Most of our activities are conducted
outdoors, anyway," Pepen said.
The school also awakens children's curiosity as they learn
through experience.
Though the national curriculum is adhered to in part, teachers
have a different way of evaluating students. "We do not want to
make them learn just to get good grades," said the headmaster, an
agricultural college graduate.
The school's 30 teachers are trained to evaluate their
students' progress in leadership, logic and moral values.
"We evaluate their skills by reviewing whether they know what
they have learned here, and what more they want to learn," Pepen
said, showing a sample assessment card on which there were only
symbols showing a child's progress instead of the common A, B, C
or scores.
"We are providing children with knowledge that is useful,
including the importance of being independent," he said.
In its annual camp, even 5-year-old students are asked to wash
their own clothes.
Dasayoga Isbanu, the father of three girls who attend the
school, said his daughters' knowledge was broader than other
children's. "The two younger children, who started studying there
earlier, show more maturity than the eldest child in terms of
empathy, emotional intelligence and leadership," he said. "That
kind of education is rarely offered, it is worth the sacrifice."
Fees for enrollment in preschool to junior high school grades
range from Rp 1.5 million to Rp 2 million, with monthly fees
between Rp 300,000 and Rp 500,000.
Though school is never a picnic, the School of Nature offers a
learning experience with a difference. (003)