Redefining religion at school

Redefining religion at school

By A. Chaedar Alwasilah

BANDUNG (JP): Idul Fitri, the Muslim day of festivities
following the Ramadhan fasting month, was marked earlier this
year by infighting in scattered areas which has continued.

Recent clashes between believers of two major religions in
Ambon, which have claimed lives and casualties, raises the
question: What then is the impact of fasting during the holy
month of Ramadhan on social life?

This nagging question leads to a broader question: What is the
function of religious education anyway? How could religious
believers kill each other?

Idul Fitri literally means the day of purity. Essentially,
Muslims after performing the fast are reborn anew, devoid of
spiritual ills such as hatred, anger, greed, hypocrisy, enmity
and intolerance. Actually, fasting is not the best equivalent of
the Arabic shaum or imsak, which literally means restraint from
those negative attributes.

The officially recognized religions have been incorporated
into the curriculum since Indonesia was established. Our
curriculum stipulates the teaching of religion at all schooling
levels from elementary to tertiary, thus recognizing the
importance of religion for Indonesian citizens.

Indeed, Indonesians proudly claim they are a religious people.
However, such stipulations and claims do not necessarily
guarantee implementation of religious teaching. Rampant social
ills such as student brawls, communal clashes, land appropriation
and so on are evidence that religious education has failed to
accomplish its supreme mission, namely to furnish students with
knowledge to be put into operation in daily life.

At this juncture it would be advisable to ponder what is wrong
with religious education. Religion is treated equally in the
curriculum together with math, physical education, English and
other subjects.

This curricular policy relegates religion to a weak position
where religions are perceived as earthly phenomena showing no
spiritual or sacred overtones at all. In other words, due to the
formal and academic approach to their teaching, the sacredness of
religion has been eroded and growing indifference about it is on
the rise among students. Religion is people's most sacred
phenomena which is mostly inner, most highly reverenced and most
carefully respected by followers.

The late Y.B. Mangunwijaya, popularly known as Romo Mangun,
reminded the whole nation of practices of educational
mismanagement during Soeharto's administration.

First, its biggest mistake was an overemphasis on the quantity
of knowledge about orders, religious jurisdictions including
theories, dogmas and rites, all of which constituted orthodoxy.
This orthodoxy was bombarded on our schoolchildren to the neglect
of orthopraxies of religions.

The most essential aspect of religious education is how to
teach and make students appreciate and internalize their faith
(iman) and implement it in social life.

All of this seems to stem from a misconception of equating
religions with faiths, which are principally different. Taqwa or
piety has two dimensions -- ideological and operational.

Religions in Romo Mangun's words are a vehicle or medium, and
never an end. Teaching religion as indoctrinated in schools today
is like teaching about a car, which by itself takes students
nowhere. In his assertion, rampant corruption among bureaucrats,
communal clashes and student brawls are indicative of a failure
in putting the ideology into operation.

Second, in criticizing the dual sociopolitical role of the
military in the past, Romo Mangun warned us not to learn moral
lessons from the military. It is universal that the military is
professionally trained to terrorize, sabotage and be proactive
toward the enemy. By the military yardstick, to kill is better
than to get killed.

When the military holds power to steer education, they use
education for indoctrination. Schools and offices are tailored to
be the front territory where resisting voices and criticism are
to be washed away indiscriminately.

In schools, the practice of scheduled ceremonies with flag
raising and the pronouncement of the state ideology Pancasila is
evidence of military intervention in our school system. As
everybody recalls, civil servants were obliged to attend
ceremonies on the 17th of each month, where seven declarations of
allegiance to the Soeharto regime (Sapta Prasetya Korpri) were
ritually pronounced.

As a result, in the mind of the young generation has been
inculcated the spirit of winning the war and destroying the
enemy. No wonder there is no attitude of fair play, no love for
truth and conscience and no willingness to apologize.

It is high time to wipe out the military zone from our school
map. Let us unlearn educational and moral lessons as taught by
the military.

How should we redefine the function of religious subjects in
schools? Listed below are major observations of how religious
education should be viewed.

* Children from early days of schooling should be made aware
of, and accustomed to, seeing differences of religious faiths and
practices. The earlier the awareness is established, the better.
Muslims in this country constitute the majority and they, by
definition, hold greater responsibility in building the nation.
It does not suggest, though, that followers of other religions do
not hold such responsibility. All the religions teach a set of
directions for living together in a society where other religions
coexist.

* In schools, of utmost importance is the practice of
religion. "We do not need to prove religion to men, but to prove
to them that they are religious," said George Tyrrell.

It is sensible to say that the communal clashes and other
social ills cited above are not necessarily motivated by
religious sentiments. Instead, they are caused by fragmentary
understanding of religious teachings. No religion on earth
teaches its followers to abduct and kill people, burn houses of
worship and destroy public facilities.

* Religious teachings are to be operative in life outside the
school walls where teachers do not have any direct control over
students. Morality and religious practice are exemplified by
parents, public figures and people in general. They function
either as partners or rivals of religion teachers. This being the
case, religious indoctrination will be counterproductive;
therefore, classroom interactions should be designed as a arena
for understanding religious implementation and clarifying
conflicting social values prevalent outside the class.

* Among education's aims is to develop creative human
resources who are physically strong and spiritually sound. The
more religious they are, the more creative they will grow. While
technology creates new devices and new rules, religious
development creates higher-order realities.

Spiritual knowing in conjunction with technological
sophistication form a great strength allowing human beings to
envision better futures. This suggests that classroom
interactions should be a meaningful discourse where science,
technology and religion meet. Often, religion is accused of
taming technology.

* Our national history shows that nonformal education such as
Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and missionaries of other
religions have been much more successful in preparing community
leaders and propagating religion. The nation is indeed indebted
to volunteers, teachers, propagators, informal leaders and social
workers at religious institutions and non-governmental
organizations whose devotion, dedication and commitment have been
taken for granted by the government.

The writer is a lecturer at the graduate school of the
Teachers Training Institute, Bandung, West Java.