School receives award for innovative project
By Dewi Anggraeni
MELBOURNE (JP): Western culture has been present in the Indonesian curriculum for a long time. Western countries, however, seldom felt the need to incorporate Asian cultures into their curricula. When Asialink along with its partner Asia Education Foundation began their initiatives to push Australian schools to incorporate Asian culture into their curriculum, it seemed at first a gigantic task.
Apart from providing moral, practical and sometimes financial assistance, Asialink and Asia Education Foundation also give incentives such as awards for excellence to schools which have successfully incorporated Asian cultures into their curriculum.
One of this year's recipients, Parkdale Secondary College in Mordialloc, an outer suburb of Melbourne, stands out for its innovative project. The students learned Indonesian cultural history and social anthropology through archaeology. If that sounds too far-fetched, it only reflects the ingenuity of their teacher, Effie Kass, who is in fact a qualified archaeologist.
The idea came to Kass when she took part in Asia Education Foundation's Linking Latitudes Symposium in Bali, July 1997. She was impressed by the compactness of Balinese homes and their incorporation of religious and cultural significance. Following the core symposium were several workshop groups taking participants to different parts of Indonesia. Kass went to Central Java to visit the Borobudur. The temple roused the archaeological spirit in her.
On returning to work in Melbourne, Kass began lobbying her school principal, Phil Knight, into starting a project but he initially balked at her idea. Kass proposed that the school find an area on its grounds for a mock archaeological site to accommodate a Balinese home and a miniature Borobudur. Knight eventually was moved by Kass' enthusiasm and determination, and helped obtain not only the approval but financial assistance from the school council. The Asia Education Foundation and the History Teachers Association also agreed to sponsor the project. Local businesses and services offered to give assistance for materials and in any other ways they could.
At last on July 22, 1998, two pits were dug. The first was one metre deep and 2.5 metres by 2.5 metres, while the second was 2.5 metre deep and 3 metres by 3 metres. In the first pit, Kass and her students constructed a Balinese home consisting of four rooms: a temple, a kitchen, a dining area and a general work area. Each room was then suitably furnished with furniture and handicrafts Kass brought back from her numerous trips to Indonesia as well as items her and her students made modeled on the originals. They even included a Balinese chicken dish complete with cooked rice in the house. Among the soft furniture were batik cloths that the students had made in their art classes. In the other pit, the group arranged numerous Borobudur related items which corresponded closely with those in the ancient Buddhist temple in Central Java.
When the work was completed, they had both pits covered and the ground leveled. In the next 15 weeks, students from different backgrounds who were not involved in the construction researched Indonesian culture and history as well as archaeological methods and techniques. After the research, they excavated the site and unearthed the items one by one. As archaeologists do, they used their laptop computers to log their findings, labeled them and placed them individually in plastic bags.
The students then analyzed their finds from the Balinese home to develop theories on their religion, musical instruments, diet and customs. They compared their study of Hindu religion with the artifacts they found. The mini Borobudur dig gave the students insights into Buddhism. They were also able to compare the two religions.
Other skills were also challenged. Mathematics students had to carry out measurements of the sites, while English students interviewed those who were working on the excavation and then wrote mock newspaper articles about the archaeological project.
The success of the project was felt beyond the academic fields. "While they learned about Indonesian history, the students also gained social skills as they had to work together and in teams. They learned about setting goals and the ways to work towards them," said Kass.
The students who attended the presentation of the awards last month beamed with pride about their achievements and publicly thanked their teacher for a very fulfilling and rewarding study project.
Asialink and Asia Education Foundation's director, Jennifer McGregor, said she looked forward to similarly exciting projects from other schools to be considered for next year's awards.