Teachers try to adapt to students' new curiosity on history

Teachers try to adapt to students' new curiosity on history

By Devi M. Asmarani and Primastuti Handayani

JAKARTA (JP): From elementary to high school, history stands
out as one of the less glamorous subjects. It does not require
strenuous mental gymnastics like math and physics, and it lacks
the exotic quality of learning a foreign language.

The stereotype of history teachers normally conjures up a dull
person methodically writing names, places and dates on a
blackboard before a class full of lethargic students. "History is
boring, all it takes is memorization," high school student Ina
complained.

Fact is even the most enthusiastic teachers, discouraged by
their students' lack of interest, often resort to the dry,
linear, one-sided methodology of history teaching in the country.

It was not always so, according to 44-year-old scholar Mudji
Sutrisno.

"When I was still going to the Pangudi Luhur elementary school
in Surakarta (Central Java), our teacher taught us the city's
history. We were taken to the Bengawan Solo and were told to put
our feet in the legendary river's water.

"Now there is no such thing -- history class has become not
only dead but also an ideological class, so that the younger
generation is no longer interested in learning it," said Mudji of
the Jakarta Driyarkara Institute of Philosophy.

Worse still, he said, the ideology reflected in the history
lessons at lower learning institutions merely parroted that of
the country's rulers. In the latest 1994 curriculum, the much
debated subject called "education of the history of the nation's
struggle" (PSPB), taught since 1984, has been incorporated in
"education on Pancasila and civics". Exasperated historians and
education critics said that while one of its intentions was to
strengthen patriotism, the book contained several inaccuracies
and teachers functioned merely as the government's mouthpiece.

Outside school, a few who have tried to present alternative
versions to certain periods in history have had their
publications banned. Now that the 32-year rule of president
Soeharto is over, increasingly outspoken people have challenged
the history that younger Indonesians have always known.

This latest development has not only made the students wake up
to their history lesson, but forced even the normally curriculum-
bound teachers to adopt a change of pace.

"My students are more interested in the information they
obtain from the media and they want me to relate the lessons with
the current condition," said a history and anthropology teacher
at a public high school in Kebayoran, South Jakarta.

This actually helps the teacher, who requested anonymity, to
achieve his goal to enlighten the students with idealism
reflected in the history.

"For example, when teaching about the injustice reflected in
the French Revolution, I would ask my students to cite examples
of injustice in Indonesia."

The students would draw on many irregularities in the justice
system in the country, he said, ranging from the government's
role in ousting Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) leader Megawati
to its established practices to ensure the ruling Golkar grouping
wins the general election.

The teacher can easily list the flaws in the textbook.

This includes lack of information on what actually happened to
the Supersemar document, now classified as missing, which
ostensibly contains president Sukarno's authorization of a
transfer of power to Soeharto in 1966.

He questions the coverage of some issues in the textbook,
including the much disputed integration of East Timor.

Despite the flaws, he sticks with the set curriculum.

"History is written by historians, teachers merely transfer
the knowledge with our own interpretation," he said.

Karlina, a history teacher at a prominent Catholic junior high
school, shared her colleague's point of view, claiming that she
would always teach what is officially recognized as history in
the formal education system. "Teachers are limited by the
government curriculum, I cannot say whether I agree to it or
not," said Karlina, who chose to use a pseudonym.

As a balance, she uses mediums other than textbooks. "I always
ask my students to discuss the latest development, I urge them to
read the newspapers and magazines to supplement class materials,"
she said.

"I encourage them to be critical but direct them to be wise
and not hastily come to a conclusion."

Her approach of setting a polemic to make the history lesson
lively has proved successful, she said, in getting the attention
of her class. "She makes me interested in something I've never
been interested in before," one of her students said.

Sometimes the technique works too well. Karlina admitted she
occasionally had to contain some of the "extraordinary students'
excitement" during debates in her class.