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.