The story of an alternative school

The story of an alternative school

Bambang M, Contributor, Yogyakarta

With his fur hat always perched on his head like Robinson Crusoe,
this bespectacled gentleman is invariably the center of attention
when he speaks in a seminar.

As a story teller, Machidus Sururi Ibnoe Sayy seems to know
every trick to keep the audience glued. However, there is also
something else that makes the audience all the more curious about
him: his controversial decision not to give his children formal
schooling.

"I will not send my children to school as long as our
education paradigm remains as it is today," said Kak Wees, as He
is affectionately called, during a seminar on story-telling and
education in Yogyakarta early this month.

Kak Wees says that education in Indonesia has failed to
inculcate the ability to think critically in children. Schools,
he says, have detached children from their cultural roots and
turned out graduates that lack independence and creativity.

His youngest child, Hamdi, 7, does not go to school while the
his elder brother has only elementary school education.

"They learn with me at home," said Kak Wees, who himself only
has an elementary school diploma. When you visit his house in
Sewon, Bantul, however, you will occasionally hear his children
speak English with their parents.

Few actually know that Kak Wees is, in a way, an expert in
education. This is because he is better known as a rather
bohemian artist normally to be in the Ismail Marzuki Cultural
Park in Jakarta. In 1980 and 1981, he earned awards as the best
poetry reader from the Jakarta Arts Council, and in 1982 the same
arts council named him the best prose reader. Among children, he
is known as a riveting story teller. In 2001, the All-Indonesia
Association of Journalists (PWI)'s Yogyakarta chapter named him
as its choice of best story teller.

He may be Indonesia's only professional story teller. For him,
story-telling is not merely telling a story to other people but
it is also the world's oldest medium of education, devoid of any
pretensions that the story teller is a Mr. Know-It-All. When
listening to story-telling, children learn to appreciate
literature, become more mentally mature, strengthen their
spiritual relationships with the story tellers, who may be their
own parents, and develop their powers of imagination, things that
help boost the creative sides of mind.

Unfortunately, many have now forgotten that story-telling is a
medium of education. To preserve this oldest educational medium,
Kak Wees and his wife, Lusiana Sabariah, set up the Indonesian
Story-Telling House Institute (LRDI) in 1991. It is hoped that
this institute will help give birth to a new crop of story
tellers and initiate more story-telling activities to foster
children's creativity.

As he feels deeply concerned over Indonesia's disorderly and
commercial education system, and its failure to turn out people
who are able to think for themselves, Kak Wees, his wife and his
friends set up "an alternative school", called the Village
Institute and School for Autonomy, in January 2003.

The school aims to develop children's cognitive capacities and
skills.

This educational experiment is housed out in the Madrasah
Ibtidaiyah, an Islamic elementary school, in Sorogenen hamlet,
Bantul, Yogyakarta. "Our concept is based on education that is
supported by 3 pillars, namely education at home, at school and
in the community," said Kak Wees, adding that he had been invited
to South Africa to put this idea into practice.

Under this concept, a child's educational experience spans the
period from when he wakes up until he goes to bed every day. His
parents and his community are his teachers. The local community
near the school (the Sorogenen school) has also jointly agreed to
restrict when their children can watch the television. They keep
a tight watch over TV programs, including commercials advertising
food product for children.

When at home, a child will, for example, be required to do
some household chores, such as washing the dishes, and will also
be familiarized with his parents' work. In the community,
children are encouraged to visit places such as handicraft
studios and engineering workshops close to where they live.

Every day, before lesson begins, children will be asked to
relate their experiences in the community.

"They will play and learn at the same time," said Kak Wees. It
is in this context that efforts are being made to ensure that
these children keep in touch with their cultural roots.

Unlike formal schools, this institute offers low-cost
education that integrates learning from elementary to the
tertiary levels. A child will take five years to complete his
elementary schooling. Within this period he will be required to
have acquired a good knowledge about himself, his family and his
environment.

Then he will spend four years on his secondary schooling.
During this period, he will be introduced to such lofty ideas as
nation-building and respect for diversity. As regards skills, it
is expected that a participant will be capable of producing
things on his own.

"After completing his secondary education, he will stay away
from school for one year. During this time, he will improve the
skills he has acquired and think more deeply about his future
profession," said Kak Wees, who earned a citation from the Ashoka
Fellowship in 1988 for his innovations in community empowerment
through story-telling.

The final educational level available is the "multiversity"
level. At this level, participants only have to gain more
knowledge about the subject he wishes to focus on. Then, he takes
lectures on the theoretical aspects of this chosen subject for 2
semesters. When he completes this level, he serves an
apprenticeship in a company, and is also required to submit a
weekly report on what he has done during the week.

Although this alternative school is still at the inception
stage, it has attracted significant interest.

"When establishing this school, I had regard to Santiniketan
(India), Ki Hajar Dewantara, the founder of the Taman Siswa
school, the theater and the scouting movement," said Kak Wees.
Many of his friends have commented that his school resembles
those that Paulo Freire and some other thinkers established.

"I've never read their books although I obtained copies of
them afterwards from my friends," he said.

Despite his many achievements and his hectic life as a story
teller, a speaker at seminars and a guest lecturer at a number of
universities abroad, Kak Wees remains modest and hospitable to
all.

Kak Wees is also spiritually devoted.

"I really wish I could be like a tree. It sincerely generates
oxygen for all human beings regardless of their religion or
ethnicity," he said. He has learned this wisdom through the
education provided by nature, rather than a formal school.