DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION

Kemarin, saya secara tak sengaja, saya menemukan tulisan yang saya tulis ketika kuliah dulu. Saya menulis hanya untuk iseng saja..Rupanya masih tersimpan di fash disku dulu.....Aneh juga

As an Indonesian, I am happy and as well as proud of my country because this country has taken better steps to be a fully democratic country. The democracy in this country is growing so fast, and this can be seen from the first Indonesian direct presidential election on September 20, 2004. The election itself shows us that in Indonesia, every voice of the Indonesian people is respected. A sentence in Time magazine says that the 2004 election in Indonesia is one of the shining examples of a fully democratic country in Asia. We, Indonesians are also proud of our country because Indonesia is the first country in Southeast Asia which allows the people to choose their own leader. The good facts mentioned above about democracy in Indonesia are a sign of better democracy in the political context.
Since I was a kid until becoming a teenager, I had been taught the concept of democracy only in political contexts or merely associated to a form of government and most of us have understood the meaning of democracy in this case. T.V Smith argues in his book that democracy is more than a form of government; it is also a way of life. In my opinion, here democracy is seen a way of life which respect differences, uniqueness in every aspect of life. As democracy can be applied in every aspect of our life now we are going to see how the concept of democracy that has been applied in our educational system in Indonesia. Does the curriculum teach students about democracy? I do believe that our curriculum teaches us about democracy, but the problem is that the democracy in the curriculum is the concept of democracy in politics, history, civics etc that most people think only can be applied in politics. What about in education?
As Smith mentioned above that the democracy is a way of life, so the concept of democracy can also be applied in educational system in our country. The meaning of democracy in education or classroom particularly means that everyone involving in the process of learning respects each other in term of thinking, being able to forgive and being able to see differences or uniqueness as something normal in the classroom. In fact, many teachers cannot apply the concept of democracy in class, our teachers still use a system what is so called “monocultural education system” which kills the concept of democracy. Monoculutiural education gives the highest authority to teachers to decide everything in class, teachers are always right and students have to do exactly the same as the teachers do. Because of this system, teachers find it is hard to appreciate students’ opinion; students may talk if they are asked to talk, so the only correct answer in class is the teacher’s answer. This kind of system kills students’ creativity and makes them good listeners instead of critical thinkers.
I have a story as an illustration of how the undemocratic situation has been built in our education in Indonesia.
Every student at SMUN#2 Sanggau West Borneo has to come on time to school everyday. All of the students have to be at school before 7 am in the morning, afterward the gate is locked. If the students come late they will be punished by the teachers. The students are asked to clean or throw the trash in the rubbish bins etc. as students; we are taught to be good students. Many teachers at SMUN2 always come late at school because our school is a state school, so when they come late they do not explain why they are late, they just say sorry in class. One day, Endar, a student writes in the wall magazine an article titled “student comes late is punished, teacher comes late is ok”. When the teachers read that article on the wall, the teachers asks the student who writes it to put it down, Endar is considered as impolite student, he is scored. On Monday ceremony, that teacher tells us that students have to follow students’ rules and teachers have to follow teachers’ rules. Our class is considered an impolite class. Since that time our class decided not to write any wall magazine anymore.
As seen above, Indonesian teachers still cannot apply the concept of democracy in education. Teachers cannot accept when they are criticized, they feel humiliated by the students. How can we make democratic people in education if the actors of education itself cannot show the democratic ways of life. One thing which is worth noticing is that the actual task of transmuting democratic theory into school practice belongs to the teachers and school officials. Teachers have to realize that their democratic behaviors in the learning process will make democratic students.

So in conclusion I would like to restate that democracy is much more that a form a government; but is also a way of life. A way of life which respect differences, uniqueness etc. democracy in education means that every individual in classroom has rights to be respected in term of differences they have, the differences they have shown by their participation in class process, the more the students participate in learning process, the more democratic the class is, since participation is a sign of democratic situation. Democratic in class does not always mean having the same agreement about something, but the process in arriving at that agreement is much more important in Democracy. One way of changing our education to be democratic education is by using multicultural education instead of monocultural education. Multicultural education gives more freedom.

Faces of The World

On going a spiritual tour

Last month, I was asked by one of my friends, an ex-would be catholic priest to accompany him to visit several villages in my regency during the Easter week or the Passion Week. My friend, who finally resigned from the Franciscan order, told me that our tour was somewhat spiritual because he was asked by the local parish father to help the parish as a deacon to lead a “mass” in several villages as scheduled by the parish.
The tour for me was a kind of new experience coz I had never had a chance to visit a village to do so. When we arrived at the first village, people greeted us warmly and told us they were waiting for us but they were not ready yet with the mass. They did not appoint the men for the reading, songs and etc. A friend of mine who knew better about catholic songs coz he was of course a not would be priest. He taught the women and the children to sing some songs and the reading as well.
Coming to the village was a struggle for us since the roads (if it can be called) are broken. If that night rained, we would cry to go home because of the road.
My friend on the previous day had asked me to prepare the topic for his sermon on the mass. He told me to find some inspiration on the theme “resurrection”
I finally found the inspirations on the theme and told my friend that the core message was how to get rid of our bad behaviors. Jesus’ resurrection must give us strength to revive and start improving our life.

In every village we visited, we saw the lack of catholic ministry in remote areas. Most villages don’t often hold Sunday Mass. My friend and I felt pity for such situation.

Obese Democracy

A few weeks ago, hundreds of millions Indonesians cast their votes to choose the Indonesian House of Representative Members for the upcoming five years. As a good citizen, I went to the nearest vote station to do my duty to vote for parties and would be legislators which mostly are “blur” and unknown for me. Frankly speaking, I don’t really give a damn on Politics coz I don’t really believe in politics. Politics for me is just a vicious circle; nothing is worth appreciating in the politics of Indonesia. I am fed up with those rotten politicians being caught by the National Eradication Commission on TV, I am fed up with the Indonesian Political System since it is too “obese” for a developing country like Indonesia. I think it does not matter who becomes the president, the situation in Indonesia will not experience a better change, and it just remains the same.

If we take a closer look at our democracy system, I think our democracy is making us poorer and worse because the system of democracy in Indonesia is too complicated and “obese” for us. Just imagine if we eat so much and becomes so “fat”, our body digestive system won’t work well. Indonesia is implementing an obese democracy. Why is our democracy obese? It is because too many legislative members, too many parties, too complicated procedures, too administrative oriented procedures, too expensive. I can not imagine how those 500 and more legislative members work efficiently coz there are too many members. I think it is better if we make it simpler by reducing the members of House of Representative to 200 members only. Let’s say each province or regency sends 2 or 3 members only to the Senayan Office. It must be a lot better than today’s system. We can take America as an example of this system. It is not the numbers that matter but the quality does. The fewer the members, the better outcome for us since the elected member is the only well known and qualified person in that region. It also implies that somebody needs to prove himself o herself worthy first before hand.


With the obesity of our democracy, our democracy cannot attain its ultimate goal: welfare of the people. How can Indonesia attain welfare if the system is too costly and complicated? It is a nonsense talk. I have a dream that in the next 20 years our democracy is simpler and not too expensive as today. But, it seems still a long way to go!!!! Who knows then?

Kristian

Photo Collections

Pics from Jogja

My Vipassana Experience

Last year in December 24 – 5 January 2009, due to my curiosity on the word of “meditation”, I decided to attend a ten-day residential course of Vipassana Meditation in Klaten, Central Java. Having no prior experience on the so called meditation, my ten day residential course was a totally different experience. The experience was different coz it mixed everything up. I felt sad, happy, inspired during the course. It was not an easy experience to describe in words. At the first glance, I was somewhat interested in joining the course after reading some notes on the net on Vipassana and the information told by my lecturer that Vipassana, that if practiced diligently, rightly, can improve our life better. This is just an example of an experience, and as told by the guru Goenka, himself, that no one ever experiences the same experience. Therefore, this experience is my experience. In the course, I tried to test my endurance toward something.

After riding motorbike for about half hour from Jogja, finally I reached a very beautiful building in Klaten called Dhamaguna Home. I arrived there at 3.30 PM and directly registered my self at the committee. Before submitting the registration paper, I was told by one of the committee to reread the rules and information on Vipassana meditation before deciding to attend the course. On that moment, I told myself that this course was going to be uneasy and different. Actually, I have read those rules on Vipassana several times and have been pretty determined to join the course. But, the woman insisted me on reading the rules and instruction on Vipassana. Afterward, she gave me the form to be filled by new students of Vipassana. Based on my experience, these are several rules in joining a Vipassana course.
a. During the ten day course, every student will follow a strict timetable starting from 4 am to 9.30 pm. In a day, there will be ten hours of meditation time.
b. No more meals after the midday. Each student will only have one meal for the whole day. Meal time is at 11.am. Morning and afternoon will be just tea time or coffee time. All the menus served are vegetarian menus.
c. The most difficult rule is the noble silence. Every student must remain silent for the whole nine days. No communication is permitted. No eye contact and speaking among students. Absolute silent is a must.

Other than these rules, of course there are other rules explained during the orientation time on the noon before starting the first day. But, those rules, in my opinion, are so universal. After joining the whole ten day course, here are the experiences that I felt during the course.

Day 1. On day 1, we were taught to concentrate on our breath that comes in and out. We focus our attention on the area of our nose. The whole day, we observed the coming and outgoing breath through our nose. We observed whatever we felt during breathing. The main point is Observation of the breath. Day 1 was somewhat hard and boring for me. I could not stand sitting for a long time in observing my breath.

Day 2. We were still asked to concentrate on our breath, but we narrowed the area of the concentration. The area was the inner walls of our nose, the outer walls and the tip of our nose. Just the nose. We were asked to feel the sensations we felt during breathing. Day 2 was the most boring day. I started to think of leaving the course because it was so hard of remaining silent and just sat for hours to observe my breath.

Day 3. On day 3, we still did the same things as day 2, but we narrowed our concentration to a smaller area, that is, the area below our nose and above our upper lips. We concentrated on this area and felt the sensations on this part. Whatever sensations must be observed.

All those three days, we were doing the so called ANAPANNA. Concentration on the Breath. In the lecture session every 07 pm – 08 pm, we were informed that Anapana is the basic requirement in doing Vipassana. Only when somebody is successful enough in doing Anapana, Then we can continue practicing Vipassana Meditation. In Anapana, we tried to calm and control our mind. We tried to be alert, aware the nature of our breath.

Day 4. Day 4 is the day where we actually began doing Vipassana Meditation. We started Vipassana by moving our attention to the top of our head. An area, precisely located in the middle of our head. We spread our focus on our head. We were asked to observe every sensation we felt on our head. We started the concentration by observing our skull and each individual part of the head. We felt different sensations such hot, cold, itchy, solidified sensations everywhere on the head.

Day 5. Day 5 is the continuation of day 4. We broadened our area of observation. We moved down to lower parts such as shoulder, neck, elbow, arms. We still observed sensations and told not to react toward any sensations we felt. Just observe. On day 5, we began doing the so called ADHITANNA sitting. Adhitanna is A sitting of strong determination where we sit for an hour without moving our position. This sitting was the most difficult mediation practice. I felt extreme pain on my leg.

Day 6 – day 9, we still observed our body, but we moved down till the lowest part of our body, the toe. We then moved down and up through all parts of our body. The whole ten day course was a worth trying meditation.


Cheers
Kristian