It has been years - particularly after political reform in my country - I saw people, adult, young adults and children perform anarchism in almost all aspects of life. Young adults and teenagers easily adopt what their peer leader, teachers or their idols do ; and they easily accept – sometimes blindly – what their peer leader states, judges or comments about something.
False doctrine and statements will damage their way of thinking, ruin their bright future and exploratory life that they deserve as youth. I can’t imagine what this country will turn out to be in the next few years when these kind of youth who used to be anarchy lead the country. As an educator, it is of our responsibility to educate pupils to not be tense and anarchist in judging or commenting on something which they do not comprehend very well.
There are 4 kinds of people in this world,
- Those who know that they know
- Those who know that they do not know
- Those who do not know that they know
- Those who do not know that they do not know
For teachers, it is of their moral responsibility to awaken up those who do not know by letting them know what they do not now. In the context of teacher or educator, it is the responsibility of the teachers to either transfer and share their knowledge to their pupils. However, teachers should only transfer knowledge of what he/she knows very well, the knowledge in which he/she is an expert or specialist in, within the area of his/her field.
We, as teachers should not release statements or judge on things outside our field, mainly when our statement is to be published and spread out widely. Except, of course we do this within our peers or community, for internal discussion or sharing opinion and the like. Spreading information which is not based on the deep relevant knowledge ("deep" here means deep understanding about things, comprehend the things from many different points of view), will led people to a worse understanding. We should only comment on the things which we really are expert in.
10 February, 2009
Manners in Releasing Judgment
08 December, 2008
Heartbreaking Tsunami
In about more than 2 weeks from now, the 26 December 2008, will be the 4th year after tsunami destroyed Aceh, Nias and Padang. It means the organizations for the humanity, mostly non government organizations work for humanity including the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the destroyed area will end in December 2009. The effects caused by this 2 days natural disaster needs at least 5 years for reconstruction and rehabilitations on physical facilities and infrastructure. The trauma of some victims may need longer time to be healed. The lost of hundred thousands life can not be replaced.
image by global picture 
the picture shows how tsunami destroyed land and killed people 
there is no bufferzone to protect the areaRead more.... »»
19 November, 2008
A Village Lack of Youngster
One of the things I have always concerned about every time I visit villages in Tapanuli Utara is its lack of youngster. Tapanuli Utara is located at the southern part of North Sumatera. Youngsters here are young adults. The scene seen are elderly or young children working at rice field, shepherding sheep and buffalo, or relaxing in the coffee shop. It seems that no youngster remains living in the village.
Most probably all youngsters has been moved to the city for education or earn money. In general, the people from Tapanuli Utara Bataknese strongly hold their principle of life that they must send their children/descendants to school. The awareness that education is the main road to a better future is so strong among Bataknese. To get their children educated is a pride and is of family main target. No matter how poor the family is, they will do anything to send their children to school. Their relatives usually help each other to support one’s family in making this possible. The support could be financial, material or providing facility. Parents would do anything, borrow money, sell their field, sell their property, work harder, etc. for sending their children to a good school. The success of a family is measured by the level of education the family can afford for their children. These matters encourage parents to send their children to get the good education in the big city. This mainly happens to the youth at the time they have to continue their study to a higher level or university. So, all youngsters of villagers will be sent to the big city to attend college or university. The problem is after completing their study at university, these graduated youngsters usually find a job in the city as well, to get well paid of course. Again, no youths will back to their village and settle their life there. Unless the local authority develops economic activities in a village - for the youth particularly, the village will remain lack of youngsters.
28 October, 2008
Education of Homeless
Poverty, economic condition in which people lack sufficient income to obtain certain minimal levels of health services, food, housing, clothing, and education generally recognized as necessary to ensure an adequate standard of living. What is considered adequate, however, depends on the average standard of living in a particular society. People without access to education or health services should be considered poor even if they have adequate food. One of the main sources of poverty is lack of educational opportunity.
To break the cycle of poverty in their family, the children must properly be educated. Being aware of this, the government of my country opens an opportunity for all children to have free primary education. The government has put education as compulsory and in state schools is free. Primary education lasts six years. There is no tuition fee; most text book is subsidized by government, and the children can borrow text books from school library. Its aim is to give the children opportunity for a better future and hence to reduce the amount of people living in poverty in the future.
In fact, there are still a lot of children hanging on the road at school time. Some of them stand as beggars, some others sell newspapers on the street, work as street-singers etc. There are many reasons for these children choosing to leave school. As a part of poverty, one of the reasons is their being homeless. A large percentage of the poor people are homeless. A big number of families in a poor live in houses that are literally made out of other people’s rubbish. They rig up some old corrugated iron, some plastic sheeting – and that’s home. The whole families live in just one or two rooms. There is no privacy. There is no indoor toilet either. The whole families often have to eat, work and sleep in the same room. Poverty and bad housing is a problem for the children.
There are lots children live in homes which are on or below the poverty line. Parents are often put under great stress as a result of poverty and unemployment. This can make home life very difficult and full of tension from time to time. Homelessness is just as hard on kids as it is on adults. As a consequence, the children’s education, if in fact they are in school at all, suffers severely. As a result, children often suffer.
School age children indeed spend a lot of time in school. But after school, they come home to do their homework and in school holidays they also stay at home. Besides, school is not the only place where children learn things. In many ways, home is a more important place for learning and developing, where children find out many vital things about themselves. Homeless youth become heavily concerned with stress regarding such issues as staying healthy and enduring small living spaces. They become acutely aware of their basic physiological and safety needs. With all these things going on in these students’ lives, we can not expect them to achieve to the same level as other more advantaged students.
There are major problems with the education of homeless youth today. Besides free education, there is a big homework : How to help homeless people can leave in a house.
19 June, 2008
Live in Harmony - Let's Learn from Nature
Over the years, scientists and researchers have been striving to find the connection between triggers of violence and societal violence. The argument between researchers, who say that human behaviour is acquired from our social environment is not about the facts of how humans do behave. Aggressive behaviour, greediness and anarchism are features of life today. The question is not whether they exist or not but what causes them.
In developing country, particularly a country with many citizens lacking of education and knowledge, violence appear very often as a solution to their problem. Violence is frequently used in expressing their unsatisfactory feelings over problems they might have. Not only poverty and economic burden, but diversity, has been one of the triggers that could make people attack others of different believe, color or gender. Anarchism, violence and rumors of violence continue to spread - feared yet also expected in daily life. With all the chaos in our societies, have we never took a step back and wonder why we, humans, have the tendency to attack each other and make others suffer? Isn’t it an irony how the creatures in nature are able to maintain balance and harmony while we humans – civilized creatures –, seem to always have difficulty living in harmony?
In the face of this, what are we as educated people called to be and do? What resources of our knowledge can we bring to bear on this apparently intractable predicament? What shall we do as we seek together to build understanding in our communities? There are many that we can do. One of them is to aware people about diversity as one of nature’s facts that God creates. We can start with our family, neighborhood and our communities at any opportunity of sharing or discussion.
There are many that we can learn from nature characteristics and behavior. Some of them are the facts that : Everything in the community is connected, all things work together ; All the parts work together to make a balanced system. If one part is removed, then the system will lose its balance ; A healthy system has lots of species diversity. The more the merrier. By maintaining diversity, we help keep our community a healthy relationship, live in harmony ; The world has lots of different living organisms that interact with each other. Each person has a position or activity that particularly suits somebody's talents and personality or that somebody can make his or her -own. Each of us have the role we play in the community ; Environments support a diversity of living organisms that all share limited resources.
Let’s view diversity as positive values. Each of us work together to make a balanced community!
26 March, 2008
Unanswered Questions about Street Teenagers
I am one of those who believe that being in unlucky situation, such as suffering from poverty, bad breaks, starving, being hurt, etc., is a starting line to run or walk through the path of life in order to reach the finish line. The path where one must pass through to get to the finish line is full of hope. We can pass through the path any way we like, we can either walk or run, in any speed we set, in a moody or stable way, in a consistent or inconsistent way. It is the process to get away from that unlucky situation and to get forward to reach the finish line, where things are hopefully better; a place where one can start smiling after leaving all the unlucky situation far behind. Although one’s path may not be the same as others’ as there are many directions to choose, but all will end up at a finish line. Everyone has a chance to achieve a better ending line, at least there is always a way. The point is we must finish what we start.
This morning I somewhat doubted the above testimony I had always believed when I saw street teenagers who were supposed to be in school hanging around the street. Some of them imitate the latest popular teenage style like setting and coloring their hair as Mohawk, and wearing harajuku style outfit. Others like breathing up smell of a glue just like tranquilizer which, according to them, can make them feel relaxed and not hungry. Their actions sometime make me looking at them with suspicion and fear that I would simply like to see them disappear. I don’t know whether they are really street teenagers as referring them to teenagers for whom the street has become their real home, or could it simply because they are really homeless or without families, or they might have come from families who live in a situation where there is no protection, no supervision, nor direction from responsible adults, or they are just being neglected by their parents. Surprisingly, the fact is, not all the street teenagers come from the poor. There must be reasons why they choose to live as street teenagers. I wondered what these teenagers will turn out to be in the future.
I started to blame them for not being on the right path, at least, why they are not going to school. I blamed them as lazy teenagers who prefer hanging on the street rather than going to school or doing something worthy. I blamed their parents for having no control nor care about where their children are supposed to be during school time. Because it is normal that teenagers have a natural burning desire to learn, to be recognized as somebody and to excel; and parents are needed and are the most responsible persons to put their children on the right track. The existence of the path is not enough. It’s not simply a matter of passing through the path, but there is motivation that plays an important role in choosing the path, its direction and the goal or the finish line. These teenagers must have a dream that motivate them, but they need parents to help them going on the right path and choosing the right direction to go. If only their parents play their role, hopefully tomorrow I will not see them hanging on the street any longer.
Within seconds questions popped in my mind: What if there are reasons their parents do not care about them? What if some of these teenagers have no parents to live with? What if there is no one to take a parent’s role, at least to help them getting on the right path? Is this a kind of destiny? The questions broadened into more complicated ones, and remained unanswered. I know for sure that tomorrow I will find the same view, unless they are restrained by police which of course will not solve the problem of how to get these abandoned teenagers on the right path to reach their finish lines.
11 March, 2008
Krisis listrik, tarif naik
Untuk kesekian kalinya (ribuan kali , sekian tahun kali 365 hr kali 2-3 x sehari) listrik padam lagi, sehari bisa dua kali selama @ 4jam paling cepat. Matinya mendadak, lagi! Istilah orang Medan “suka2 kau PLN”. Otomatis semua kegiatan terkena dampaknya. Lagi kerja di USU tiba2 listrik mati, ruangan yang biasa pake AC jadi gelap, sumpek. Kebetulan ruanganku di sebelah dalam koridor, jadi gak langsung kena sinar matahari.
Read more.... »»
05 March, 2008
Apatisme mahasiswa pasca reformasi
Ukuran prestasi mahasiswa secara formal tentunya dilihat dari Indeks Prestasi Kumulatif.
NIlai-nilai yang diperoleh dari evaluasi pada setiap mata kuliah yang diikuti selama kuliah menggambarkan prestasi mahasiswa, terlepas dari variasi mutu pelajaran yang didapatkan di bangku perguruan tinggi. Setidaknya, dalam melamar pekerjaan, Indeks Prestasi Kumulatif merupakan salah satu persyaratan untuk minimal lolos seleksi awal. Akan hal kepemimpinan, dapat terbentuk pada diri seseorang, antara lain melalui keikutsertaan dalam suatu pengolahan perkuliahan (SAL / student active learning). Masalahnya sekarang adalah, mahasiswa beranggapan bahwa prestasi dan kemimpinan yang dimiliki tidak lagi menjamin akan mudah mendapatkan pekerjaan setelah tamat kuliah.
Sikap dan pandangan ini sangat mempengaruhi perilaku dan budaya belajar mahasiswa. Dibandingkan dengan masa kuliah saya dulu, budaya belajar mahasiswa sekarang jauh berbeda. Sekarang mahasiswa cenderung mau serba instant. Kuliah dianggap sebagai suatu kegiatan formalitas saja.Tidak jarang terlihat mahasiswa menghabiskan lebih banyak waktunya untuk kegiatan2 semacam ormas, organisasi kepemudaan diluar kampus, aktif dalam berdemonstrasi …bahkan menjadi pemain bayaran….
Kegiatan seminar atau membuat karya ilmiah semakin kurang diminati siswa. Seolah tidak ada lagi hal yang dapat memotivasi siswa untuk berprestasi.
Jika diamati, fenomena ini semakin menjadi-jadi setelah reformasi. Pasca reformasi, siapapun dapat menjadi pejabat. Tanpa harus melalui perjuangan panjang melewati suatu jenjang pendidikan tertentu, siapapun dapat duduk menjadi anggota partai politik, … yang penting ada koneksi. Pengaruh koneksi orang kuat, atau petinggi negara jelas semakin terlihat peranannya dalam penerimaan pegawai. Tidak perlu prestasi dan embel2 lainnya seperti kepribadian menarik, kemandirian, jiwa pemimpin, dsb, asal punya koneksi orang kuat maka peluang kerja sudah didepan mata. Krisis keteladanan, kira2 begitu yang saya tangkap dari pembicaraan dengan mahasiswa. Mau jadi wirausahawan, mencari proyek juga sulit kalau tidak ada “orang dalam” di departemen/lembaga/ institusi. Mau masuk ke swasta kita bersaing dengan ribuan pelamar kerja yang sebagian merupakan titipan orang tertentu .
Bagaimana caranya menumbuhkan kembali rasa percaya diri dan optimisme mahasiswa?
Saya hanya dapat memberikan pandangan kepada mereka bahwa motivasi harus diubah, jangan lagi kuliah untuk mendapatkan predikat sarjana sebagai modal kerja. Mahasiswa harus sadar bahwa kegiatan akademik baik kurikuler maupun non kurikuler adalah suatu proses untuk membina kepribadian, pola pikir untuk meningkatkan kualitas hidup. Kegiatan perkuliahan adalah proses pembentukan pola pikir mahasiswa agar berpikir analitis, kritis dan kreatif hingga mampu menciptakan lapangan kerja. Kegiatan non kurikuler dimaksudkan agar siswa mempunyai kesempatan untuk berorganisasi dan mengembangkan bakatnya di lingkungan kampus. Dengan aktifitas dalam suatu organisasi tertentu, diharapkan mahasiswa belajar mengelola suatu institusi kecil, mengemukakan pendapat, mendengar dan belajar menghargai pendapat orang lain. Mahasiswa dapat mengembangkan kreatifitas dan menuangkan ide2 serta pemikirannya, tukar pengalaman, pengamatan dan pendapat melalui kegiatan non kurikuler.
Dengan demikian, tujuan masuk Perguruan Tinggi bukan sekedar untuk “menuntut ilmu” agar menjadi sarjana dan ijasah sarjananya digunakan untuk melamar pekerjaan saja. Justru pengetahuan dan pengalaman di kampus merupakan modal menciptakan lapangan kerja. Pandangan itu harus diubah agar tidak menimbulkan apatisme ketika ijasah “sarjana” tidak laku melamar pekerjaan apabila tidak ada “koneksi”. Jadilah pencipta lapangan kerja, hindarkan menjadi pemburu lapangan kerja.
Targetnya adalah, mahasiswa setelah tamat dari perguruan tinggi, menjadi seorang yang punya kepribadian yang baik, pola pikir yang analitis, kemandirian, wawasan dan cara pandang yang luas serta punya pengalaman mengelola suatu organisasi (baca : perusahaan). Ini merupakan modal untuk meningkatkan kualitas hidup sendiri dan menjadi sumber kebahagiaan bagi orang yang tidak mampu mengembangkan diri sendiri. Berarti, siap membuka lapangan kerja bagi orang yang bukan sarjana. Dengan demikian lulusan perguruan tinggi bisa menjadi seorang entrepreneur yang tidak perlu risau dengan urusan melamar pekerjaan ke perusahaan orang lain, namun siap menampung orang lain.
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