Month: February 2016

The Hundred Languages of Children

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I had my last class in International Perspective on Early Childhood yesterday. It was about Reggio Emilia approach. There’s this poem made by Loris Malaguzzi which I find interesting.

No way.

The hundred is there.

the child is made of one hundred.

the child has a hundred languages

a hundred hands

a hundred thoughts

a hundred ways of thinking

of playing, of speaking.

A hundred, always a hundred

ways of listening

of marveling, of loving

a hundred joys

for singing and understanding

a hundred worlds to discover

a hundred worlds to dream.

The child has a hundred languages

(and a hundred hundred hundred more)

but they steal ninety-nine.

The school and the culture

separate the head from the body.

They tell the child to think without hands

to do without head

to listen and not to speak

to understand without joy

to love and to marvel

only at Easter and Christmas.

They tell the child

to discover the world already there

and of the hundred

they steal ninety-nine.

They tell the child

that work and play

reality and fantasy

science and imagination

sky and earth

reason and dream

are things

that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child

that the hundred is not there.

The child says

“No way – The hundred is there.”

Such a great poem to reflect how I perceived children and how my perception has changed overtime.

Dec 13, 2012

Friends of Mine

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Friend is “a person with whom one has bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations” (www.oxforddictionaries.com)

Do you have one? Can’t help to write this thing now because of a chat with one of my friends. Damn you chu!

Maybe it’s the culture or maybe it’s another thing but Indonesian people tend to overgeneralize the meaning of friend, at least based on the definition above. Yes, I have housemates here but are they my friends? Not necessarily. So when I asked do you have friend, then what I mean is a real one not the number of people that you have introduced yourself to.

Do I have friends? Yes, I do but I am the kind of person who have just a small circle of close friends. And I make sure like hell that I care of and love them all. I believe that the relationship that I have with them is very very precious.

I met some of my friends in high school or in the university. However, at least as long as I remember, the longest friendship that I have up until now is with one of my high school friend, Tony (yes, he bribed me to write this thing! Hehe.. kidding chu..), which I hope will still be my best friends until our grand kids are in high school. BUT I am not going to write just about him now.

In my own sense, friends are those people who can share and enjoy moments with you. I remember how my peer (Mirao, Lenao, Riano, Ireno, Astrido) and I could talk for hours about anything from the silly things like Spongebob, boys that we like; to unimportant or maybe important but interesting things like human philosophy, love, and new psychological news. How I miss those moments now!

I think friends should not only enjoy times when they talk to each other but also when they are together in silence. Unintended travel around with Astrido or Lenao or Tony. I remember that at that time we didn’t even talk that much but we (or at least I) can still feel happy at the end.

We can be friends because of our shared interest but being the same as our friends is not important. My friends and I, as I know, respect each other and we know and embrace our differences. I can pray in Astrido’s house. Tony can be my friend during my sleepless night prayer time. I can wake Lenao up during classes or I can be Ireno’s (fake) drinking buddy. I can also be Riano’s little sister and Mirao’s opposed discussion partner. 🙂

It really really is very nice for me to have my best friends. And at times like this I really really miss them. I love you, besties.. 🙂

 Dec 11, 2012

Mad at Drunk People

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This is a short unimportant blabber.

I was awake at 3 am today. Maybe it was the weather which is getting colder and colder every time or the noise. Yes, the noise. Last night was Saturday night and almost all young people in here went to bars or clubs. As usual, they got drunk and make a lot of noise.

Because I have nothing to do, I text my friend, Tony. He just woke up, which was veeeeery late in Indonesia. Haha. I told him about the noise and how I hate those people. It was like I want to tell them to shut up. His reply surprised me and got me thinking. He said, well, I can’t really translate it in English. He said ‘namanya juga mabok’. Well, in English maybe it can be translated as ‘they ARE drunk and that’s how people behave when they are drunk’.

It wouldn’t made sense if I am mad at those drunk people. They wouldn’t made sense of why people hate them when they made such noise. Then why should I mad at them? This whole thing makes me remember one of my lectures which talked about rights. Yes, rights come with responsibilities and obligations. It is your right to be drunk and it is my right to be able to sleep at night. It is an unending debate though.

I remembered one line in AADC movie (such an old movie) ‘one of us should have more logic or conscience’. Maybe, just maybe, those drunk people should have more conscience not to disturb other people. And maybe, just maybe, I should stop complaining and being mad at them because as Tony said, ‘namanya juga mabok’. And the question now is ‘who’s dumb, then, in this situation?’

See, it is an unimportant short – rather long – blabber.

Dec 02, 2012

Concept of Value in Education

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In my opinion value is a special message embedded in education. It may consciously or unconsciously transferred to students. It reflects the condition of the society, of what regarded important by the society, or maybe even what is regarded important by the educator.

For example, in 1929 an Indonesian educator established an education system which called ‘freedom system’ (Takwin, 2010). The value brought by that system is independence; the ability to be obedient but autonomous. It reflects  high level of nationalism because at that time, Indonesia was trying to get its independence.

A couple of decades later, the system was substituted by more moderate curriculum, which stresses on conformity. Governed by authoritarian leader, schools promote uniformity. Differences were seen as something inappropriate and those who show different opinion or idea may be punished.

After Indonesian reformation in 1998 the value internalized in education changed again. People have started to put emphasis on individual development and embrace diversity. The government, until now, is still trying to increase economic resource. Education is seen as a mean to produce qualified people who can work to increase economical power. According to Indonesian vice president, Boediono (2012), education is a strategic sector because it will prepare future workers in getting their skills in science and technology. It is also used to support country’s development through social, economical, and political construction.

The examples above are the example of how value of education changes across time according to the leader, circumstances, or external forces. However value transfer is not limited to the big ones. In small scale, a teacher may transfer his personal value to the students.

There are lots of needs and agenda that people want to insert into education. It seems for me, that adults or whoever got the power can promote one or certain value to children through education. But what about what children want? What about the value of children itself? If education is used to internalized values to children, then for whom the education actually is? Is it for children and students? Is it for those who got the power? What if children are given so many values that they are actually confused? Isn’t education then going to create those confused, valueless apathy people?

Dec 06, 2012

What Education Means to Me

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Every person may have different understanding about education. Some people define education as schooling; some others relate education to learning activities. In my opinion, education is a lifelong, social context related process which involves getting information from environment and reflecting obtained information within self. It enables one to survive and it is important to make one’s life more valuable and beneficial for others.

Education is not limited to particular time duration. Human is born with capable mind which can be used for a life time. It is not limited to school, because education can be taken everywhere. It is a process because education should persist and gradually change one’s skill, ability, or behaviour. Education is always related to social context because the level of importance of skills or abilities differs in every society. For example, in a fisherman village, a child learns how to fish in early year. He may not attend special course about fishing, but practically helping his father educates him to be a fisherman. His experience continues to make him an expert and in implicit way it educates him to be a better fisherman. Fishing skill may be important in a fisherman village but in a modern city it might be placed in the bottom of education priority.

Education involves two things. The first one is getting information. Human senses enable human to receive stimulus. Therefore it is human nature to be able to receive information from external world. Inputs received by senses then processed in human brain and eventually the information can be used in any way to help human live. Education also involves personal reflection. What is obtained from surroundings will be interpreted in a specific personal way. One can reflect and learn through one’s own perception. This will cause education unique, different for everybody even though the education received is similar.

Education enables human to survive. Obtained skills and abilities from education will definitely help one to not only survive but also make the quality of one’s life better. Education is a crucial thing in human’s life because it is a mean to make one’s life more valuable and to enable human to help each other. By education, an average fisherman can be a better fisherman, gives a better life for his family. In addition, the fisherman can also help other people by providing more fish, opening job opportunities, or even educating other fisherman.

My version of the meaning of education involves three principles. It is a lifelong, social context related process. There are two activities in education, which are receiving information and processing the information by reflecting it within self. The aim of education is to make human survive, to enhance the quality of human’s life, and to enable human gives benefit for others.

Oct 07, 2012

A Woman from Saudi

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Yesterday was my first day in the university. I am attending a master program in education, specializing in early childhood studies. As a common first days, I met new friends. Half of my class are international students. They came from all around the world (literally all around, from China to America). One of them is this woman from Saudi. Yes, I am bad at names so I can’t remember her name. But this is her story.

She came late to introductory class yesterday. After the class was over she came to me and asked about things that she missed. We chatted during the lunch break and I got to know her better.

She is a beautiful woman from Saudi. She looks very young that I didn’t expect that she has kids already. And her kids are teenagers! She came to UK 5 months ago with her kids. She told me that these past few months are hard for her because she had to live without her husband and took care of her kids and studied. I think she must be really strong that she can manage to survive this long. I really do hope that she can achieve what she is here for.

She seemed fine and enjoying her life. However, she said that this is not the life she wants. If she could, she wouldn’t get married and wouldn’t have kids. As a common Arabic culture, marriage is arranged by family. A girl or a woman usually doesn’t have her right to choose and to say no. She is married for this long and while she was living abroad without her husband, she realized that her husband has another woman. I can’t imagine how hard it is for her. She said that if she knew it a long time ago, maybe she won’t be in this marriage. Now, she just left it all behind and try to live her life.

As we walked wandering the campus the rain fell down. She said that she loves rain. It was beautiful. She said hamdalah more and more. Yesterday, I tried to understand her position. I tried to imagine how is life for her. At the end, I remembered a thing that she said.

“We should be thankful for what we have and life is full of problems. As long as we have our God by us then we should be grateful all the time”

Sep 25, 2012

Jakarta – Doha

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I am sure that Irene will LOVE this flight. They gave “sponge bob” merchandise to children passenger. Yeah, I wish I were a kid so I can get the merchandise and give it to Ireno!

Ha! That is just the fun prelude. This is what I found during my journey from Jakarta to Doha: I saw some “TKW” or women worker. They went to other countries to work. I saw a few of them in the waiting room before we got on the plane.

A women came to me and I could tell that she is scared from the look of her face. She sat and asked whether that is the correct waiting room for a plane to Dubai. Well, the plane was surely goes to Doha. I looked at her ticket and she needed to transfer to another plane in Doha. I explained this to her and she got confused. Well, after three times trying to tell her that, I gave up. I said, I will help her to find the plane to Dubai after we arrived in Doha. Then she asked permission to send a text to her sister. I found out that this woman’s name is Mrs. Nur. She told her sister to take care of her kids. Well, what a life. I wonder how this woman feels. Maybe worried, maybe sad. I don’t know. I can’t even imagine.

However, I was sure that this woman was scared. She told me that she was left alone and was separated from her friends. She didn’t know what to do, couldn’t speak the language, and that was her first experience. When I asked her whether she knows her employer or not, she said that she didn’t know. She didn’t know who will pick her up in Dubai Airport and didn’t know who to meet. I wonder how she can survive.

I am sure that if I am in her position, I must be scared to dead. In Doha International Airport, I found even more women worker. They tried to read the flight information board. I helped them to find their gate. That was the only thing that I can do. Those women worker working so far away to earn money for their family. They sure have a very big and brave heart. I pray for their welfare and well-being. I hope they can always find strength whenever they are.

Sep 24, 2012

The Garden of Heaven

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Eid Mubarak!

Yes, it is late but Syawal month hasn’t end yet. The Holy Ramadhan month had passed. I am satisfied with what I did during the Ramadhan. Anyway, I experienced something unusual last Ramadhan when I did i’tikaf.

I’tikaf means staying in a mosque. It doesn’t have to be at night but because of the chasing of Lailatul Qadr night and the best time to be close to Allah is at night, people usually do i’tikaf at night. Last Ramadhan I did i’tikaf once. It was fun and nice. What I notice when I first came was that most of the people there was old.

I think it is quite common that those who are diligent to pray, coming to worship places, and religious are old people. What I am amaze of is their spirit. They are so excited to pray. Really… Praying in Ramadhan needs a lot of energy, not to mention the staying in the mosque all day long part. It can be really tiring. However, they looked so happy. I was kind of embarrassed.

During the night, we did Qiyamullail. We prayed at the end of the night, at about 3.00 am. People were tired and sleepy. We were half awake. Guess what, the old people, the grandmas are all wide awake and psyched to pray. Wow! Then I heard a grandma said something. Something beautiful that made me realize that praying is not what you have to do but something that you like to do, that energize you, that makes you happy. She said, come on wake up. Let’s visit the garden of heaven.

Praying is not a burden, not something that will make you tired, not something that you can choose not to do it. Praying is visiting the garden of heaven. It will make you calm, it will clear your head, it will do nice things to you. Maybe, just maybe when young people realize that as the old people do, then there are more and more young people who are diligent to pray.

 Sep 12, 2012

Euro 2012!!

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This past 3 weeks the world has been mesmerized by a giant event, EURO! Well, I support Germany team but unfortunately they can’t make it to the final round. I am a bit disappointed but that’s life, right? You can’t always win. However, I still support Germany! Yeay! Deutschland uber alles!

Am I gonna talk about Germany team? Or even Euro? Nope! Haha… I am inspired by one of the match that I watched. It was Germany vs Portugal if I am not mistaken. It was one of the first matches in Euro 2012.

So here is my thought

During the second half of that match Germany was still leading. The score was 1-0. I could sense the pressure felt by Portugal team. It was like they need to, they really want to make their score even. Within very limited time left, the team strive, push hard, and put their best effort. Suddenly I felt like everybody was time-conscious. They were super aware of the time; how much time they have left, what they can do in such little time, etc, etc. At the end, Portugal lose.

Seeing that football match made me think about time. Yes, in the part that everyone seemed to be very time-conscious, I thought about human condition. In a football match; we know, every player; knows the duration of the game. The players know how much time left so they can make a good use of their tie in order to achieve their goal, winning. And even so, the players, the supporters, are nervous. They are afraid to lose. They want to win but they don’t know whether they will win or not. What they can do is just showing their best performance.

What about life?

As we all know, we don’t know the duration of our life. We unconsciously know but rarely realize, rarely really aware of that. And what do we do? We don’t know how much time we have left but we don’t even try, we don’t (well, I don’t and often forget) to put my best effort. I believe that all humans want to win. And as in afterlife, because I believe in afterlife, winning means heaven. My goal, most people’s goal is heaven. With unknown time limit, off course we should prepare for the worse.

What if, tomorrow my time ends? Am I going to win? Will I get injury time? Will I achieve my goal? Not sure! Then what am I doing? Why don’t I try hard, show my maximum performance, like those football players as if there is only 1 minute left to win the game?

I guess it is true that life is a game. Work hard as if we only have 1 more minute before the final whistle is blown because we won’t know whether we win or lose.

Jul 01, 2012