I wish Indonesia were a rich country

I wish Indonesia were a rich country, and the money that is for education can afford students to have free education and there wont be students who dropt out from their schools anymore. Its embarrassing that we have schools buildings which are broken and old.

Im confused of education law here. I’ve heard that its to make students  have a good morality, attitude and personality. They are the main goals of education system here, not to make them smart and clever. Why? Because if their attitude, morality and personality are good, they will know their responsibility as a student. They can make difference what are good or bad for them. And I agree with that.

It means that we should built our students from their morality first. We shouldn’t have let them cheating while exam. But its not the reality we find in our life. Even we make them cheat. We make a condition for them that they can cheat easily. This condition can be found when the national final exam (Ujian nasional) is held. We give them answers when exam, cuz we are afraid if they cannot pass it. We are worried if their parents are  disappointed to us as teachers cuz we don’t teach them right. We are worried too if in the next year, there wouldn’t  many students register to our schools because the amout of  the graduation before are not so many. That’s means that in fact, we support them to cheat, we give them permission to them to cheat. And how about the education law?? Do we brake the law?? The answer is, YES, we do brake the law.

How can we say to make them to be a good person with a good morality, attitude and personality, if we give them bad examples.

What we do is not more than to teach them how to be a corruptor. We teach them how to corrupt. The main similarity between cheating and corruption are don’t want anybody else know what you’ve done and having good result without work hard, means instantly. They cheat every time they have a test. They don’t have guilty feeling anymore. They do that as a habit.  And if I find them cheating, and punish them, they will hate me. What makes me shock is when I found a blog  made by senior high school students, contain about how to cheat with less risks.

Its horrible isn’t it? And if we let them go on happen, they wont be respect and care     their parents, teachers, and environment, and they wont have a better future.

One day, I’ve been asked by a student: “ Ibu pernah nyontek nggak waktu sekolah? (have you ever cheat when you were in school?) and I answered: “ Pernah, tapi kapok, takut ketahuan sama guru.” (Yes, I did, once, but I was  scared of teachers if I get caught). Its so embarrassing to get caught while exam. I coldnt stand it if I get caught. That’s why, I never did it again.

Only to know you that I’ve been teaching Sociology for the 1^st,2^nd, and 3^rd grade in senior high school. For the 1^st grade, its about Sociology as a social science, norms and values, social interaction, social changes, personality and socialization, also delinquent behavior. For the 2^nd grade its about social structure, social conflict, social stratification, social differentiation, social mobility and also multicultural society. And for the 3^rd grade, its about social research.

One thing that makes e confused is when I teach about norms and values, and delinquent behavior, I tell them thousand times to have well behave and to be honest in every situations, but the fact is there’s a contradiction when I say that in class in the 1^st grade  and when they finally have a National Exam in 3^rd class. We sometimes support them to cheat, as I told you before. Some facts that I’ve found when national exam were: they can sent the answers by sms, the supervisors must stay in front of the class, not walking around in the class, not to use noisy shoes cuz can bother their concentration, and the horrible thing was that the national exam board gave the answers directly in front of the class!!!

And in the other side,  I always say and warning them, especially for the girls to protect them self from close relationship and free sex. I told them to beware from their boy friend. Because as a girl, they have a precious thing that makes them so special, virginity. I’m worried about them of free sex. Because we live now in a modern era, we can have a lot of information easily whether its good or bad from internet, from their friends, or many other sources.

There are our challenges as a parents, as a mother, and also as a teacher. And I think, to be a good mother in this  modern era is to be a friend for them, to be close to them, so they can talk and share easily to us about their life and their friends.

Young people have responsibility to decide what will happen in the future. If they are now contaminated by drugs, alcohol, bad habits such as cheating, bullying their friends and also free sex, I can guarantee we wont have good future for our nation. Its bad and dangerous. And as teacher, we have big responsibility to built their personality, morality and attitude, start from say NO FOR CHEATING. I believe, to be a success person only need to pray and hard work.