Translated by Putu Semiada.
Duweg (Smart)
I Made Buta Aksara (I Made Illiteracy) can not understand on what happen to the children these days. They are sent to school when they are still too young to study.
Formerly, they only needed to go to elementary school first. But today, they are sent to playgroup before sent to kindergarten school. It seems that their parents want to send hem to school as earlier as possible.
“When I was a kid, going to school and being able to read are something luxurious. You were already lucky when you were able to have steamed rice mixed with chopped sweet potato,” says I Made.
But today, just when a baby born, it will be fed with expensive milk, and provided with pampers. When the baby is three years old, it will be sent to a play group and the parents expects that their baby will be very very smart.
Everyone nods. All of them have grandchildren who are at play groups and kindergarten schools now.
“You can even send your grandchildren to a kindergarten school with an international curriculum, like my granddaughter Ni Luh Astrid Helenawati Pertiwi Utami,” I Wayan Belog Dusun.
“My granddaughter is not 5 years old yet but she can speak some language; she speaks Indonesian, English, Chinese, but she never speak Balinese. That’s because she goes to a kindergarten school with international curriculum.”
“The problem is that it is difficult for her grandparents to communicate with her. They also hesitate to offer their granddaughter traditional cakes as she eats ‘Rotiboy and pizza. They even surprised to see their granddaughter imitate the cinetron stars’ accent.
“My grandchild is the opposite. She was getting confused since she was in kindergarten school. She keeps crying when she is at home and she doesn’t want to go to school. She says that every time she is at school her teacher is mad at her as she can not read nor write. Her friends even make fun of her. I realize that her burden is too much,” says I Ketut Celurut.
It is indeed very difficult being children today. It is a ‘competence’ era. That’s why children are requested to start studying as early as possible.
In old times, children could still spend their time crawling, learning to walk slowly, that sometimes they fell themselves.
But today the situation is very much different that a kindergarten should be able to read, write and count. A good kindergarten school is the one that teaches children to read, write and count. Good parents are the ones who send their children to good kindergarten schools and ‘push’ them to study in the evening to learn reading, writing and counting.
“If they can read, write and count since they are in kindergarten school, it will be easier for them to cope with subjects when they are at elementary school. One might become a professor at his younger age. That’s the point.,” says I Made.
The problem is that what the parents want often do not match with what the children want.
It’s like making the fruits be ripe artificially that is they are ripe much earlier than they are supposed to be. It is just because one wants to be able to eat them without having to wait too long or get benefit quickly.
As everything is done ‘instantly’, so the results are, including the education system. Many children now are called cetu (very young but talking and acting like adult) and gede-gede ngonyang boreh (know a lot of theories but they don’t know how to do simple things such as flying a kite, playing traditional games, as most of them spend most their time in their room studying. There are also kinds of bantal dugal children (the children who are being fed of learning school subjects which make them easily get upset, and do not want to go to school nor listen to their teachers and parents.
“Don’t give your children too much burden. Even though they can not read nor write yet, at least they still can spend their childhood properly; laughing, playing, listening to their parents and loving their brothers. It’s much better. Even though they will not become educated people, at least they can become good people,” he continues.
There are more than enough educated people in the world, so we need more good people than smart people.
