The New Curriculum Needs to Prove Its Promises

            Finally the new curriculum 2013 has now applied. When it was still a curriculum plan (it was already created), it caused pros and cons from many scientist, about its lack in establishing students’ competence and creativity, its subject reduction, and the language that is used in it. Professor of mathematical sciences Institut Teknologi Bandung, Iwan Pranoto, said the curriculum is a legal document and manuscript culture of the nation. The reason is that the curriculum contains projections of future human that will be created through education. He regrets that after checking the curriculum documents, it will only produce the obedient students instead of the students who are innovative. He commented about the base competencies from math lessons for class I to VI. Everything is begun with the sentence "shows submissive behavior on the rules ..." which means that students have to obey orders. In fact, he said, Math allows students to find their own best way to answer the question. From what Iwan said, the new curriculum seems like bounding the students’ creativity, especially for math subject.

            On the other hand, education principle, Muhammad Nuh always tried to convince people to just believe in the new curiculum. He claimed that the new curriculum that is being ripped by his team is able to create the innovative, creative and tolerant student. "The design is made to create the generations who will be able to face the life that is getting hard. Also, their soul will be more tolerant because they used to know there is more than one answer for a problem. So when they get adult, they will not be easy fanatical toward the truth in mind, it is important for a diverse country like " Nuh said that to approximately 4.000 teachers of Muhammadiyah School from D.I Yogyakarta and west Java in Muhammadiyah University in Yogyakarta on last Wednesday, January 30 2013. That is surely right the students are going to be tolerant, but there is still no obvious indication that the students will be creative and innovative.

            In the new curriculum some of the objects are eliminated such as Science and Social subject for elementary school. There used to be 10 subjects, but now they are only six, PKN, PAI, Bahasa Indonesia, and Math for the main subject, and then Sport and Art. Nuh defended that the subject like science and social studies are not eliminated, but they are going to be attach in another subject as an integrative thematic. It means both subjects are not a separated subject, but merged into the Indonesian subjects. “For example, when discussing the river in Bahasa Indonesia, on science side there is material about rainfall, the environment, and so on. For the social studies is about the river in the form of benefits for the community, the need to preserve the environment, and so on” He said. For many people, this merging step leads to confusion. It is better if Bahasa Indonesia material enter into science and social studies subjects or all subjects. Bahasa Indonesia would be more flexible to be integrated into any theme. If Bahasa Indonesia was merged into other subjects, it would be wrong because it would be contrary to the Law of National Education System. In rule legislation was mentioned that Indonesian should stand as a separate subject in the curriculum. As a result, conceptual knowledge about science and social studies will not be understood maximally by most students. Bahasa Indonesia serves as a binder or a subject guide related subjects (language across the curriculum).

            There have been many articles that criticized about the previous curriculum (KTSP) about its lack in building the character of student. Those articles mostly stated that the students are academically matured, but mentally not. That might be the reason why the new curriculum tends to focus on moral values in order to build student’s character. Related to moral values, Iwan concerned language used in the 2013 curriculum as encountered in class XI economics lesson, the basic competencies 1 sounds "accounting activities based on the teachings of religious affiliation." Students even invited to make allegations with the possibility of a sentence like "what if ..." and "what if not ..." then he added “From this it can be seen, as if the kind of human who wants to be formed through 2013 Curriculum”. Iwan’s view actually has a point, since the aim of the new curriculum is on character building, but then it seems to have an aim to create students who are doubtful.

            Looking at the pros and cons, it is worth if the new curriculum was piloted in a number of schools before the implementation. It is to show people that the new curriculum is worth a trust.  However, it has been applied widely as the new curriculum in Indonesia. It seem like everyone should be just calm down, believe and wait to see the things that are promised by the government through the new curriculum. We hope one day at the time, we will see that it was wrong to have hesitation on it.

Recources:

Rahardjo, D. (2012). Kurikulum membentuk siswa patuh. Retrieved from http://edukasi.kompas.com/read/2013/03/13/21010261/Kurikulum.Membentuk.Siswa.Patuh

Pendapat para ilmuwan mengenai perubahan kurikulum. Retrieved from http://belajarmenjadilebih.wordpress.com/tag/pendapat-para-ilmuan-mengenai-perubahan-kurikulum/

Roszandi, D. (2013). Kurikulum 2013 diklaim bikin siswa kreatif. Retrieved from http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2013/02/01/079458352/Kurikulum-2013-Diklaim-Bikin-Siswa-Kreatif

Lukmansyah, O. (2013. Kurikulum 2013 akan berisi pendidikan anti narkoba. Retrieved from http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2013/02/01/173458367/Kurikulum-2013-Akan-Berisi-Pendidikan-Anti-Narkoba

Teacher: an individual, a Professional, a Community Member.

The Ron Clark Story Movie Review

The Ron Clark Story movie is the movie that tells about teacher from a small town, who moves to New York City and tries to make a difference in the lives of his minority students to show their real potential. The character of Ron Clark in the movie is a person who has his own principle and passion of helping others. It can be seen when he decides to leave his comfort zone to try something new in helping people in need. Clark is a risk-taker and has confidence to make things work. He chooses the messy class with problematic students instead of the good one. It shows that Clark is a confident person and also a risk-taker. His confidence can be seen when the woman tell him that he will not be able to teach those kind of students, but he says “they are gonna love me”.

In doing his profession as a teacher he is a patient teacher and he is always ready to face any kind of condition. For example in the scene when the school head master offers him to start working in the next two days but he says “i’m ready now”. His patience can be seen from the scenes when he keeps trying to make the class more discipline by using many ways, even the way that force him to act like a kid. He is also a responsible person, shown when he gets sick and he cannot come to the class, but he records himself explaining the material through the video recording that can keep his students learning. He even comes to students’ house to find out about their problem and tries to help them.

As a community member, he is a very kind person. He is so helpful. I actually do not really know about how Ron Clark is as a community member, because the movie does not really shows how he is like as a community member. However, I think he is a kind person. I saw in the scene when he interacts with other people, he speaks or acts nicely. For example, when he meets the lady whe the rain falls, he tries to give her the umbrella. I honestly forgot about another scene tha shows him a good person as a community member, but I think from the way he treats his students, that is what he is in community too.

If I were him, I would probably not as patient as him in facing the students like in the movie. It is lucky for him because when he almost gives up, there is a push not to give up from someone whom he interest with. I would probably give up and nobody pushes me and gives me a spirit to do a bigger effort, then I would finally end up with nothing. So, in doing something, someone need a support from somebody else to prevent giving up. 

For me, to conquer someone, we have to win their heart first, and then they will follow our direction. If I were the main character in the movie, I would keep doing something nice that can win students’ heart first. One of the strategies that I would probably do is making the students believe in their capability. For example, price them if they do something positive to build their confidence and self esteem. It is because I believe that reinforcement as Skinner stated in his behaviorism theory is one of good ways to do in the class.

The main characteristic that the teacher should have for me is passion. By having passion someone will build his/her confidence, patience, and hard work to reach the goal, and that is for teacher too.

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