The Next Generation Kinda Gets Me Questioning

Yesterday, Monday the 16th of August, students of XXX Primary School Bekasi had an Independence Day ceremony. You know the kind, the one that we, uhm, probably we, had during school days.

Ah, for you who's wondering what the heck i'm talking about, you must have no idea that i'm a teacher. Yup, i started as an English instructor in a small course, then i moved to a bigger course, and yeah i sorta got into a school, as a teacher. I started last year and taught Grade 5. The system is quite simple. There are 2 teachers in a class. So my partner and i shared the lessons. I had English, Science, Art, Computer and i assisted PE. This year i'm handling 2 classes Grade 5 and Grade 6. I work with 2 other partners. My partner last year, Thesi and a new partner, Hera. Now i'm handling Bahasa Indonesia (go ahead laugh, if you know how "nice" my Bahasa Indonesia is), Science and Computer for both classes. 

Ok, that's what you missed on the last episode, LOL...

Back to the story>>>>>

Back in our school days (if you don't mind me saying "our"), we had so many ceremonies that we lost counts. I remember playing the recorder for Mengheningkan Cipta in from Grade 4 to Grade 6. I remember clearly joining Lomba Upacara Bendera when i was in Grade 9. And in Grade 10 or 11, my friends and i were appointed to sing in a choir for Upacara Peringatan Hari Kesaktian Pancasila in kantor Walikota Bekasi. Blah-bla-blah, yeah those were important, sarcastic minds think like that. What i'm about to "blabber" here is not about the "glorious" time. Cause it ain't glorious, na-ah... Something got me thinking. It's our next generation. 

Well, in the school i work for, the students are not used to having regular ceremony. So we can say that they are "lack" of nationalism or patriotism. We can see that from the Bahasa Indonesia they use. It sucks, man. Even though that doesn't mean that their English is very good. They're like mmm, i don't know... no words can describe them vividly clear to anybody's imagination.

Back to the Independence Day ceremony... All personnel in charge were from Grade 4. What made my jaw drop was a behaviour of a personnel, Victor (not his real name). He was one of the Pasukan Pengibar Bendera. After he and his friends "succesfully" did their job, he squated, took of his cap and used it as a fan in the middle of the unfinished ceremony... Not to mention, during the Hari Merdeka song, he acted like a guitarist. It'd look funny and amusing if it weren't a "ceremony". And, if you think that Victor is a special need, which probably helps us sigh relieved, nope! He's not. He's not one of those children. Oh dear God, whatever happens to our future Indonesia?????

Victor is just an example of what some of my friends and i are worried about. Some of my students are also "weak". The last ceremony we had, some of them were "too tired" to stand straight, complained how hot it was, asked to go home afterwards because of feeling dizzy from standing under the sun for for-God's-sake-only-thirty-minutes!!!

See, that got me questioning the school. Is this the way we "educate" the future leaders? Should we go back to our convetional way, the way we had our education long ago? No. That's not the key either. Why? To be honest, those lack-of-nationalism kids are brilliant! They're very critical. They have been trained to use logic that makes them very open-minded.

Well, there's hope, always... The one that keeps us alive.

I'm Indonesian and proud of being one. Happy anniversary, my beloved Indonesia. May God be with you always. Happy Independence my fellow Indonesians... Keep the hope alive!!! MERDEKA!!!!!!!!

Hit me back, just to check 

Surely yours

Lou