On Religious Educational Institutes (2 of 2)

In this previous post, I shared my worries on religious institution camouflaged as educational institution. In this one, I would like to share some quick run through the responses to the surveys we gave. What we found were even more disturbing.

Some of the survey questions were modified to fit the participants as teachers in training. These included a question that asked what the participants think as the most important matter they should be teaching to their future students. In one of the three groups, 20 of 43 participants mentioned religious-related responses that were rather specific to [beep]’s point of view.

Other questions were more specific to creativity, such as what favorite books have they read in relation to creativity. From the same group, 21 of 43 participants mentioned the same book title – which I had never heard of. After googling, the author turned out to be a leader in a very specific [beep] group.

Now, if they were my students, as a lecturer I would be very amazed and probably thought happily that I had succeeded in educating them. But I know if I was to ask my own students to respond to the same question, I am pretty sure that they would mention different titles. Such an overwhelming response could only mean that either these students learn by rote memorization, if not drilling, or they were given only that one reference book and were not exposed to others.

Going back to the question what the participants think as the most important matter they should be teaching to their future students, of the 23 participants who did not mention any religious-related responses, 12 actually mentioned the book title whose author was the leader in a very specific [beep] group.

Education? Try indoctrination.

And to think that these students will one day become teachers of math, science, biology, accounting, social sciences, health, etc. in elementary and secondary schools all over Indonesia. What would become of them? What will become of the world if students are drilled so narrow-mindedly and learned about boxed-in worldviews? Perhaps, Amartya Sen’s worries, as highlighted in this post, was made over a very possible future.

On Religious Educational Institutes (1 of 2)

Along with two colleagues, I was recently invited to train students on introduction to creative thinking. As part of the continuation of our study last year, we handed out pre- and post- surveys to find out the role of motivation and culture in teaching creative thinking.

While waiting for the students to fill in their post-surveys, I looked around the room, which walls were filled with pinned up posters created by students. Intrigued about their contents, I paid a closer attention, and realized that these posters contained worldview from the point of view of a certain religion – which from this point on I will refer to as [beep].

What was interesting was that most of them contain very similar information on how disciplines of knowledge were related directly to quotations from verses taken from the [beep]’s holy book. Later I found out from one of my colleagues that in her classroom, this [beep] worldview was juxtaposed with Western worldview – which again, most of them contained very similar information.

With my curiosity aroused, during the break in between training sessions, I chatted with some participants to find out a little bit about their study program. These participants, in training to become teachers in elementary and secondary schools, are recruited from all over Indonesia. Apparently, most of them are on full scholarship and some pay twenty five percent of the tuition fee. They all live in housing that belongs to the university.

I was told that once they graduate, they would be sent back to where they came from, to teach in schools that belong to the same foundation which run educational institutions from pre-school all the way to graduate school. They were bound by a five-year contract, and had to contribute twenty percent of their future salary back to the foundation. (Note that meanwhile, they must work for ten hours while studying.)

I asked them about the posters, to find out if everyone was ok with the idea. Apparently, they all came from the same [beep] background. So no problem there (although a student said that sometimes she felt that she’s in training to become a [beep] teacher, teaching religions as suppose to biology), with the exception that in the name of the university, there is no indication whatsoever of its link to a [beep]’s belief.

Do these students know what they got themselves into when they signed the contracts at such a tender age when one graduates from high school? I don’t know. But the institution clearly set itself on a very strategic and religious role.

If, while reading this post thus far, you do not get what I’m worried about, try change the [beep] with a religion other than your own. Trust me, it can happen anywhere, anytime, in any religions other than your own.

Now I don’t have problems with religious institutions per se, including religious educational institutions. I myself went through [beep] elementary and secondary schools which were founded and run by [beep] leaders. But my parents sent me there because they believe in the value and quality of the education, more than on their religious convictions (none of my parents held the same beliefs with the schools I went to).

So the fact that this institution did not attach a [beep] in front or as part of its name, like most religious educational institutions in Indonesia, is frankly misleading. Or perhaps is it done on purpose?

Efficiently Creative | Creatively Efficient

Recently, an article in Business Week mentioned the clash between creativity vs. efficiency in 3M, (used to be?) known as one of the most creative companies in the world. Even more recently, another article from the same source discussed Frank Gehry’s Stata Building at MIT which mentioned as well the clash between creativity vs. efficiency in the context of space.

Being trained as an architect by quite a few MIT grads who studied under modernist architects who studied under masters of form follows function, I must admit that as much as I preach creativity and admire its products, I still find it difficult to enjoy buildings such as Gehry’s Stata Building and Experience Music Project. I can intellectually admire the process of thinking and experimenting which Gehry has dwelled on for decades, but my sensibilities have been tainted by years of training that, for better or worse, has made me aesthetically and logically biased.

Maybe that’s why I’m better off not practicing as an architect, as I can’t overcome the guilt that someone else has to pay for my experimentations. Or perhaps I should overcome this guilty feeling and experiment on efficiently creative or creatively efficient spaces. Or the two words are simply a paradox?

City with (No) Ad Signs

Sao Paulo is on the move to become a city with no advertising sign. In the long run, if this city persists, how might it alter the perception of its citizen?

Contrast this with Italo Calvino's image of an industrial city of nothern Italy in the 1960s:

Born and raised in the city, ... [Michelino] had never seen a forest, not even at a distance. ... [Michelino and his brother] walked around the city, illuminated by street lamps, and they saw only houses: not a sign of a forest. ... And so they reached the area where the houses of the city ended and the street turned into a highway.

At the sides of the highway, the children saw the forest: a thick growth of strange trees blocked the view of the plain. Their trunks were very very slender, erect or slanting; and their crowns were flat and outspread, revealing the strangest shapes and the strangest colors when a passing car illuminated them with its headlights. Boughs in the form of a toothpaste tube, a face, cheese, hand, razor, bottle, cow, tire, all dotted with a foliage of letters of the alphabet.

"Hurrah!" Michelino said. "This is the forest!"

...

That evening there was a report that on the superhighway a bunch of kids was knocking down billboards.

From Italo Calvino, "The forest on the superhighway", in "Marcovaldo: or Seasons in the City" p. 36-39.

St(r)aying away from Reality

Graduation time is in the air. Yesterday, a post in one of the mailing lists I subscribed to forwarded Bill Gates’ remarks to graduates of Harvard, which I find very inspiring, particularly this part:

“… But taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret. I left
Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world – the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.

I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.

But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement. …”

Then today, from another mailing list, I read another speech by Amartya Sen that was prepared to address a conference back in 2003, which was also centered around inequity, particularly how this contribute to human insecurity and raising fundamentalism throughout the world since September 11.

“… schooling can be deeply influential in the identity of a person and the way we see ourselves and each other. … there is need to pay attention to the narrowing of horizons, especially of children, that illiberal and intolerant education can produce. It is also important to recognize that lack of public facilities for the schooling of children often contributes greatly to the appeal and popularity of religious schools run by political militants. … Indeed, the nature of education is quite central to peace in the world.

...

There is need not only to discuss the importance of our common humanity, but also to stress the fact that our diversities can take many distinct forms and that we have to use our reasoning to decide how to see ourselves.

The importance of non-sectarian and non-parochial curricula that expand, rather than reduce, the reach of reason can be hard to exaggerate.”

Too often we see educational institutions as ivory towers that st(r)ay away from the reality of everyday life and too many educational institutions being used as means to promote doctrines. I just hope those who have graduated from school realize these.

2030

President Yudhoyono has launched a vision for Indonesia: by 2030, Indonesia will be among top five economic powers in the world. In the past three days, Kompas published a seminar that attempted to relate this vision with education. The second article in the series is of interest in this post. In it, the article stated that the vision, albeit feasible, is impossible to achieve by 2030, considering the current state of affairs in Indonesia.

It begs the question of why bother having a vision when it is not achievable? Sure, in their highly influential book Built to Last, Collins and Porras stated that visionary companies (interchangeable with countries) should aim to have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. But implicit in their argument is that the vision should be achievable.

In a current research initiated by British Council, conducted by partnership between Bina Nusantara University and Forum Grafika Digital to map packaging, promotion, and publication industries, I was informed that Indonesia does not even have data on the service industries yet – a fact that although is not surprising is nevertheless detrimental towards the 2030 vision.

When the more advanced countries in the world have moved on from industrial era, to informational age, to service industries, and to knowledge economy at present, manufacturing industries are still Indonesia’s most valuable industries. Service industries don’t even count.

Without attempting to be pessimistic and cynical (although it’s hard not to be both considering the state of affairs), how on earth will Indonesia be among top five economic powers in the world by 2030? The Kompas article mentioned that at present Indonesia is not even in the top twenty. So why not set an achievable vision instead, one that although may not be as great as the 2030 vision, but is more likely to set up smaller steps towards being on the top five?

ADDED
In Changing Minds, a book I currently read, Howard Gardner wrote:

"... while stories [referring to any ideas put forward by leaders] need to be dramatic, motivating, memorable, picturesque, even garlanded with appropriate music and graphics, they also need to be honest. That is where integrity comes in. Stories that do not resonate with reality ultimately prove frustrating and ineffective." (my emphasis, p.112)