Blog baru saya ini berkaitan dengan faktor terpenting yang menciptakan kemajuan suatu bangsa bagi bangsa-bangsa yang sedang berkembang dan bangsa yang belum berkembang. Saya menulis ini karena kefrustasian saya setelah cukup banyak mengamati mengapa dari generasi ke generasi dalam sebuah negara berkembang bangsanya sulit untuk bergerak maju, maka saya “melampiaskannya” dalam blog saya sekarang ini (Maaf agak dikit kasar kalimatnya tapi ini penting loh makanya ada penekanan disini hehe….)

Ketika saya mencari topik ini dalam bahasa Inggris yang muncul begitu banyak, tapi ketika saya mencarinya dalam bahasa Indonesia yang muncul sangat sedikit hal ini merupakan cukup menjadi sebuah indikator betapa lemahnya pendidikan karakter bangsa Indonesia, dengan catatan tanpa mengecilkan Bangsa kita lohh ) Seketika itu juga saya terbersit pada sebuah pertanyaan yang juga sudah menjadi rahasia umum di publik kita adalah Mengapa orang-orang Indonesia secara Intelektual sangat cerdas tapi dalam aspek-aspek yang lain tidak secerdas itu, ini termasuk saya lohhh hehe )  Serta secara otomatis pula muncul logika dalam bentuk sebuah pertanyaan dalam diri saya seperti ini “Kemakmuran dulu setelah itu Pendidikan?” atau “Pendidikan dulu setelah itu Kemakmuran?” Yang pasti tanpa pendidikan sulit untuk menjadi makmur, akan tetapi tanpa kemakmuran kita bisa mendidik, melatih dan membentuk karakter generasi-generasi penerus kita demi masa depan Bangsa dan Negara kita. Sebagai tambahannya (tanpa menghilangkan rasa hormat saya kepada para leluhur dan orang-orang tua) lebih ironisnya lagi para leluhur dan orang-orang tua kita diyakini secara pasti sudah mengetahui dan memahami persoalan-persoalan ini tapi tidak ada sedikitpun aksi dan kemajuan yang berarti untuk berinisiatif dan bergerak untuk melepaskan Belenggu Tua ini, Sungguh-sungguh Ironis.

Menurut saya, kemajuan suatu bangsa hanya dapat diciptakan oleh partisipasi semua komponen masyarakat yang harus dididik, dilatih dan dibentuk dari kecil oleh para orang tua dalam keluarga sampai ke institusi yang lebih besar seperti sekolah dan lingkungan sosialnya, jadi  bukan hanya dari pemerintah saja. Tanpa bermaksud sama sekali untuk mendewa-dewakan negara amerika ) berikut ini saya akan melampirkan sebuah artikel dari Whitehouse Conference yang telah disosialisasikan di negara bagian California, intinya adalah mengintip rahasia bagaimana masyarakat amerika dapat mendidik generasi-generasi baru mereka yang bisa cerdas dalam semua aspek, nasionalis, bertanggung jawab dan mandiri, yang dilihat dari peran instutusi Sekolah-sekolah Dasar.

Secara garis besar menurut saya, mengapa masyarakat di amerika dapat maju walaupun dengan ideologi yang rentan dengan terciptanya Keos yang disebabkan berpegang pada ideologi dan prinsip kebebasan adalah hanya ada satu satu alasan yang paling masuk akal yaitu Tanggung Jawab yang sudah terlatih dari sejak kecil oleh Orang Tua, Sekolah, Lingkungan Sosial dan Pemerintah Dari Generasi Ke Generasi Secara Berkesinambungan Dan Pada Akhirnya Menjadi Kebiasaan Dan Karakter Dasar (Covey, 2005). Artikel ini membahas pembentukan karakter yang dilakukan oleh peran Sekolah Dasar, bagaimana dan sejauh mana Sekolah Dasar berperan sangat penting dalam pembentukan karakter yang baik setelah peran Keluarga. Mohon diluangkan waktunya yach untuk melihat sekilas artikel berikut tapi sebelumnya mohon maaf sebesar-besarnya karena saya belum sempat menterjemahkannya kedalam bahasa Indonesia hehe… :-)) Untuk linknya dapat diklik di: http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/character/schaps.pdf

Trims so much before for the attentions dan Maaf jika ada kalimat atau kata-kata yang kurang berkenan dikarenakan oleh keterbatasan saya sendiri  Please, I Beg U To Write Any Comments Bout This One, All Kinds Of Comments I Give Lot Of Appreciation  ;-))  

COMMUNITY IN SCHOOL: CENTRAL TO CHARACTER FORMATION

AND MORE

 White House Conference On Character and Community

June 19, 2002

 Presented By Eric Schaps, Ph.D. Developmental Studies Center

Oakland, CA

 In my Center’s work with schools, we often survey students and ask them how much they agree or disagree with such statements as: • Students at this school really care about each other. • In my class students have a say in deciding what goes on.

• I feel that I can talk to the teachers in this school about things that are bothering me.

 These statements reflect the central focus of our Child Development Project (CDP)—helping elementary schools to create a strong “sense of community” in the classroom and the school at large, a community that links students, their parents or other caregivers, and the school’s staff in

supporting the growth and learning of every student. Through this focus on building community in school, CDP helps schools to foster students’ ethical, social, and emotional growth, as well as

their academic learning

 To build community, the CDP program assists a school in modifying its curriculum, pedagogy, organization, and climate so that the daily experience of school itself becomes the character education program, the social and emotional learning program, and the problem prevention program, as well as the academic program. CDP’s community-building components include: • Class meetings – Used to set goals and norms, plan activities, make decisions, identify and solve problems, and promote reflection, through teacher-facilitated, whole-class participation. • Cooperative learning activities – Students collaborate in pairs and small groups for academic learning and other purposes. • Buddies program – Whole classes of older and younger students pair up. Each older student is paired with a younger “buddy” for the semester or year, to engage in various academic and recreational activities. • School-wide activities – Innovative school events that link students, parents, and teachers in creating an inclusive, supportive school culture. • Parent involvement activities – Structured home conversations, mostly interviews conducted by the student with a parent or other caregiver, that link school learning to family experiences and perspectives. Taken together, these components are intended to strengthen relationships within the classroom, within the school at large, and between home and school. - 2 –

When a school becomes a stronger, more caring community, it more effectively meets basic student needs—their needs for physical and psychological safety; for a sense of belonging and connection to others; for a sense that one is a competent, worthy person; and for a sense of autonomy (sometimes referred to as “voice and choice”). Leading theoreticians and researchers (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Deci, et al., 1985; Maslow, 1954) contend that these needs for autonomy, belonging, competence, and safety are basic to human motivation, to what drives and

shapes our thinking, feelings, and behavior.

 Finally, when a school helps its students to satisfy their basic needs, because it is helping them to do so, it prompts them to “bond”—to become affectively committed—to its goals and values, just as a mother who effectively cares for an infant causes that baby to bond to her and to strive to emulate her (Watson et al., 1989). And just as maternal bonding fosters a baby’s healthy development, as we will see below, schools that effectively promote bonding foster healthy learning and growth—of many kinds—and help students to avoid problems ranging from

emotional distress to drug use to violence.

 Measuring Community in School My Center uses three questionnaire scales to measure sense of community. Beginning at third or fourth grade, we survey students about: • Classroom supportiveness –by asking them to agree or disagree with such statements as: “My class is like a family” and “Students in my class help each other learn.” - 3 –

• Classroom autonomy –by asking them about opportunities to exercise autonomy, such as how often “Students in my class students can get a rule changed if they think it is unfair” and “In my class I get to do things that I want to do.” • School supportiveness –by asking them to agree or disagree with such statements as: “Teachers and students treat each other with respect at this school” and “Students in this school help each other, even if they are not friends.” Unfortunately, our research suggests that sense of community is not strong in many if not most schools, and that it tends to be significantly lower for low-income students and students of color than for their Anglo, more-affluent peers (Battistich et al., 1995). Thus, students who are often most in need of a supportive school environment (Tharp, 1989) may be further disadvantaged by

the quality of their experience in school.

 Evidence of CDP’s Effectiveness The CDP program has been rigorously evaluated in three quasi-experimental studies over the last 20 years. The largest and most recent was a comparative evaluation involving 12 program and 12 matched comparison schools in six school districts across the U.S. In this four-year study, a culturally, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse sample of approximately 14,000 students was assessed at baseline and during each of three years of implementation. In addition, students from half of these program and comparison elementary schools were followed up as they

progressed through middle school.

 These studies consistently have shown that when widely implemented in a school, CDP significantly increases students’ sense of the school as a community and yields a wide range of - 4 –

other positive outcomes without any negative effects. The favorable outcomes include significantly more positive attitudes toward school and learning, more positive attitudes toward the self, more positive social and ethical attitudes and behaviors, and reduced involvement in problem behaviors. Moreover, consistent with program theory, analyses indicate that virtually

all of these positive outcomes are mediated by increases in sense of community.

 Follow-up findings indicate that former program students maintain their greater tendency to bond to school during their middle school years, yielding continuing widespread, significant effects. During middle school, former program students were found to have more positive attitudes toward school and learning than comparison students, and to have higher course grades and achievement test scores. They were more involved in positive youth activities, and were rated by their teachers as being more engaged in learning, showing more leadership qualities, being more concerned about others, and being less alienated than comparison students. Former program students also were less involved in problem behaviors during middle school, including

engaging in less misconduct at school and less serious delinquency than comparison students.

 Finally, program students had more friends who were also positively involved in school, and fewer friends who were involved in school misconduct and delinquency. There again were no

significant effects favoring comparison students.

 Because of CDP’s demonstrated effects, the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention has selected it as a model drug prevention program, and the U.S. Department of Education has recognized it as a promising violence prevention program as well as an “Obey-Porter” (Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration) model. Schools and districts that are interested in learning more about CDP can visit our web site at www.devstu.org. - 5 –

Conclusion In summary, the evidence is now clear that strengthening sense of community promotes school bonding, and is central to students’ healthy development—ethically, socially, emotionally, and academically. Many of the positive effects of heightening community in elementary school persist through the middle school years. It is also clear that sense of community can be

strengthened in feasible and affordable ways.

 Finally, the importance of community, “connectedness,” or “belonging” in school is also being demonstrated by other researchers, including Resnick et al. (1997), Bryk & Driscoll (1988), and Hawkins et al. (1999). We hope that this growing body of research evidence will prompt wider recognition that a focus on building community in school is central to improving education in this nation and to creating a healthy, humane, and productive society.

Kecepatan Cahaya yang sudah diketahui adalah 380 juta m/s artinya jika sebuah benda bisa bergerak secepat itu maka waktu yang diperlukan baginya untuk bergerak hampir mendekati 0 detik atau dalam range 0-1 tapi sejauh jarak 3.8 juta meter. Untuk bisa agar waktunya sama dengan 0 detik maka diperlukan lebih dari 1 juta kali melebihi kecepatan cahaya atau dengan kata lain jika kecepatannya 1000 kali maka waktu yang diperlukan menjadi 1/1000 detik atau 1 milidetik, jika 1 juta kali maka waktunya 1/1000 milidetik atau 1 microdetik. Bisakah agar waktunya 0 detik atau tidak memerlukan waktu sama sekali untuk bergerak? Wow yang pasti butuh kecepatan yang jauh jauh jauh melebihi kecepatan cahaya bahkan membutuhkan kecepatan yang yang ekstrem yaitu kecepatan yang bisa menembus waktu minus atau dibawah 0 detik agar bisa kembali ke waktu lampau.

>>> To Be Continued …