Being a youngster in a community isn’t always an advantage, especially in Indonesia. Sure, you get to be guided, taught, and somehow given less responsibility. But you sometimes do not get the respect and the acknowledgment you deserve. Older people tend to have delusions of grandeur that they are more experienced, smarter, stronger and wiser, and therefore deserve to have more respect than their younger counterparts. It seems like the younger you get, the less respect you get.
No respect means non-equal opportunities, and it is indeed a character killer. You are disregarded of your opinions, your ideas, your arguments, and abilities. Even though yours might be better.
Most Indonesians experience this at a very young age, where the older person is the teacher. Yes, at school. Teachers are never wrong. They are always right even though they are wrong. You aren’t supposed to draw a car jumping off a cliff, spiderman, a clown, etc. You are supposed to draw two mountain peaks, a road in the middle, and some paddy fields (the typical drawing of an indonesian youngster). You aren’t supposed to challenge your teacher’s ideas, if you don’t want to get bad grades. Don’t get me wrong. I respect my teachers. I am who I am partly because of them. But frankly, what teachers are doing nowadays is character killing, and what’s worse is that it’s contagious, and passed on to the next generation. It makes people blunt, dependent, scared (to express ideas) and uncreative. We need a way of teaching that “guides” yet not dominates.
This kind of “age superiority” is apparent in almost every aspect of an Indonesian’s life. In the politics, in the university, in business, and almost in everything else. The only thing that overcomes the dominancy of age, in most cases, is money (I guess).
By inhibiting growth and expansion of young, fresh, and not yet corrupted minds, the potency it has is slowly degraded. And the death of a nations young mind is death to the nation itself. This might explain why Indonesia is so fragile.
No respect means non-equal opportunities, and it is indeed a character killer. You are disregarded of your opinions, your ideas, your arguments, and abilities. Even though yours might be better.
Most Indonesians experience this at a very young age, where the older person is the teacher. Yes, at school. Teachers are never wrong. They are always right even though they are wrong. You aren’t supposed to draw a car jumping off a cliff, spiderman, a clown, etc. You are supposed to draw two mountain peaks, a road in the middle, and some paddy fields (the typical drawing of an indonesian youngster). You aren’t supposed to challenge your teacher’s ideas, if you don’t want to get bad grades. Don’t get me wrong. I respect my teachers. I am who I am partly because of them. But frankly, what teachers are doing nowadays is character killing, and what’s worse is that it’s contagious, and passed on to the next generation. It makes people blunt, dependent, scared (to express ideas) and uncreative. We need a way of teaching that “guides” yet not dominates.
This kind of “age superiority” is apparent in almost every aspect of an Indonesian’s life. In the politics, in the university, in business, and almost in everything else. The only thing that overcomes the dominancy of age, in most cases, is money (I guess).
By inhibiting growth and expansion of young, fresh, and not yet corrupted minds, the potency it has is slowly degraded. And the death of a nations young mind is death to the nation itself. This might explain why Indonesia is so fragile.
Let's become their guide and their inspirationNevertheless, what good can we do rather than by starting with ourselves. May we be among the people who respect their young, yet become their guide and their inspiration. (Gee, how will I be when I get old? Like I’m not old already :D)
3 comments:
true..
kita tidak mengenal senioritas. tp junioritas :D
Betul!!!
hehehe...
kaalaman ku sim kuring..
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