Schools Are Not Enough | For Parents

If you haven't seen the 'For Students' part, I suggest you check it out first, here.

Of course, every parent would wish for the best education course for their children (if you don't, why the heck are you one), and the long, unending debate I talked about in the earlier article is mostly between parents. Unsurprisingly, sometimes they are much more sensitive to their children's school place than the children themselves. One thing is certain, parents have a great influence on their children's education. I say, they are a more deciding factor than the school or any formal course of education.

Schools might give children the necessary technical skills. However, parents are the one who are supposed to give their child learning skills. Emotional intelligence and spiritual capability of a child mostly consist of how their parents taught them. How their parents showed them.

The truth is that, school, or any kind of education institution, is not capable of doing a miracle to a child. I noticed that a lot of parents send their children to a religious school expecting their problematic children would come home nice, kind, and religious. Some send their children to religious-modern school (SMAIT, SMPIT, SDIT) expecting their children to be transformed into a nice, kind, religious, academically smart child. Hey, come on. That's not the way it works. Schools can't change anyone. They can give technical skills, but that's it. If your child is the type who likes to study, dilligent, polite, you send them to a religious school, they will come home better. If your child is the most rebellious, doesn't like to learn new thing, doesn't like to think, no matter which magic school you send him into, he will come back with some soon-forgotten technical religious knowledge and that's it. I think every parent should understand this. Not only religious school, this also apply to any kind of education course. Let me stress it again, unless you send your kid to Hogwarts, schools don't do magic. Because no matter which way of education you choose for your children, there is no shortcut in parenting. The roles of parents cannot be neglected, no matter what.

As for technical skills, it's never too late to make your child participate in an activity outside their school or even college. As I suggested in the linked writing above, skill-related course or a job will really help them, whether it's now or in the future. Find their interests, and let them pursue it. It doesn't matter if their interest changes over time, they're still a child. Also, discuss it with them, trust your child. Make them participate in making family decisions, especially for things related to them. Personally, I don't believe in the concept of  'Teen Phase' in life. I believe when your child has reached puberty, they should be able of making their own life decisions, and have some responsibility about it. So, encourage it.

If you decide to send your child to a public or private school, regularly doing a family meeting never hurts. Monitor their progress, both in academic and extracurricular activities. When a children step into puberty, they need a friend. And I think the best friend you can give, dear parents, is yourself.

Schools Are Not Enough | For Students

It has been a long, nearly endless debate when it comes to choosing the best course of education. Most of us choose a public school. Some of us, prefers private schoool. Some others insist on religious school, some boarding school, and some doesn't even go to school. Like me.

Admittedly, there is nothing such as a perfect education system. To put it simple, one's education involves many factors other than just a system designed for mass education. Parents, friends, environment, even personal traits have to be taken into account.

Talking about school, many of us are obsessed with choosing the best school. Generally, a good school is one that rules over these criterias:

• Good learning environment
• Good teachers
• Good academic reputation
• Good university acceptance rate
• And other stuff.

However, for sure, these values are very relative. For a school, it's mostly relative to the area where it's located. Here in Indonesia, we can say the standards are really low. Take the best engineering school around, ITB, as an example. The rate of acceptance per Faculty is extremely small, most of them has less than 5% admission rate. Even MIT has 7.8% admission rate. However, MIT sits comfortably on top of the world, while ITB can be found after digging a couple miles deep, rank 461 - according to  topuniversities. From these numbers, we can conclude that something is very, very wrong.

Who's guilty? No one. Most likely, it's the education system. It is true that there is no perfect system, but it is also true that there are plenty of incomplete system. And a weak system, produces weak people. I say it is to blame for Indonesia's small contribution in science. However let's face it, this is the reality, and to change it the system needs a long-term major overhaul. Since it's not happening yet (or so it seems), let's check what you can do to improve yourself.

First,  I believe it is essential for a student to have an extracurricular/organisational activity outside school. Be it a cooking class, a language course, a  humanitarian organization, or a part-time job (these ones I mentioned are highly recommended), it's best for you to have one. Not only to polish or add your technical skill, it's also to improve your life skill. Interaction with other people - who is not your age, work ethics, and other social skills you don't get in school. Also, you'll possess a better learning skill if you are in these activiteis.

Second, for the academics, your future prospects, have a special community for academics. Especially in the fields you like. Once you find the right people in the right place, your academics will be rocketing sky high. It could be bimbel, although bimbel can be defined as a forced learning environment. But better, it has to be a place of genuine interest, where you and some other study together to your heart's content. What if there isn't one? Easy, make one! It doesn't have to be a formal institution. It could be your fellow classmates. Or your fellow neighbors. This is important because simply the existence of these people, with similar goals and interest as you, will encourage you for your studies. If you're smart, they don't have to be smarter than you. You can be the one who helps them, and that will improve your skill as well.

Third, for psychological and spiritual strength, even if you're in a religious school, I'd recommend you to do some mentoring. Why? Because spiritual learning is special, you'll learn and use it your whole lifetime. Also because in the standard mentoring system you will have the responsibility to mentor someone else, this would also help you improve your learning skills, from the natural pressure, and also communication skills.

I guess, that's three advices I can give as a supposedly-recently-graduated-from-SHS senior. No matter which course of education you choose, you just need to live it. You don't have to be serious all the time, but always be serious when it's related to your goals. As I said, there is no perfect system, you just have to improvise.

\(oo)/

By the way, I'm thinking of making one, a community for learning, where we can learn and share fun stuff. WDYT? Tell me in the comments!

Je ne suis pas Charlie: Stop the hatred.

What happened two days ago in Paris is a tragedy.

Islam forbids the killing of people, of citizens unjustly. Showing up in broad daylight, wearing masks and holding guns, then starting shoot innocent people is wrong. To defend the act, is an act of ignorance. It's not just harmful to the victims, or to the french people, the greatest harm done by this crime is to muslims in Europe and the muslim population around the world.

With that said, let me make a statement here: Je ne suis pas Charlie.

No, not because I don't sympathize with the victims. Not because I agree with the attack. It's because I care, and I want this to stop. I'm not Charlie, who mocks religions for satire, I'm not Charlie, who spreads hate against religions, distorting images and creating twisted perceptions. This has to stop, now.

What Charlie Hebdo has done, is not justifiable in any means. Freedom of speech, like any other freedom, has rules to be followed. Offending 2 billion Muslims, or even almost 60 percent of the world population, is clearly not one of it.It's not even a newspaper, that would be an offense to newspapers.

Some media, however, just loves to make clickbaits for their own benefits, by creating hot debates on their site. For example, what USA Today did. This is a perfect example of human greed. Some online communities that promotes anti-Islam is not helping either. They are doing nothing but making the conflict worse.

If anything should be done right now, is to stop the overreacting and take a breath, then think about the whole story for a minute. Then, promote peace, and stop the hate.

Let me say it again.

Bandung, 9 Januari 2014
Akhyar Kamili

Penembakan Charlie Hebdo

Ibukota Prancis, Paris dikejutkan dengan serangan terhadap kantor Charlie Hebdo, Rabu(7/1). Serangan ini menewaskan 12 orang dan melukai 6 orang lainnya. Berdasarkan sebuah kartu identitas yang secara kebetulan  tidak sengaja ketinggalan di mobil sang peneror, dapat disimpulkan bahwa pelakunya adalah ekstremis Islam.

Charlie Hebdo sendiri adalah koran satir yang berisi kartun, berita, polemik dan lelucon. Publikasinya bernada kasar, anti-religius, sayap kiri. Koran ini dikritik dan juga dibenci oleh banyak orang, karena seringkali mempublikasikan gambar-gambar yang ofensif dan kontroversial, seperti gambar Nabi Muhammad SAW, dan ejekan terhadap agama-agama kristen dan yahudi.

Penyerangan ini bukanlah yang pertama kali terjadi terhadap Charlie Hebdo, kantornya juga pernah dibakar pada tahun 2011. Namun penyerangan kali ini menghasilkan banyak korban, dan menarik perhatian yang luar biasa besar. Serangan ini memang biadab, dan bisa dikategorikan sebagai perbuatan kriminal, dan saya mengutuk serangan ini dan siapapun yang ada di belakangnya. However, fokus kita kali ini adalah korban yang sesungguhnya: Umat Islam. Kok?

Well, captain obvious is here to explain. 

Islam di Eropa sekarang sedang berkembang dengan pesat, alhamdulillah, berkat kerja keras para dai dan masyarakat muslim yang datang kesana, secara damai. Sementara, lagi dan lagi, kaum muslimin ditimpa isu yang mempersulit langkah mereka, 9/11, suicide bombers, ISIS, dan sebagainya. Entah siapa yang ada dibelakangnya. Para da'i, umat muslim di Eropa, berjuang keras melawannya. Mereka menunjukkan wajah Islam yang sebenarnya, yang damai, yang cerdas, yang logis, yang santun dan dihormati.

Kemudian, beberapa minggu lalu, masih teringat jelas kasus penembakan di Australia, yang menjadi headline banyak media internasional. Seolah mendapat dorongan, gerakan anti-Islam di dunia maya langsung berkobar bagaikan api disiram bensin. Setelah itu, ada respons gerakan solidaritas #IllRideWithYou yang menolak generalisasi muslim sebagai teroris.

Lalu, sejak beberapa hari lalu, media dihiasi berita tentang aksi-aksi demonstrasi anti Islam di Jerman. Meski kanselir Jerman Angela Merkel menyebut mereka rasis dan penuh kebencian, hampir 18 ribu orang yang tergabung dalam PEGIDA (kurang lebih Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West), turun ke jalan-jalan untuk menolak datangnya imigran muslim ke Jerman. Mereka takut bahwa kultur dan budaya mereka akan dirubah dengan adanya pendatang muslim ini.

Dan sekarang, seolah saling menyambut, cobaan berikutnya menimpa umat Islam, sangat berat malah bagi mereka yang tinggal di Eropa: Terjadi aksi terorisme ditengah-tengah Paris, pada siang bolong. Ini bukan hanya menyulut api dengan bensin, tapi sekaligus memasukkan bahan peledak ke dalamnya. Meledaknya pemberitaan Media membawa mereka yang tadinya netral, atau tidak memperhatikan, bergerak satu langkah ke arah kebencian terhadap Islam. Reaksi paling keras tentu datang dari para islamofobis (anti-Islam), dan antireligius. Mereka secara barbar mengutuk habis-habisan, dan dengan kata-kata yang tidak pantas, menghina agama Islam bahkan semua agama. Sepertinya ini hal standar, generalisasi. Meski mereka sendiri tidak mau digeneralisasi.

This is the flaming hatred (click to zoom):

Bahkan, anarkisme langsung:

Dan para pelaku diatas, para anti-Islam, adalah satu-satunya pihak yang mengambil keuntungan dari kejadian ini. Kaum muslim, apa untungnya? Dapat dipastikan Charlie Hebdo sendiri akan mendapat lebih banyak simpatisan, dari sebelumnya. Salah kaprah, kalau ini dianggap pembalasan karena CH menghina Islam. Yang ditusuk disini adalah kaum muslimin sendiri.

Kejadian penembakannya memang cuma sekilas, pelakunya sedikit. tapi dampaknya terhadap umat muslim luas dan berkepanjangan. Cobaan besar bagi kaum Muslim di Eropa, apalagi bagi mereka yang tinggal di Jerman atau Prancis. Mereka menghadapi ancaman anarkisme yang besar sekarang, dengan banyaknya orang yang buta dengan kebencian disana. Kita yang tinggal di negara dengan mayoritas muslim, mari berdoa, dan berikhtiar dengan membela agama kita, yaitu agama yang membawa rahmat ke seluruh alam.

Bandung, 8 Januari 2014
Akhyar Kamili

I'd recommend you to read: http://akhyarkamili.blogspot.com/2015/01/je-ne-suis-pas-charlie-stop-hatred.html

Antara Nonton Persib dan... Shalat Isya.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Yak, welcome. Bahasan ba'da maghrib ini adalah dilema yang dihadapi banyak orang tepat saat ini. So, let's get to the topic.

Jum'at, 18.16 WIB. Empat belas menit menuju laga final ISL, yang dinantikan selama 19 tahun oleh para bobotoh setia Persib. Salut bro, gua aja belum lahir. Laga ini akan menentukan, apakah kita akan dapet manisnya kemenangan atau.. coba lagi. Huft.

Laga  yang krusial ini akan kick-off pada 18.30 WIB, di Palembang sana. Lawan kita kali ini adalah klub yang bisa diakui paling kuat saat ini, Persipura. Banyak diantara kita sendiri yang pesimis, melawan para raksasa hitam, akankah Persib bertahan? Doa-doa sudah dipanjatkan sejak kita berhasil mengalahkan Arema. Khusyuk dah pas shalat, biar Persib menang *nggak gitu juga kalee*. Seluruh kalangan, muda, tua, miskin, kaya, bobotoh semua pasti nonton. 

Masalahnya, pertandingan ini akan overlap dengan shalat Isya, yang adzannya berkumandang tepat pukul 19.00 WIB. Membuat bimbang. Kalau ngejer shalat dimasjid, ntar bisa ketinggalan satu atau dua gol. Yah, nggak seru.

Yaelah broo, maneh teh dukung persib teu? Percuma maneh berdoa agar persib bisa menang, kalau pas pertandingan malah menjauh dari Allah. Telat shalat. Kira-kira, apakah Allah akan mempermudah jalan persib untuk menang kalau gitu? Nggak! Bisa jadi, ini adalah rencana Allah untuk menguji masing-masing jiwa suporter kita. Pilih nonton bola, atau pilih Allah? :)

Padahal sih, ketinggalan satu-dua gol nggak apalah. Itu juga kemungkinannya kecil. Biar luka hati itu jadi penawar dosa-dosamu. *naon 

Makanya, kalau lo ngaku pendukung Persib, jangan lupa shalat Isya! Masuklah bersama kami dalam jajaran suporter garis kenyal, alias fleksibel. Yang bisa berpikir jernih, apa yang terbaik buat persib kesayangan :D

Persib, semoga berhasil menang! Dan pengingat untuk kita, jangan lupa shalat Isya berjamaah di Masjid terdekat. Silakan berdoa untuk kemenangan yang terbaik.

UPDATE 21.30: PERSIB JUARAAA! Makanya, shalat Isya! :p