THE NTT CULTURAL CHARACTER EDUCATION

Acceleration of science and technology progress in this

globalization era has carried out changes in various dimension of life. Whether the effects made by the changes are positive or negative depends on the attitude, point of view and action of the people who experienced it. Certainly in dealing with those changes, everyone is expected to become the subject in order to control it positively for his/her life, and not become the object in the other way. However, to achieve such ideal above, people need to act swiftly in facing the life phenomenon. To reach self-ideas, that is to be able to compete in all fronts of life, a tool required to move him/her forward is formal education on school. As a place where learners power of reason are refined and taken care, schools totality of potential should be empowered so later learners who respond to situation around them can be produced. In general, to educate or to lead by giving example will be more successful than just spit all the rules and advices. What is expected from the educators that is be able to directly demonstrate the demands of the regional cultural characterized education. Such act by giving example is what should be cultivated, so that educators who have the character that reflect the character of regionalism can be imitated as good models. Here lies the function of educators. They are the torch for learners anywhere they are. As a result, the regional cultural characterized education will soon be reached. This action also need to be practiced in improving the quality of education in NTT (Nusa Tenggara Timur) Province. Educators in NTT schools have to become good examples that reflect the wisdom of NTT culture. NTT cultural characterized education should be brought into reality in order to create responsive students who are able to compete in this globalization era.

What Is Meant By Education? The word education is taken from Latin word: ex (out) and ducare (to lead, to direct). Thus, literally to educate means to lead out, or to direct children out to the real world. While another word refers to education is a Greek word: paedagogia which means to interact with children. This word is composed by word paedos (child) and agoge (to guide). This is where the origin of the term pedagogos which means a single male servant in the age of Ancient Greek whose objective was to deliver and pick children into and out from school. In this duty, emblematically contained the core of education that is to guide children in their growth to be more mature and responsible with all their own needs and lives. That is why Langeveld pointed out that education is a certain planned support that is given by adult who responsible to the child to deliver him toward maturity, or more clearly to help children until they become more capable of doing their own life matters. In that simple terms it can be said that, education is a human endeavor to develop all the inherent potentialities in the self, both body and spirit, in accordance with the values prevailing in the society and and norms Based culture. that on This is visible the in the values internal capacity development efforts with are generally planting of

accepted and acceptable in brief description

society, thus remain stable from generation to generation. the etymological meaning and a above, then we may see some educational concepts put forward by some experts that could provide a comprehensive understanding of education, they are:

1. According to Carter V. Good in the "dictionary of education," education means: The process of development of one's capability in the forms of behavior and attitudes which prevail in society Social process in which a person is influenced by a guided environment (e.g. school) so he can reach his social and develop personal skills. The core idea of Good above is that the way a person's life is determined by education, because in education the modification occurs in the view of someone who caused also by the influence of the interaction between intelligence, attention, experience etc., that are expressed in behaviors, habits and understanding of other ethics that underpin the development of emotional maturity of someone in the realm of education. 2. The concept of education put forward by Freeman Butt in his book History Of Western Cultural Education, is as follows: Education is an activity to receive and provide knowledge so that culture generation. Education is a process. Through this process, individuals are taught loyalty and willingness to follow the rules. Through this way, the human mind is trained and developed. Education is a process of growth. In this process, individuals are helped to develop the strengths, talents, abilities and interests. Education is the reconstruction and reorganization of experience that add meaning and ability to provide direction for the next experience. can be passed from generation to

Freeman Butts core thinking is that education is a process of mutual adjustment (giving and receiving knowledge), and changes in mans self can occur in this adjustment process. Inborn potentials (strengths, talents, abilities, and

interests) will grow and flourish. The formulation of education, as illustrated above indicates an educational humans. Real process that is begins the with an understanding that of education education understands

human. That is, in the education process of people are helped to understand himself, his personality in a holistic, whole, and with that he became aware of the greatness of the Creator, others and the natural surroundings, including being aware of the realities of his life; how life be understood, utilized, valued and loved. In fact, education is humanization, which involves the whole person. Education also deals with social dimension as well as it deals with humans, both individuals and families, and within society at large. What Is Meant By Character Education? Character education is an investment system of values to the character of the school community that includes components of knowledge, awareness or volition, and actions to implement those values, both to Almighty God, self, neighbor, environment, or nationality so that human beings become civilized. In character education content in of schools, all components curriculum, handling learning or and (stakeholders) assessment, of should be quality of involved, including the components of education itself, that is the relationships, management subjects, school

management, implementation of the activity or co-curricular activities , the empowerment of infrastructure, financing, and working ethos throughout the school community and the environment.

The following are the components that are critical to the success of character education: Participation of the community. Do educators, parents, students, and community members invest themselves in the process of consensus building to find a common ground that is essential for long-term success? Character education policy. Make character education a part of the philosophy, goals or mission statement by adopting a formal policy. Do not be limited to writing and speech. Meeting of parents, teachers and community representatives and use consensus to get a deal in which the character to strengthen and what definitions it uses. Integrated Curriculum. Make character education an integral part of the curriculum at all grade levels. Taking the properties you have selected and connect them to classroom lessons, so students see how a trait might figure into a story or be part of a scientific experiment or how it might affect them. Creating a character is part of every class and every subject. Learning experience. Allow students to see nature in action, experience it and express it. Include community-based, world of real experience in the curriculum that describes the character (e.g., service learning, of cooperative character learning education and and from peer two mentoring). Allow time for discussion and reflection. Evaluation. Evaluation student behavior, of perspectives: (1) Is the program affecting positive changes in academic the achievement cognitive the understanding teachers need? characteristics? (2) Does

implementation process providing the tools and support that

Adult role models. Children "learn what they live," so it's important that adults demonstrate positive character traits at home, school and in society. If adults do not model the behavior they teach, the whole program will fail.

Staff

development. Provide

time

for

staff

training

and

development so that they can create and implement character education on an ongoing basis. Including time for discussion and understanding of both processes and programs, as well as to create lesson plans and curriculum. Student involvement. Involving students in activities that are appropriate to their age and enables them to connect character education to their learning, decisions and personal goals as the process is integrated into their school. Maintaining the program. Character education program is maintained and updated through the implementation of the first nine elements, with special attention to the high level of commitment from the top: adequate funding; support for district coordination of high-quality staff and ongoing professional development and a network and support system for teachers who are implementing the programs. During this time, informal education, especially within the family environment, has not provided a significant contribution in supporting the achievement of competence and character formation of students. The density of activity and working hours of parents are relatively high, the lack of understanding of parents in educating children in a family environment, social influences in the environment, and the influence of electronic media suspected to negatively affect the development and achievement of learning outcomes of students. One alternative to overcome these problems is through an integrated character education, which integrates and optimizes the

activities of informal education in family with formal education in school. In this case, the learning time of students at school need to be optimized in order to increase the quality of learning outcomes can be achieved, especially in the character formation of students. Character education can be integrated in the learning in each subject. Instructional material relating to the norms or values in each subject should be developed, explicit, linked to the context of everyday life. Thus, learning the values of character not only on the cognitive level, but it also touches the internalization, and real practice in the lives of learners everyday in the community. Extra-curricular activities that had been held the school is one potential medium for character building and improving the academic quality of students. Extracurricular activities are educational activities outside of subjects to assist the development of learners in accordance with the needs, potentials, talents, and interests through activities that are specifically organized by educators and educational staff that is capable and have authority at school. Extra-curricular activities are expected to develop skills and a sense of social responsibility, as well as the potential and achievements of learners. Character education in schools is also strongly associated with the management or the management of schools. The management is how character education is planned, implemented and controlled in the educational activities in schools adequately. Management include, values that need to be implanted, curriculum, learning, assessment, educators and education personnel, and other related components. Issues of character education that has been there at every level of education need to be assessed, and their alternative solutions should be search, and need to be developed in a more operational so

they

can

be

easily

implemented

in

schools. Behold,

character

education aims to improve the quality of implementation and educational outcomes in schools that lead to the achievement of noble character and character formation of students as a whole, integrated, and balanced, according to standards of competency. Through character education students are expected to be able to independently increase and use knowledge, assess and internalize and personalize the values of character and noble character, then manifest in everyday behavior. Through this program our graduates are expected to have faith and devotion to God Almighty, noble, noble character, academic competence and integrated whole, and also have a good personality fit the norms and culture of Indonesia. On a broader level, character education is expected to be school culture. The behaviors, traditions, everyday customs, and symbols will be practiced by all citizens of the school, and neighboring community of schools must be based in those values. The NTT Cultural Character Education It is the education that adopts all of the interests and needs of NTT in general in the education process, regardless of ethnicity, race and religion so clearly visible face of education for NTT, which has its own character in the national education stage. Character education must be rooted in our oriental culture that highly values diversity. This is understandable, because as long as it is felt, the education process in NTT had not yet succeeded in building human Flobamora characterized. In fact, many people said, education in NTT has 'died' and failed to build character. Many graduate and postgraduate schools of this region are skilled in answering exam

questions, have smart brains, but mentally weak, timid, and often disturbing public by uncommendable deeds. In fact, one might say, the world of Education in NTT now entering extremely complicated periods. Pourings of very large education budget with a variety of breakthrough programs seem unable to solve the fundamental problems in education, namely how to create the alumni of educational excellence, a faithful, devoted, professional, and characterized. Why not? If character education launched by this government, quickly accomplished by growing the brainstorming in the field of education and intellectual educated rational, dialogic, but also emotionally and spiritually intelligent. Even possible to be protective of the violence that consciously or unconsciously suspectible to happen. The growth of an unintelligent, even misguiding, attitude as the mosque bombers who so backbiting, act of brainwashing and indoctrination as Negara Islam Indonesia (NII) is again excited, and extremely vulnerable of monological exclusivism (part of the principle of brainwashing) in education. Behavior of the latter, when space and opportunities narrow and inhibit its interests, is potential to make demonstrative, anachist actions and terrorism may become seedlings. Then how about educated people in NTT? Should we go get caught up in such atmosphere? Our society is ranked last in the list of the poorest people in this country, isnt it? The same perception and common determination to build this area into a better direction is what the most needed today. Therefore all elements of education in NTT should jointly develop a character education as implied by the national education goals that contains the dimension of humanity (tempered and civilized nation). We recognize the Unity in Diversity as a slogan to unify the diversity of Indonesia, means that in fact we are also able to maintain

the character of local education, for example by promoting morality, a sense of togetherness, mutual support and love for the environment that are framed in pluralism. That means education not only provide sufficient knowledge and ability of the brain alone, but must also be able to provide supplies to perform community service.

Challenges Faced In The Development Of NTT Cultural Characterized Education Challenges faced in developing a culture of character education of NTT, could include any of the following urgent;

Quality of education that remains low. These problems are directly related to the quality of educational output that have a quality and competitive in the field, both at local and national level and even internationally. It must be admitted that the many of people of NTT are still competing to register as TKI (Indonesian Labour) rather than enroll their children to receive education at a certain level.

East Nusa Tenggara Community still split with its localized conditions. Not to mention the endless education system change of NTT. It seems that we never learn from the success of other areas that successfully develop the region through its local cultural wisdom. Changes in the education system in Indonesia in general and NTT in particular, is not only based on local wisdom but rather also based on global conditions.

The absence of cultural awareness of the learners themselves, while a person's character will be heavily influenced by cultural background they have.

Educational environment still have to struggle to foster a climate of local characterized teaching, however, not to ignore the positive influences from the outside, especially the advance of communication and information technology.

Suggesttion For Parents In addition to the duty of raising a child physically, parents were morally required to grow care attitude towards cultural values within the child. Educational efforts in the form of ultimate values of life, not limited to verbal concepts, but more important than that is a directive supervision, to conduct in real life everyday.

As learners Here, students act as a object at the same time with subject of

change. As the object of changes, merely implies that learners are identical with the young people who are very risky influenced by the demands of the times that are seductive; such as promiscuity that promise instant satisfactory, thats why they need to guided. As subjects or agents of change, learners are seen as the source of the first reformer of the age held accountable to the existence of the nation and especially this region forward. Therefore, the planting of cultural values should be done to every learner, so the character of our children have the credibility that can be qualified wherever they are.

As Teacher

Teacher engage, not only limited to giving advice but he also must align his actions and deeds. Because not only guided by words but also by action. He should be able to give an example for their students. Through the example given the learners will be influenced to do what was done by their teacher. Therefore, if the good deeds that reflect the kindness, professionalism and ability to apply moral conduct are performed, character education culture will undoubtedly manifest itself.

For Community As a social sphere composed of families, communities also have

a role and contributed a great influence on the mental development of learners. Recognizing the important role of the community towards the development of learners, it is expected that the creation of an educative and cultural-aware society so that learners dont follow the wrong paths.

References: Arif, Syaiful. 2010. Refilosofi Culture. Ar-Ruzz Media: Jogjakarta Erikson, Erik H.2001. Identity, Culture and History. Ledalero: MaumereFlores Suryabrata, Sumadi.1993. Educational Psychology. Grafindo Persada: Jakarta http://kabarmu.blogspot.com

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