“Because e-mail places a premium on rapid communication and quick response, it discourages careful thought and well-crafted prose and tends to encourage incivility.”
As the Internet has overtaken most of the functions of the post offices and such, we arrived in the era of rapid communication. Fifteen years ago, we had to wait four days to send letter to a nearby city, almost a week to a neighboring state, and even a month if we sent it from the middle of nowhere to an unknown village in a different contingent. As amazing as it seems, the Internet allows us to send an e-mail to anywhere, as long as the Web is accessible there, in a matter of seconds. Responses could be sent just as quick. If Kahlil Gibran and May Ziadah lived today, it would not take years for them to fall in love to each other. It might only take weeks or even days, instead.
However, there is an issue that the speedy nature of e-mail discourages people from thinking carefully of what they writer. As a consequence, they are not used to well-crafted prose. Even worse, e-mail encourage incivility to the Internet users. However, I disagree that e-mail and its propensity is culpable of those mentioned above. The argument itself is plausible and has at least two vital flaws.
In the argument, the writer implies that he expects conventional mails to be well-written and well-structured. Meanwhile, it is not necessary for mails to be written so well. Whether someone writes in the proper tenses, structures, or paragraph partitionings depends on the individual. It is very likely that some people write to their friends without thinking about any of those felicity. This tendency is brought up when they write e-mails.
Now, let us turn the table to the innovative alternative way of communication. Although “e-mail” stands for “electronic mail”, but does it mean e-mails only replace conventional letters? No, e-mails may be functioned as memos as well. A memo is expected to contain a short message, and thus we have to emphasize the content of the message rather than its rhetorical quality. When an e-mail is sent as a replacement of a memo, the similar inclination occurs.
Eventually, e-mails do not encourage incivility, for the individuals themselves have different degrees of inclination to it. Another point is we can not expect e-mails to be well-crafted because they replace not only letters, but also memos. Therefore, e-mails are not as detrimental as the writer thinks.
Showing posts with label social. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
My World Bank Essay
Earlier this year I submitted an essay for The World Bank International Essay Competition 2010. I only made it into best 200 essays, but it was worth trying. The theme was Youth Unemployment. Below you can see some parts of my essay. If you want to read the full version, just tell me.
2. Introduction
Back in 2003, I was a student and an unemployed youth at the same time, being depended to my parents one hundred percent. As my family endured an economic downturn in 2006, I realized that earning some money is critical for me. Working as a freelance book editor was my first employment experience. Being seventeen and a university student at that time, I was paid low and it lasted for only seven months. It took me two years ever since to be able to stand on my own feet by teaching Indonesian language to some expatriates. Knowing that English is vital to most kind of occupation, I spared some time and money to master it. During the writing of this essay, I have finished my undergraduate study, and I have been translating English books into Indonesian for ten months, and they pay me very well.
I am not the only youth survived from unemployment and fought our way to be financially independent. I have seen that many others, both friends and young people I barely knew through media, did not let themselves overwhelmed by difficult situations and thrived. Unfortunately, it does not happen to most of us. Young unemployment is still a growing concern in Indonesia as well as in other parts of the world. As this is something I have experienced myself, I am keen to make a difference about it.
3. Youth Unemployment in Indonesia and Its General Solutions
Indonesia is a developing country with a large percentage of young people. There was a projection that in 2010, there would be 20% people in the range of 15 up to 24 years old. The official census in 2000 revealed that the projection was reasonable as its graphic shows the comparison of the number of male (dark in color) and female (white in color) in a various range of age groups from 0 to 75 (vertical line). Numbers in the lower horizontal line are in million.
As stated by François Bourguignon, such large numbers of young people living in developing countries present great opportunities, but also risks. Without decent education and livelihood, young people might be onerous or engaged in crime and terrorism. Not only it would spoil their future, but also threaten the future of the country as a whole. How can a country develop, let alone become prosperous, if most of its citizens in their productive age have no earning and familiar with perturbing deeds?
In Indonesia, unemployed youth rate is considerably high, reaching 60 percent of total 11.6 millions jobless people. Education and vocational training are blamed as being failed to prepare the young people to compete in the workforce or to create new jobs. Even universities are questioned because, ironically, large parts of the unemployed work force are university graduates . These lead to some typical problems concerning youth unemployment in Indonesia.
Having graduated from a university last year, my peers are struggling to get proper jobs. Many of them find it difficult because they do not have sufficient English skills or because their undergraduate backgrounds are not popular. Those whose parents can not afford them anymore usually work in informal education bodies despite their efforts to find better earnings. The rest of them rely on their parents until they find a suitable livelihood, while taking some courses that might help to improve their résumés.
As a small contribution on this predicament, I personally have been giving free private English lessons to some friends of mine (though only two of them remain) since November 2009. I doubt that conventional English courses would help them as much private lessons because, despite their price and quality, one class consists of many students. This fact occludes teachers to build a strong foundation in each student. Therefore, I suggest that youth with high English skills teach at least one friend freely (or in exchange of other skills, such as cooking) and then ask them to teach their friends, forming an endless flow of help.
On the other hand, the ones with merely senior high school certificates or lower education level face more complicated problems. Most of them are trapped in low-payment jobs or not working at all, thus they have very little chance to make a difference in their life. Housekeepers are paid lower than $2 per day of which they still have to share it with their family (in Indonesia, it is common that the number of dependant family members is at least equal to the productive ones), and the home-in housekeepers are paid only slightly higher than $2 per day. Other available options are being shopkeepers or food sellers under the wing of small organization or individual owners with small payment ranges from $2 up to $7 per day. Still, Indonesian population has a considerable density that even these cheap jobs can not contain all young people.
I strongly think that one of the biggest problem with youth unemployment among the poorly educated young people is they do not know what to do. That is why they have no gut to organize any business, or even if they do, they do not know how to generate some capital and how to run it well. It is also occluded by the fact that many of them are internet dull, using the web only to interact with their friends in social networking sites and rarely look for any information to improve their life.
Youth with some entrepreneurship experience can help them by conducting a free seminar on small scale business. The seminar should be as simple as possible in order to avoid the possibility that they would think it is too complicated for them and no further progress should be made. Initially, they should be told that they can start any small business by doing what they are already capable of, for example a catering for she who loves cooking, a small garage for he who loves automotives, or a books and comics rental for they who love reading. Another important point is giving them a little basic knowledge of business management. Finally, they have to understand the procedures of how to get a small business credit and permission. Materials used in the seminar can be copied to be distributed to a wider audience, and to be compiled in a blog to reach anyone in a national scale.
However, small scale business is also an answer to youth unemployment among university graduates. Actually, if they do not stubbornly insist on waiting to be employed in the offices, they can launch their own businesses. Concludingly, efforts in tackling youth unemployment should be focused on small scale business.
4. A Solution for Young Women with Children
Those with the most difficult situation are young women who have children. Many poorly educated women in Indonesia had been married before they were twenty, as my mother did. Many of them are married to men with low earnings. Worse as it is, they soon have babies whom they can not provide with a good living. When their husbands do not make considerable improvements related to their standard of living, these young women can barely look for some extra money since their little ones would be neglected. In addition, their husbands’ low income can not provide decent amount of capital and they own nothing to raise any.
A solution is urgently needed. What can they do without neglecting their babies or raising too much capital? Just look at their problem: children. So I propose the Children Care Center (CCC).
Indonesian middle class society has an increasing necessity of children care facility, yet CCCs are still rare and charge high prices in big cities. Therefore, parents are obliged to leave their children with housekeepers, extended families, or neighbors. Worst of all, a friend of mine used to spend his whole afternoon as a boy home alone until his mother arrived on 6 pm.
Problems would occur when the housekeepers consider children care as an additional burden or do not know how to take care of them well, and hence these children are not taken care of properly. Surprisingly, a research shows that children taken care by a non-family member (such as neighbors, housekeepers, or babysitters) will be more aggressive and disobedient. As another option, extended families may not always be credible or available, and who knows they actually are objected to help, especially for a long term. Lastly, leaving children home alone is always dangerous.
Compared to other types of children care, there are some advantages of CCC related to children development which will make this business has a good prospect. In CCCs, children have a bigger chance to interact with their peers naturally and in controlled activities, thus they become more sociable, tolerant, and independent. Furthermore, unlike the sole unmonitored baby sitter, leaving your children in CCC is also safer because there are some people in one time supervising your children and overseeing each other’s attitude.
Now, let me elaborate how children care center would be a solution to this particular group of youth. First of all, they already have the necessary skills. These young women have their own babies, thus it would be easy for them to take care of other children. Other needed skills, such as cooking and cleaning, are also common among housewives. Secondly, they can use their own houses as the CCC to avoid raising unaffordable capital. Most important of all, it is something they can do without having to neglect their own babies as they can also bring them to the CCC. Moreover, the President stated that small businesses (in household scale) do not need any permission from the authority . That means establishing a CCC will not give them a chance to worry about its procedure.
Surviving Unemployed Young Women with Children
2. Introduction
Back in 2003, I was a student and an unemployed youth at the same time, being depended to my parents one hundred percent. As my family endured an economic downturn in 2006, I realized that earning some money is critical for me. Working as a freelance book editor was my first employment experience. Being seventeen and a university student at that time, I was paid low and it lasted for only seven months. It took me two years ever since to be able to stand on my own feet by teaching Indonesian language to some expatriates. Knowing that English is vital to most kind of occupation, I spared some time and money to master it. During the writing of this essay, I have finished my undergraduate study, and I have been translating English books into Indonesian for ten months, and they pay me very well.
I am not the only youth survived from unemployment and fought our way to be financially independent. I have seen that many others, both friends and young people I barely knew through media, did not let themselves overwhelmed by difficult situations and thrived. Unfortunately, it does not happen to most of us. Young unemployment is still a growing concern in Indonesia as well as in other parts of the world. As this is something I have experienced myself, I am keen to make a difference about it.
3. Youth Unemployment in Indonesia and Its General Solutions
Indonesia is a developing country with a large percentage of young people. There was a projection that in 2010, there would be 20% people in the range of 15 up to 24 years old. The official census in 2000 revealed that the projection was reasonable as its graphic shows the comparison of the number of male (dark in color) and female (white in color) in a various range of age groups from 0 to 75 (vertical line). Numbers in the lower horizontal line are in million.
As stated by François Bourguignon, such large numbers of young people living in developing countries present great opportunities, but also risks. Without decent education and livelihood, young people might be onerous or engaged in crime and terrorism. Not only it would spoil their future, but also threaten the future of the country as a whole. How can a country develop, let alone become prosperous, if most of its citizens in their productive age have no earning and familiar with perturbing deeds?In Indonesia, unemployed youth rate is considerably high, reaching 60 percent of total 11.6 millions jobless people. Education and vocational training are blamed as being failed to prepare the young people to compete in the workforce or to create new jobs. Even universities are questioned because, ironically, large parts of the unemployed work force are university graduates . These lead to some typical problems concerning youth unemployment in Indonesia.
Having graduated from a university last year, my peers are struggling to get proper jobs. Many of them find it difficult because they do not have sufficient English skills or because their undergraduate backgrounds are not popular. Those whose parents can not afford them anymore usually work in informal education bodies despite their efforts to find better earnings. The rest of them rely on their parents until they find a suitable livelihood, while taking some courses that might help to improve their résumés.
As a small contribution on this predicament, I personally have been giving free private English lessons to some friends of mine (though only two of them remain) since November 2009. I doubt that conventional English courses would help them as much private lessons because, despite their price and quality, one class consists of many students. This fact occludes teachers to build a strong foundation in each student. Therefore, I suggest that youth with high English skills teach at least one friend freely (or in exchange of other skills, such as cooking) and then ask them to teach their friends, forming an endless flow of help.
On the other hand, the ones with merely senior high school certificates or lower education level face more complicated problems. Most of them are trapped in low-payment jobs or not working at all, thus they have very little chance to make a difference in their life. Housekeepers are paid lower than $2 per day of which they still have to share it with their family (in Indonesia, it is common that the number of dependant family members is at least equal to the productive ones), and the home-in housekeepers are paid only slightly higher than $2 per day. Other available options are being shopkeepers or food sellers under the wing of small organization or individual owners with small payment ranges from $2 up to $7 per day. Still, Indonesian population has a considerable density that even these cheap jobs can not contain all young people.
I strongly think that one of the biggest problem with youth unemployment among the poorly educated young people is they do not know what to do. That is why they have no gut to organize any business, or even if they do, they do not know how to generate some capital and how to run it well. It is also occluded by the fact that many of them are internet dull, using the web only to interact with their friends in social networking sites and rarely look for any information to improve their life.
Youth with some entrepreneurship experience can help them by conducting a free seminar on small scale business. The seminar should be as simple as possible in order to avoid the possibility that they would think it is too complicated for them and no further progress should be made. Initially, they should be told that they can start any small business by doing what they are already capable of, for example a catering for she who loves cooking, a small garage for he who loves automotives, or a books and comics rental for they who love reading. Another important point is giving them a little basic knowledge of business management. Finally, they have to understand the procedures of how to get a small business credit and permission. Materials used in the seminar can be copied to be distributed to a wider audience, and to be compiled in a blog to reach anyone in a national scale.
However, small scale business is also an answer to youth unemployment among university graduates. Actually, if they do not stubbornly insist on waiting to be employed in the offices, they can launch their own businesses. Concludingly, efforts in tackling youth unemployment should be focused on small scale business.
4. A Solution for Young Women with Children
Those with the most difficult situation are young women who have children. Many poorly educated women in Indonesia had been married before they were twenty, as my mother did. Many of them are married to men with low earnings. Worse as it is, they soon have babies whom they can not provide with a good living. When their husbands do not make considerable improvements related to their standard of living, these young women can barely look for some extra money since their little ones would be neglected. In addition, their husbands’ low income can not provide decent amount of capital and they own nothing to raise any.
A solution is urgently needed. What can they do without neglecting their babies or raising too much capital? Just look at their problem: children. So I propose the Children Care Center (CCC).
Indonesian middle class society has an increasing necessity of children care facility, yet CCCs are still rare and charge high prices in big cities. Therefore, parents are obliged to leave their children with housekeepers, extended families, or neighbors. Worst of all, a friend of mine used to spend his whole afternoon as a boy home alone until his mother arrived on 6 pm.
Problems would occur when the housekeepers consider children care as an additional burden or do not know how to take care of them well, and hence these children are not taken care of properly. Surprisingly, a research shows that children taken care by a non-family member (such as neighbors, housekeepers, or babysitters) will be more aggressive and disobedient. As another option, extended families may not always be credible or available, and who knows they actually are objected to help, especially for a long term. Lastly, leaving children home alone is always dangerous.
Compared to other types of children care, there are some advantages of CCC related to children development which will make this business has a good prospect. In CCCs, children have a bigger chance to interact with their peers naturally and in controlled activities, thus they become more sociable, tolerant, and independent. Furthermore, unlike the sole unmonitored baby sitter, leaving your children in CCC is also safer because there are some people in one time supervising your children and overseeing each other’s attitude.
Now, let me elaborate how children care center would be a solution to this particular group of youth. First of all, they already have the necessary skills. These young women have their own babies, thus it would be easy for them to take care of other children. Other needed skills, such as cooking and cleaning, are also common among housewives. Secondly, they can use their own houses as the CCC to avoid raising unaffordable capital. Most important of all, it is something they can do without having to neglect their own babies as they can also bring them to the CCC. Moreover, the President stated that small businesses (in household scale) do not need any permission from the authority . That means establishing a CCC will not give them a chance to worry about its procedure.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
GRE Issue Task 4
As adults, we prefer to define ourselves more by our occupation than by our affiliation with social groups.
The speaker claims that grown-ups have a bigger inclination to identify themselves to their occupations compared to which social groups they belong to. In my point of view, it is a reckless statement for its generalizing every adult and every single occupation to have the same attitude toward his job. Such behavior, I am certain of it, differs based on some factors explained below.
First of all, let us see how the speaker could make such assertion. I admit that there are those who are happier to be associated by their professions than to be highlighted as a part of any social groups. It is mostly seen, as far as I am concerned, in the eyes of people love their jobs by heart. They pick up their job for their passion to it despite of what others say about this job. For a painter, for instance, drawing his pieces is in his heart and soul, and he can only recognize himself as a painter since he does not mind of being a part of any larger community. Other individuals with a strong proclivity to their employment are those with conventionally-successful profession such as doctors, business directors, and lawyers.
However, we must not forget that there are those who are not fortunate enough to grab the job of their dreams. What about an agriculture faculty graduate whose only choice is working in a bank? Could he identify himself as a banker? Moreover, if his family members are farmers and he used to live between them, there is a big possibility that he would relate himself more to his family background than to his livelihood. Another factor is the society’s negative assumption to certain professions. Low-income occupation, namely factory labors and drivers, might not be something people want to define themselves by. In addition, we should not forget that rich people tend to associate themselves with their wealth, no matter what they do for their living.
Now it is viable that someone’s occupation may not always be his first choice to identify himself. How he loves the job, how people think about it, and how he used to live would affect this inclination. Therefore, the speaker’s statement is only accessible to some adults, not all.
The speaker claims that grown-ups have a bigger inclination to identify themselves to their occupations compared to which social groups they belong to. In my point of view, it is a reckless statement for its generalizing every adult and every single occupation to have the same attitude toward his job. Such behavior, I am certain of it, differs based on some factors explained below.
First of all, let us see how the speaker could make such assertion. I admit that there are those who are happier to be associated by their professions than to be highlighted as a part of any social groups. It is mostly seen, as far as I am concerned, in the eyes of people love their jobs by heart. They pick up their job for their passion to it despite of what others say about this job. For a painter, for instance, drawing his pieces is in his heart and soul, and he can only recognize himself as a painter since he does not mind of being a part of any larger community. Other individuals with a strong proclivity to their employment are those with conventionally-successful profession such as doctors, business directors, and lawyers.
However, we must not forget that there are those who are not fortunate enough to grab the job of their dreams. What about an agriculture faculty graduate whose only choice is working in a bank? Could he identify himself as a banker? Moreover, if his family members are farmers and he used to live between them, there is a big possibility that he would relate himself more to his family background than to his livelihood. Another factor is the society’s negative assumption to certain professions. Low-income occupation, namely factory labors and drivers, might not be something people want to define themselves by. In addition, we should not forget that rich people tend to associate themselves with their wealth, no matter what they do for their living.
Now it is viable that someone’s occupation may not always be his first choice to identify himself. How he loves the job, how people think about it, and how he used to live would affect this inclination. Therefore, the speaker’s statement is only accessible to some adults, not all.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
GRE Issue Task 3
I made this issue myself.
The existence of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has led to various criminal acts, especially to teenagers. Therefore, such sites should be banned completely from the Internet.
The speaker stated that social networking sites should be abolished for its risking the safety of us and our family. I assert that this strong opposition is based on tangible reasons, but stripping these sites from our life forever is unnecessary. In that case, I propose the idea that this risk is preventable and we can live side by side with them in peace if we know how to do it.
To begin with, I will provide you with a brief elaboration on what “risk” means in this issue. Some people believe that as you joined these sites, you exposed your identity. Facebook is full of advertisements craving for not only the users’ eyeballs, but also specific details about them—yes, about you! These preys have a wide range of tricks to manipulate you to give them your identity as well as your friends’. There are those fascinating applications, namely quizzes, games, and groups who can obtain an access to your profile and use it for their ends. I think it is still insignificant, of course, when their intentions are to use this information as their research for a new product or to attack you with a whole lots of other product campaigns. The problem is what about if such tricks are used by deliberate villains? These malign individuals might find out where their potential victims live, when they go to school, what do they like, and then they might create a perfect plan to lure them out to the real world. That is how we ended up having a portion of undesirable news about kidnapping, rape, fraud, and even murder stemmed from these sites some people cannot live without.
As a counter-attack, I would like to point that Facebook has a privacy setting, as well as other sites in this category do. Any member can protect themselves from anyone, including those in her own Facebook friend list, prohibiting undesired and unexpected parties to take a peek on her photos, notes, profile information, and others. Even if you do not touch the privacy setting, you do not have to share genuine specific information about yourselves. Just use a nickname and go tell your friends that it is you by the private message service or when you see them offline. In addition, the applications’ sharing your identity always asks your permission to do it. If you want to be safe, you can simply ignore them.
Nevertheless, I regret to admit that some users are not aware of this rule, and hence their very private identities are viable to random people. This incognizance is caused by the complicated items in the privacy setting. These ignoramuses just want to have some fun, and reading the “cryptic” explanation hurts their delicate brains. Another possibility is they do not have any idea that this setting exists because there are those young users interacting in Facebook or Friendster as their first online experience.
What should be done, then? The U.S. Senators have urged Facebook to simplify their rules and setting, but it is not only the Facebook administrator team’s job to ensure our young people are safe. Parents and teachers have the same obligation to raise online safety awareness among teenagers, to explain the rules and consequences to them, and to forbid those under sixteen years old to maintain an account in these sites. In the end of the day, social networking sites will remain exist with minimum risk.
The existence of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has led to various criminal acts, especially to teenagers. Therefore, such sites should be banned completely from the Internet.
The speaker stated that social networking sites should be abolished for its risking the safety of us and our family. I assert that this strong opposition is based on tangible reasons, but stripping these sites from our life forever is unnecessary. In that case, I propose the idea that this risk is preventable and we can live side by side with them in peace if we know how to do it.
To begin with, I will provide you with a brief elaboration on what “risk” means in this issue. Some people believe that as you joined these sites, you exposed your identity. Facebook is full of advertisements craving for not only the users’ eyeballs, but also specific details about them—yes, about you! These preys have a wide range of tricks to manipulate you to give them your identity as well as your friends’. There are those fascinating applications, namely quizzes, games, and groups who can obtain an access to your profile and use it for their ends. I think it is still insignificant, of course, when their intentions are to use this information as their research for a new product or to attack you with a whole lots of other product campaigns. The problem is what about if such tricks are used by deliberate villains? These malign individuals might find out where their potential victims live, when they go to school, what do they like, and then they might create a perfect plan to lure them out to the real world. That is how we ended up having a portion of undesirable news about kidnapping, rape, fraud, and even murder stemmed from these sites some people cannot live without.
As a counter-attack, I would like to point that Facebook has a privacy setting, as well as other sites in this category do. Any member can protect themselves from anyone, including those in her own Facebook friend list, prohibiting undesired and unexpected parties to take a peek on her photos, notes, profile information, and others. Even if you do not touch the privacy setting, you do not have to share genuine specific information about yourselves. Just use a nickname and go tell your friends that it is you by the private message service or when you see them offline. In addition, the applications’ sharing your identity always asks your permission to do it. If you want to be safe, you can simply ignore them.
Nevertheless, I regret to admit that some users are not aware of this rule, and hence their very private identities are viable to random people. This incognizance is caused by the complicated items in the privacy setting. These ignoramuses just want to have some fun, and reading the “cryptic” explanation hurts their delicate brains. Another possibility is they do not have any idea that this setting exists because there are those young users interacting in Facebook or Friendster as their first online experience.
What should be done, then? The U.S. Senators have urged Facebook to simplify their rules and setting, but it is not only the Facebook administrator team’s job to ensure our young people are safe. Parents and teachers have the same obligation to raise online safety awareness among teenagers, to explain the rules and consequences to them, and to forbid those under sixteen years old to maintain an account in these sites. In the end of the day, social networking sites will remain exist with minimum risk.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
GRE Issue Task 1
Issue Statement
“Schools should be responsible not only for teaching academic skills but also for teaching ethical and social values.”
Essay
Addressing the issue of involving ethical and social values in schools is apparently more complicated than it is stated by the speaker. Despite my concordance to this idea, I am aware that its application is rather intricate and inherent to various aspects, not only that of the students but also that of others associated to the educational system.
First of all, the school must decide which ethical and social values necessary to be taught. In a homogenous environment, such as an all-Christian school or an all-Chinese school, this problem might not entail too many concern and mystification. On the other hand, it would be more difficult for any level of educational institute with diverse backgrounds among its teachers and students. However, there are universal values decent enough for students of any upbringing to learn. Simple values such as respecting others and solving problems without conflict can be taught in neutral contexts.
An argument to support the critical need of teaching ethical and social values at schools is that students spend almost one-third of their time a day there. Therefore, schools play an important role as places where children and teenagers develop their attitude and behavior. If the pedagogues ignore this and only focus on their students’ academic achievements, these youngsters would have to learn such values from the rest available sources, namely family, friends, and media. The problem is however good-natured their parents are, they simply cannot always follow the children at schools and tell what is good and bad. Meanwhile, friends do not feel like they have responsibility to guide others to good deeds, and media is exploiting anything sold well regardless of its impacts.
Unfortunately, there is a drawback of imposing the teaching of such values at schools. Teachers will bear a larger responsibility, exhausting their time and energy. This fact might end up in teachers’ demanding a payment rise, and then trigger a rise of the school fee as well. Curriculum would have to be reconstructed, and it would take a while before managing to establish a proper one to pursue both academic record and values teaching. Nevertheless, these are trivial compared to what might and had happened to children studying at schools which neglect this issue. There are those bullied by his or her friends, being called as a “gay” or a “whore” continuously until they cannot stand it and then they commit suicide. It is very likely to happen when these children do not understand that they should not intimidate others and the consequences that might follow.
In the end of the day, schools must also teach ethical and social values at any cost. Any problem and complexity occur is expected, but letting schools to abandon it is a worse alternative.
“Schools should be responsible not only for teaching academic skills but also for teaching ethical and social values.”
Essay
Addressing the issue of involving ethical and social values in schools is apparently more complicated than it is stated by the speaker. Despite my concordance to this idea, I am aware that its application is rather intricate and inherent to various aspects, not only that of the students but also that of others associated to the educational system.
First of all, the school must decide which ethical and social values necessary to be taught. In a homogenous environment, such as an all-Christian school or an all-Chinese school, this problem might not entail too many concern and mystification. On the other hand, it would be more difficult for any level of educational institute with diverse backgrounds among its teachers and students. However, there are universal values decent enough for students of any upbringing to learn. Simple values such as respecting others and solving problems without conflict can be taught in neutral contexts.
An argument to support the critical need of teaching ethical and social values at schools is that students spend almost one-third of their time a day there. Therefore, schools play an important role as places where children and teenagers develop their attitude and behavior. If the pedagogues ignore this and only focus on their students’ academic achievements, these youngsters would have to learn such values from the rest available sources, namely family, friends, and media. The problem is however good-natured their parents are, they simply cannot always follow the children at schools and tell what is good and bad. Meanwhile, friends do not feel like they have responsibility to guide others to good deeds, and media is exploiting anything sold well regardless of its impacts.
Unfortunately, there is a drawback of imposing the teaching of such values at schools. Teachers will bear a larger responsibility, exhausting their time and energy. This fact might end up in teachers’ demanding a payment rise, and then trigger a rise of the school fee as well. Curriculum would have to be reconstructed, and it would take a while before managing to establish a proper one to pursue both academic record and values teaching. Nevertheless, these are trivial compared to what might and had happened to children studying at schools which neglect this issue. There are those bullied by his or her friends, being called as a “gay” or a “whore” continuously until they cannot stand it and then they commit suicide. It is very likely to happen when these children do not understand that they should not intimidate others and the consequences that might follow.
In the end of the day, schools must also teach ethical and social values at any cost. Any problem and complexity occur is expected, but letting schools to abandon it is a worse alternative.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Again I wrote it last night on 23.30 pm GMT+7
It’s another bleak night with a hungry belly, stiff neck, and tired knees, but I’m grateful that my spine is fine. Something’s wrong with the gas stove that I can’t ignite it, thereby I can’t cook anything. To make things worse, my current translation project is still killing me. I only have 42 more pages to go, but I know that a long and complicated correction will be needed. So now I’m running away by writing about something I like the most.
Facebook is a brilliant invention. I wasn’t really fascinated by Friendster, but I’ve spent the whole 2009 on Facebooking. I made my Facebook account on late August 2008, but I started using it frequently subsequent to my undergraduate thesis defense in the following December. The biggest incentive was my latest mobile phone which allowed me to be online whenever and wherever. Soon I found myself addicted to this social network site, and it’s fun.
Undoubtly, Facebook played an important role in my social life during 2009. I reunited with many old friends, made new friends, and became closer to some others. However, my favorite part was people’s tendency to share their private life in Facebook. Following their status updates was fun, sometimes it’s similar to reading romances. Moreover, owing to the fact that I have such a deep curiosity over other people’s business, I used to wander about my friends’ profiles. I’ve managed to find out the girl he had a crush on or the new boyfriend she had but didn’t want to share.
Well, the greatest thing about Facebook is it doesn’t share page views information. Therefore, I can blissfully haunting my friends. I refered myself as a Facebook ghoul. Once my friend even predicated me as a Facebook detective after I had told her how to gain a specific information by using Facebook. Hence, I know more than they think I do, but not rarely I have to pretend to be don’t because they might be afraid of me, hahaha.
In consequence, Facebook took a great proportion of my time. It decreased my working effectivity and efficiency significantly. Today is the seventh day I live without mobile phone Facebooking. Even I stayed at home for 3 days without any touch with Facebook. I did go to the internet café to open my Facebook account during the last 3 days, but overall, I visited Facebook drastically less often since I couldn’t access it from my mobile phone.
But I still love Facebook, and I hope people will not leave it, being more attracted to Twitter or Plurk or MySpace. Actually, blogging is another hot stuff, but less people will create one, let alone post something to it consistently. By the way, if you don’t know me in person, I don’t recommend you to add my Facebook account. On the contrary, my Twitter account is open to everyone. Anyway, I have to remind you that I usually write there in Indonesian, not English.
It’s another bleak night with a hungry belly, stiff neck, and tired knees, but I’m grateful that my spine is fine. Something’s wrong with the gas stove that I can’t ignite it, thereby I can’t cook anything. To make things worse, my current translation project is still killing me. I only have 42 more pages to go, but I know that a long and complicated correction will be needed. So now I’m running away by writing about something I like the most.
Facebook is a brilliant invention. I wasn’t really fascinated by Friendster, but I’ve spent the whole 2009 on Facebooking. I made my Facebook account on late August 2008, but I started using it frequently subsequent to my undergraduate thesis defense in the following December. The biggest incentive was my latest mobile phone which allowed me to be online whenever and wherever. Soon I found myself addicted to this social network site, and it’s fun.
Undoubtly, Facebook played an important role in my social life during 2009. I reunited with many old friends, made new friends, and became closer to some others. However, my favorite part was people’s tendency to share their private life in Facebook. Following their status updates was fun, sometimes it’s similar to reading romances. Moreover, owing to the fact that I have such a deep curiosity over other people’s business, I used to wander about my friends’ profiles. I’ve managed to find out the girl he had a crush on or the new boyfriend she had but didn’t want to share.
Well, the greatest thing about Facebook is it doesn’t share page views information. Therefore, I can blissfully haunting my friends. I refered myself as a Facebook ghoul. Once my friend even predicated me as a Facebook detective after I had told her how to gain a specific information by using Facebook. Hence, I know more than they think I do, but not rarely I have to pretend to be don’t because they might be afraid of me, hahaha.
In consequence, Facebook took a great proportion of my time. It decreased my working effectivity and efficiency significantly. Today is the seventh day I live without mobile phone Facebooking. Even I stayed at home for 3 days without any touch with Facebook. I did go to the internet café to open my Facebook account during the last 3 days, but overall, I visited Facebook drastically less often since I couldn’t access it from my mobile phone.
But I still love Facebook, and I hope people will not leave it, being more attracted to Twitter or Plurk or MySpace. Actually, blogging is another hot stuff, but less people will create one, let alone post something to it consistently. By the way, if you don’t know me in person, I don’t recommend you to add my Facebook account. On the contrary, my Twitter account is open to everyone. Anyway, I have to remind you that I usually write there in Indonesian, not English.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Family Planning
Two weeks ago my friend told me that her older sister was pregnant, and it’s her third. Her sister’s nuclear family is living under the very same roof with my friend and their mother. My point is they are not rich, yet the third baby is coming. I don’t understand. Everybody knows that life is only getting harder. What are they thinking?
I was too young to comprehend what I’m talking now when the Family Planning (Keluarga Berencana) was strongly campaigned by the former president Soeharto. But even when I was in junior high school, I understood that having fewer children is more sensible. Somehow I regret asking my mother to have another baby when I was 8. I also regret the fact that my mother was careless with her pregnancy prevention program when I was 13. Don’t get me wrong, I love my baby sister and baby brother (though it’s true I don’t love my first younger brother). But things would be easier if our family only consists of 4 individuals as the Family Planning always suggested.
Some families think that they are ready, or wealthy enough, to have more than two children. What I see now is many older children have to pay for their younger siblings’ school fees. In consequences, it is extremely difficult for these older ones to pursue a higher degree, let alone it is also possible that they are not lucky enough to finish any undergraduate study. In that case, I consider parents as irresponsible. You are the ones made babies, and then you must afford them without any exception.
It is not fair for young people to be burdened by their younger siblings. Life is already hard enough without having to raise “your children” when you should be pursuing your goals. This demonic circle also binds the younger siblings when they have to pay back by affording their nieces and/or nephews.
Even if you are a rich couple, it is still better to have only 2 children. Keep it in your mind that you will be able to provide them with much better facilities than if you have more children. Maybe you can even send them to study abroad.
I profoundly think that this issue is strongly related to the fact that Indonesian people are developing slowly both in economy and education. I have nothing to say but, dear friends, don’t think about “it is fun to have many kids”, but remember that “having fewer children will give them better opportunities”. I am serious.
I was too young to comprehend what I’m talking now when the Family Planning (Keluarga Berencana) was strongly campaigned by the former president Soeharto. But even when I was in junior high school, I understood that having fewer children is more sensible. Somehow I regret asking my mother to have another baby when I was 8. I also regret the fact that my mother was careless with her pregnancy prevention program when I was 13. Don’t get me wrong, I love my baby sister and baby brother (though it’s true I don’t love my first younger brother). But things would be easier if our family only consists of 4 individuals as the Family Planning always suggested.
Some families think that they are ready, or wealthy enough, to have more than two children. What I see now is many older children have to pay for their younger siblings’ school fees. In consequences, it is extremely difficult for these older ones to pursue a higher degree, let alone it is also possible that they are not lucky enough to finish any undergraduate study. In that case, I consider parents as irresponsible. You are the ones made babies, and then you must afford them without any exception.
It is not fair for young people to be burdened by their younger siblings. Life is already hard enough without having to raise “your children” when you should be pursuing your goals. This demonic circle also binds the younger siblings when they have to pay back by affording their nieces and/or nephews.
Even if you are a rich couple, it is still better to have only 2 children. Keep it in your mind that you will be able to provide them with much better facilities than if you have more children. Maybe you can even send them to study abroad.
I profoundly think that this issue is strongly related to the fact that Indonesian people are developing slowly both in economy and education. I have nothing to say but, dear friends, don’t think about “it is fun to have many kids”, but remember that “having fewer children will give them better opportunities”. I am serious.
Beyond My Misfortune
It’s funny that I revert to my old habit—blogging—again after abandoning it for a few months. It reminds me about writing a diary, I enjoyed it a lot, and then neglect it, and then came back with a new excitement to it. There are always stories to tell. I’m not talkative (usually, I let my friends tell me anything, and I don’t say much about myself), but I do love writing.
This time I’m going to contemplate about what I considered as a misfortune. I’ve learned that if I see it through a different glasses, I would find a blessing. However, sometimes my evil side tries to drown me with her negative perspectives; thereby I need to prescribe it in order to remind myself about how lucky I am.
First of all, I hate money. Let me assure you that I injected every ounce of resentment steaming in my heart into the word hate. When I was 5 until 10, I had many costly courses. I really enjoyed it despite what other they-thought-they-know-everything-but-hell-actually-they-don’t people said about elementary school students should just play around and have fun with their peers. Hey, I was happy. I didn’t mind about not having pretty schoolbags or cute dresses. I wanted courses, more courses. Years later I realized that those courses were expensive to be afforded by my family, but my old woman knew that they worth much more than buying a new carpet or even a magic jar. My good grades were her only relief (even though I don’t think my grades were good enough).
Things were heading south as my old man started locking himself in his puny world. I can’t say I enjoyed my teenage life. College years were worse. The old man was practically unproductive. There was no income. Who in their right mind would not try their best when they have two kids under 20 and two kids under 10? Well, my old man would.
When I was 19, I was compelled to be independent. Yes, I knew that it’s already time. In France, it is legal for parents to evict their own children over 18 years old (I am sure it is fine to be done in Indonesia too since there is no law about it). Moreover, some of my friends had become independent one or two years earlier. Well, the difference was their old men also tried their best or have passed away. What happened to me was my old man said nothing, asked nothing. He’s healthy and he got some skill. But he did almost nothing. I’ve long considered him as NOT EXIST. Later I found that it is much better than having a brutal or dictatorial old man.
Many of my friends expressed their envy to my capability to stand on my own feet. They thought that working and having their own money is a very good thing. Well, it is good if the financial condition of your family is safe as houses, and hence the money you earn will be purely spent on amusements. It is good if you can work without worrying about whether you will be able to survive until next month, next week, or even tomorrow.
It was really hard for me to see my condition as a gift. At the very least, recently I can see that independency entails freedom. By being unable to support me financially, my parents lose their power to interfere with any aspect of my life. I remember that when I was young, I afraid someday my parents would get mad and kick me out of the house. Indeed, presumably now my old woman is afraid of pissing me off, and my old man knows that we have no word for each other. I think she knows that I am defensive, and that I am ready to leave everything behind once I feel that enough is enough.
I heard that some of my friends in their 20s are still grounded by their parents. That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. Tell me, are you 20 or 12? Even some of them are still curtailed about night hours, going-outs, school choices, etc. In my perspective, once you get 20, parents can only tell you what they think is good for you. They have no right to restrict you at all. You are an adult. You have your own life to carry on.
I’m aware that challenges lay ahead, and I have no one to rely on. Nevertheless, I think it’s wonderful because my future triumphs will solely be mine. No one will associate them with anyone but me. You can argue with me, pals, but this is how I live my life.
This time I’m going to contemplate about what I considered as a misfortune. I’ve learned that if I see it through a different glasses, I would find a blessing. However, sometimes my evil side tries to drown me with her negative perspectives; thereby I need to prescribe it in order to remind myself about how lucky I am.
First of all, I hate money. Let me assure you that I injected every ounce of resentment steaming in my heart into the word hate. When I was 5 until 10, I had many costly courses. I really enjoyed it despite what other they-thought-they-know-everything-but-hell-actually-they-don’t people said about elementary school students should just play around and have fun with their peers. Hey, I was happy. I didn’t mind about not having pretty schoolbags or cute dresses. I wanted courses, more courses. Years later I realized that those courses were expensive to be afforded by my family, but my old woman knew that they worth much more than buying a new carpet or even a magic jar. My good grades were her only relief (even though I don’t think my grades were good enough).
Things were heading south as my old man started locking himself in his puny world. I can’t say I enjoyed my teenage life. College years were worse. The old man was practically unproductive. There was no income. Who in their right mind would not try their best when they have two kids under 20 and two kids under 10? Well, my old man would.
When I was 19, I was compelled to be independent. Yes, I knew that it’s already time. In France, it is legal for parents to evict their own children over 18 years old (I am sure it is fine to be done in Indonesia too since there is no law about it). Moreover, some of my friends had become independent one or two years earlier. Well, the difference was their old men also tried their best or have passed away. What happened to me was my old man said nothing, asked nothing. He’s healthy and he got some skill. But he did almost nothing. I’ve long considered him as NOT EXIST. Later I found that it is much better than having a brutal or dictatorial old man.
Many of my friends expressed their envy to my capability to stand on my own feet. They thought that working and having their own money is a very good thing. Well, it is good if the financial condition of your family is safe as houses, and hence the money you earn will be purely spent on amusements. It is good if you can work without worrying about whether you will be able to survive until next month, next week, or even tomorrow.
It was really hard for me to see my condition as a gift. At the very least, recently I can see that independency entails freedom. By being unable to support me financially, my parents lose their power to interfere with any aspect of my life. I remember that when I was young, I afraid someday my parents would get mad and kick me out of the house. Indeed, presumably now my old woman is afraid of pissing me off, and my old man knows that we have no word for each other. I think she knows that I am defensive, and that I am ready to leave everything behind once I feel that enough is enough.
I heard that some of my friends in their 20s are still grounded by their parents. That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. Tell me, are you 20 or 12? Even some of them are still curtailed about night hours, going-outs, school choices, etc. In my perspective, once you get 20, parents can only tell you what they think is good for you. They have no right to restrict you at all. You are an adult. You have your own life to carry on.
I’m aware that challenges lay ahead, and I have no one to rely on. Nevertheless, I think it’s wonderful because my future triumphs will solely be mine. No one will associate them with anyone but me. You can argue with me, pals, but this is how I live my life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)