Lessons “as Wide as the Open Sea” at Home

Many parents have been overwhelmed since the Covid-19 pandemic has shut down schools. They are forced to accompany their children and provide learning assistance. For some parents, studying together at home has been fun

Kompas/Hendra A Setyawan

The home study policy set by the government regarding the covid-19 outbreak was used by Al Azhar 15 Pamulang Elementary School, South Tangerang, Banten to hold online teaching and learning activities, on Tuesday (17/3/2020). Students and teachers utilize the googleclassroom application for study rooms and zoom cloud meetings for teleconferences.

Many parents have been overwhelmed since the Covid-19 pandemic has shut down schools. All of a sudden, they are forced to accompany their children at home and provide learning assistance. However, for some parents, studying together at home has been fun.

As parents are dissatisfied with their experience of studying at school, many are now implementing homeschooling for their children. Together with their children, these parents position themselves as learners.

Married couple Irma Nugraha and Ledi Trialdi come from a family of educators. Irma is a teacher at a private school in Tangerang while Ledi is a economics and business lecturer at a university in Jakarta.

Also read : When Classrooms Move to Homes

“We are products of formal schooling. As we work as educators, we felt dissatisfied with how education is implemented in formal schools. Meanwhile, our vision as a family is to provide happiness and foundation, including numeracy, literacy and communication [skills],” Ledi said in a “Homeschooling Stories” session on the Instagram account of Rumah Inspirasi on Saturday (11/7/2020).

The couple was worried over schools’ ability to give children orientations and options that made them free to choose what future they wanted, including jobs. They then decided that their oldest child will be homeschooled since the elementary school after finishing kindergarten.

At the beginning, Irma still used “schooling” paradigms. She busily sought learning resources, courses and methods. She forgot that her family’s foundation was not yet strong and her child’s foundation as a learner was not yet prepared.

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“The first tips for a parent wishing to implement homeschooling is just be a “parent”. Delve into concepts of nurturing, set your family principles and then you can talk about knowledge,” Irma said.

KOMPAS/ERWIN EDHI PRASETYA

A junior high school student in Solo, Central Java, on Monday (16/3/2020) opened the Google Classroom application while studying at home. The City Government of Solo has adopted a policy of elementary, junior high, and high school level equivalent students studying at home for 14 days starting on Monday (16/3/2020) following the establishment of the Covid-19 Extraordinary Event status in Solo.

Furthermore, Irma and her husband have jobs that give them flexible working hours to accompany their children when they study. They calculate all the consequences of implementing homeschooling.

“Our extended family, which has many school educators, was doubtful at first. My child’s grandmothers and grandfathers often talked to our kid about how wonderful schools are. My husband and I always explained the decision that we make and they slowly understand,” she said.

Another couple, Dio and Putri, have a different experience. They have three children. The oldest two went to an elementary school before they were homeschooled. Their youngest never went to a formal school.

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The reason behind their decision to homeschool their oldest two children was that schools often had different education visions from them. They had considered moving their children to another school only to find a similar situation.

Dio said that his oldest had an interest in videography and wanted to explore this. He and his wife facilitate and support it. Meanwhile, the couple’s second child is interested in Korean language and archery. Putri then searched a Korean language tutor and an archery class.

“We were worried that they would not have friends. However, this has been unproven. They have a community of similar-minded children and have friends to mingle with,” Dio said.

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The couple of Rake Nasri and Ali Reza have an interesting experience in accompanying their children as they grow. “One of our children loves everything about insects. We visited the insect lab at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah [TMII] cultural park and attended a seminar at Gadjah Mada University [UGM]. These are not free but there is a workaround as we do not pay school fees,” Rake said.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Wearing her school uniform, Agda Baline Swarahati, a 4th grade student of Santo Antonius Elementary School from Padua, works on Physical, Sports, and Health (PJOK) subject during the year-end assessment, which is followed from her house in Nusa Loka, BSD City, South Tangerang, Banten, Tuesday (9/6/2020). The Covid-19 pandemic has forced children to follow all instruction from home.

Staying in school

Ficky Yusrini, the parent of one in Bogor, has different views. Ficky still sends her child to school but she implements the Charlotte Mason method that is popular in the homeschooling scene.

She said that she believed no school was ideal. Every family has a unique education goal. Therefore, parents must understand the weaknesses of schools and strive to compensate for this at home.

“The paradigms and curriculums of homeschooling help me a lot in providing perspectives on education goals and how to implement education methods at home without the need of intervention,” she said.

Rumah Inspirasi (House of Inspirations) founder Aar Sumardiono said that homeschooling and formal schools had different educational processes. The major issue lies in autonomy. When children participate in classes in a formal school, parents are merely executors.

Homeschooling paradigms cannot be used haphazardly as schools are designed to achieve certain curriculum targets.

Meanwhile, in homeschooling, the autonomy lies in the family. Schools have the issue of classroom management and they have targets to achieve, including in learning hours. In homeschooling, learning targets are looser.

Homeschooling paradigms are more flexible as it prioritize contextual learning. “Homeschooling paradigms cannot be used haphazardly as schools are designed to achieve certain curriculum targets,” Aar said.

The core of homeschooling, he said, was in parents’ willingness to learn, serve as facilitators and guide their children without dictating them on what to do. After parents understand this, they can choose the learning techniques and methods.

Education and Culture Ministry public and special education director Samto said there had been many questions from parents wishing to take their children out of formal schools and homeschool them instead. He said that he believed this was triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Parents must first be prepared for all the consequences of homeschooling,” he said.