Personal Reflection : The Mind of "Anak Sekolahan"

I find the village people are very logic, and sober thinkers and do not think so complicated as the city people. I have come to compare this with the wajang. In the wajang the heroes of Ramajana, and Mahabarat like Arjuna, Bima, Gatot Kaca, Judistira etc., are thinking in a very complicated way... not very logic but very Ksatria and so on, while the figures like Bagong, Semar, Petruk, Garong, etc. are very sober and very logic, very often coming with home truths and very realistics. Well, this same comparison can be made for the whole of Indonesian society. The pemimpin-pemimpin are the Arjuna, Judistira, etc., thinking in very complicated terms, but the common desa people are very sober and logic like Semar and Petruk. The same comparison is also true for the villages around  Djakarta. The people there are also very sober and logic. We often think of the village people as dumb and stupid, though they are not learned and well informed. But I discovered that they were very intellegent and logic (what you would call 'tjerdas'). I was astonished what precise answers they gave on my questions and how they grasped the meaning of the questions. And what memory they have on past events, etc. (Onghokham dalam "Sang Guru dan secangkir Kopi : Sejarawan Onghokham dam Sebuah Dunia Baru Bernama Indonesia" karya Andi Achdian, h.46) 

This passage reminds me of a personal experience. I was joining KAIL's workshop on system thinking. I was in a group with two other friends, all interested in education. Together, we were trying to define the problems in Indonesia's education. It was based on our own experience  and knowledge of working inside the Indonesia's educational system. For us, it took so many time only to discuss about a certain problem. We kept thinking and thinking again, in a complicated way. Unable to define what we think is most important.

"Jangan-jangan begini? Tapi begini deng, eh ngak deng begitu deng!"

We were keeping on changing our minds throughout the discussion.

Although I have joined a lot of system thinking workshops I always find it somewhat complicated. I always thought that there were so much to think about.

Then, a friend of mine, told me that the same workshop was held for a group of tukang becaks. Unlike me and my friends, they were able to discuss their problems (as tukang becaks) more easily. They were very clear about their ideas and knew how to coralate one factor (of the problem) with another. My friend laughed.

"Gue ketawa aja lihat kalian lama banget, kalian kebanyakan mikir. Hehehe.."  

If I think back again, I think in someways it is true that "anak sekolahan" as I am, people who are educated in the school system, think in such complicated ways. Therefore sometimes it makes it so difficult for us to define our own problem, while others can see it clearly and define it in a very simple way. Wallahu Alam.