BELAJAR DARI ANAK TK

Beberapa waktu yang lalu, saat saya mengantar Adzra ke sekolah dengan berjalan kaki, saya dikejutkan oleh celotehan Adzra tentang bagaimana menyeberang jalan. 

"You know mommy, if you cross the street, you have to do like this."

"Ok, what is it? Show me!"

"You have to STOP...THINK...AND GO!"

"Allright, let's do it.

Adzra memberi aba-aba. STOP. Kami berhenti di pinggir jalan. THINK. Kulihat Adzra menaruh jari telunjuknya ke sisi kening sambil menoleh kiri kanan, AND GO. Kamipun bergandengan menyeberang jalan di sekitar kompleks tempat tinggal kami, yang sebenarnya hampir selalu sepi.

Menarik mengamati bagaimana life skills diajarkan sejak dini di Bindi Kindergarten. Laporan tentang materi pembelajaran memang rutin saya terima setiap bulan melalui newsletter yang dikirim via email. Isi newsletter bukanlah tentang apakah anak saya sudah bisa membaca, mengeja, atau berhitung. Sebaliknya, kami selalu diberi informasi tentang project yang dikenalkan kepada dan dilakukan anak-anak. Nah, bulan lalu, tema kegiatan adalah I Feel Safe. Tema ini dipilih karena kebetulan bulan lalu Melbourne digemparkan oleh berita penculikan dan pembunuhan seorang reporter ABC. Jill Meagher diculik dan diperkosa saat dia pulang berakhir pekan di sebuah club di area Brunswick, tempat tinggal saya. Mayat reporter cantik itu akhirnya ditemukan 1 minggu kemudian di pinggiran kota. Kasus ini membuat banyak sekolah mengajarkan siswa-siswanya tentang pentingnya being aware and how to protect yourself.

Membaca newsletter dan melihat foto-foto kegiatannya, saya jadi paham mengapa Adzra menjadi ikut waspada. Setiap kami pergi, Adzra sering mengingatkan saya dan kakaknya tentang traffic lights, road signs, mencari helmnya setiap kali mau naik sepeda, "and I have to hold your hand, too, mommy," katanya setiap kali kami menyeberang jalan.

Untuk belajar bijak tentang kehidupan, kita memang tidak harus menunggu sampai dewasa. Ini yang nampaknya ingin diajarkan para gurunya di sekolah. 

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten

by Robert Fulghum

All I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school. 

There are the things I learned:

• share everything

• play fair

• don’t hit people

• put things back where you found them

• clean up your own mess

• don’t take things that are not yours

• say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody

• wash your hands before you eat

• flush the toilet

• warm coolies and cold milk are good for you

• live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day

• take a nap every afternoon

• when you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together

• goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the mud seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.

• and then remember the Dick-and- Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all –LOOK! 

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blanket for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess!