Philosophy of Education
I follow the philosophy proposed by an education pioneer in Indonesia: Ki Hajar Dewantara (1889-1959), which can be condensed in three Javanese sentences:
 | Ing ngarsa sung tuladha In the front to be a model |
 | Ing madya mangun karsa In the middle to be a spirit builder |
 | Tut wuri handayani In the back to be a facilitator |
The sentences explicitly give us an approach of how to be an educator. If we contemplate them a bit further, we get a very useful and important essence of education, that is, the central actor in education is the student, who has the sole authority for his/her own advancement. The educators are to make the right environment and to pursuade the student to walk through the right track as they did - nothing more.
People change only if they want to change. So education is not a machine to change people. It is a conditioning agent to provide the opportunities for changes. Good educators work hard: to excel themselves as a model, to be enthusiastic to encourage others, and to facilitate what others need to develop themselves. None is to dictate, to format anything according to the educators' tastes or interests.