Scouting friends
Today’s post is written by Peri Mast-Hochstedler. They are serving at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana Laboratory High School in Salatiga.
During my time in Saltiga, I have had the pleasure of observing classes and teaching English at the Satya Wacana high school, SMA Satya Wacana. I have been able to interact with a variety of wonderful students and be able to teach them while learning things myself.
One of the most noteworthy things I have observed at Satya Wacana is the scouting classes that the students take there. The scouting classes teach a variety of skills to students such as cooking, cleaning, and wilderness survival skills. The scouting classes are very similar to the boy and girl scouts in the US except with the main difference being that the scouting class is required for all students in both public and private schools.
The scouting class I observed at Satya Wacana is held every Thursday during the last period of the day for 10th graders. The first time I observed this class they learned how to tie different types of knots on a bamboo rod. I watched as the students broke off into smaller groups to learn how to tie these knots. At the end of the class, they played a game against each other to see who could tie the most knots correctly in a given time. This was so fun to watch and I was even able to learn how to tie up while they competed against each other!
The second time I observed this class they were building upon their knot tying skills by learning how to tie bamboo rods together with rope. They broke off into smaller groups like before and started learning the different ways the rods could be tied. There were 2 different ways that the students were learning how to tie the rods together: a side-by-side method (pictured below) and an angled method (last picture).
I noticed a lot of similarities between the scouts in Indonesia and the scouts in America. For one, the uniforms were very similar with the tan hats and collared shirts and the scarfs they wore around their necks. I also noticed that the collected badges, just like in America (what those badges were specifically for I have no idea). The types of things they learned were also very similar of course.
With similarities there also comes differences. The biggest difference between the scouts we have in the US is that it isn’t required for all children in school. The scouting program in Indonesia, as mentioned before, is a requirement for all students. This is because it is a government program required for all schools to have, even the private ones like Satya Wacana. The students start scouting at the age of 7 in first grade or as young as 4 in some other places in Indonesia. They are required to do scouting throughout elementary, primary and secondary school and even throughout university. Another large difference that I noticed was that they have a ceremony at the start of each scouting class. I am uncertain of the specifics of the ceremony because it’s all in Indonesian, but I do know it consists of reciting pledges to both the scouting program and their country, Indonesia. The whole ceremony can last up to 10 minutes long! I cannot possibly cover all about the specifics of scouting in Indonesia but if you want to learn more you can go to its wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerakan_Pramuka_Indonesia#:~:text=With%20the%202013%20education%20curriculum,study%20units%20in%20the%20curriculum.
The students always seemed to have so much fun doing their activities during scouting class. It was very nostalgic and heartwarming watching them have fun and goof around with each other. It reminded me of my time in high school back in the US. Watching them bond with each other really showed me how despite cultural differences, we are all very human and have similar experiences.
I overall had a very fun time watching, learning, and doing a bit of participating in these scouting classes! I am saddened that I only have 2 more weeks at Satya Wacana but I can’t wait to spend these last few weeks with them. The students at Satya Wacana are very smart and hardworking young adults and I think they will have many wonderful opportunities and experiences coming their way in the near future. They have testing coming up this week and I wish all of them luck on their exams. I will be sad to have to leave Satya Wacana but I know I can leave knowing that I have impacted their experience as much as they’ve impacted mine.
