Senin, 27 Juni 2011

CELL PHONES SHOULD BE ALLOWED AT SCHOOL

A cell phone – used to be regarded as a luxurious thing and was only owned by high class working people – nowadays it is almost regarded as a primary need by many people, including students. We cannot imagine how hard life would treat students if there was no cell phone in their hands. Even though cell phones have a negative side for students, they bring a lot more advantages for them than disadvantages. For example, they use cell phones to solve their urgent problems before too late; to bridge the distance between themselves and very important people, like parents, classmates, and teachers; and to upgrade their knowledge and insight.

Emergencies can happen to anyone, at any time, and anywhere. Like adults, it is very often students experience problems, whether it be on their way to school or back home or on the school premises. Heavy traffic or carelessness on the road, like in Yogyakarta, might trap students. Sometimes, at school, they can get severely injured or engaged in a gang fight. The very first thing that can be done by them when such problems occur is to make an emergency phone call via 911 to their parents, siblings, a friend or a teacher from their mobile phone, (http://www.ehow.com/advantages-allowing-cell-phones-school.html). Some ten years ago, students could very easily find public telephone posts to make an emergency call. Students at present very much depend on cell phones. They would be in a worse situation if they did not have one with them. They also cannot make a phone call from other cell phones if all the important numbers are not with them. All of their important numbers are saved in their cell phones so, urgent problems can only be solved by students quickly if they have their own cell phone at all times and everywhere, including at school.

Cell phones are one of the modern tools used to bridge the distance between students and their important people. It is very common right now in Indonesia for students to live far away from their parents and siblings in order to pursue a better life in the future. On the other hand, parents do not mind letting their children stay at such distances, because cell phones are a reliable guarantee that keeps them in touch. In addition, students right now feel like they are being pushed to learn and do many things in groups with their classmates, besides doing things alone. Cell phones allow them to easily contact each other to do their assignments. Besides keeping in touch with classmates, students need close contact between themselves and their teachers and vice versa. In their first days, at Sanata Dharma University, for example, students ask for their lecturers’ cell phone numbers and some lecturers do not hesitate to give their cell phone numbers to students.

In connection to study itself, having a cell phone is the right choice. There is lots of information and knowledge that cannot be searched manually in text books only, but can be done through a cell phone. Cell phones with applications like internet, dictionaries, music, games, cameras, and many more can help students easily update their knowledge and insight. They can use the internet to get information in a very short time instead of going through thick books which is takes a long time. They can also go to game and music applications to stimulate their brains. Besides that, they can use their cell phones to build their communication skills by recording theirs or other people`s voices and save happenings or information with the camera fixed in the cell phone, (http://www.millionface.com/ advantages-and-disadvantages-of-cell-phone-in-school).

In short, cell phones can help students in many ways. They can use their cell phones at anytime and anywhere, including in the school and on its premises to solve urgent problems they might have and to shorten the distance between themselves and the very important people supporting their study. They can be used to upgrade their knowledge and insight. So, it is highly recommended that students should be allowed to have cell phone with them at school.

World round traveling

have been to some countries in Africa (1999-2004), like Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Things that I took with me were: Passport, foreign currency, money pouch, suitcase, bag pack, first-ad kit,and band-aid. When I went to Kenya I took with me some hundred USD to arrange entry visa to the country. The same way I did when going to Botswana. I got some USD from a friend from the Phillipine. When I went to Zimbabwe I took with me some thousand Pula. I exchanged them into the Zimbabwean Dollar when entering the gate. From Zimbabwe I went to Zambia. I exchanged both Zimbabwean Dollar and Pula into Kwacha. I spent all the Kwacha during my stay in Zambia. I put all the currency in my money pouch I bought in Jakarta. My valid passport helped me easily enter those countries. The strong back pack I had was so useful. It helped me put my clothes in and easily carried on my back. Luckily that during all the traveling I did not get any accident, so I did not use any band-aid nor medicine from the first-aid kit.

Sabtu, 25 Juni 2011

HUMAN PERSONALITY AFFECTS MOTORCYCLING BEHAVIORS IN THE STREET

Introduction

By seeing a motorcyclist`s behavior in the street one may judge who the person really is. It is because behavior or attitude depicts one`s personality. To fully understand a motorcyclist`s personality, this discussion will elaborate on three components that form a human being`s personality. They are: disobedience, realism, and consciousness.

Disobedience

One of the traits motorcyclists should adhere to is to obey the prevailing traffic law. It is important for the motorcyclist to avoid an accident while riding. However, statistics show that in many places the percentage of motorcycle accidents is still very high. The main reasons are carelessness and breaking the prevailing law which requires all motorcyclists to wear standard helmets and put on the headlight, for example. Motorcyclists seem to act at will only to please themselves and avoid wearing heavy helmets. In Jakarta, in 2004 there were 14,223 motorcycle accidents out 17,732 traffic accidents, or 80%, (http://industri09ekabayu.blog.mercubuana.ac.id/2010/10/28/ sebaran-posisi-sepeda-motor-di-jalur-jalan-pada-berbagai-kondisi-arus-lalu-lintas). In the US, there are still motorcycle accidents even though it tends to decline every year, averaging around 13%. Around 60% of motorcyclists crash at night without wearing helmet, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motorcycle_ deaths_in_U.S._by_year). The reasons for these motorcycle accidents, both in Jakarta and the USA, show that the motorcyclists tend to serve their ids which operate largely according to the pleasure principle, seeking joy, and avoiding discomfort, (http://changingminds.org/explanations/personality/freud_ personality.htm).

Realism

One typical case that happens to Indonesian motorcyclists in front of red light is whether to keep crossing it at a very high speed (when the yellow light is about to stop) or strongly and repeatedly blowing their horns. They seem to be super busy people. Contrary to this, there are still many Indonesian motorcyclists who religiously obey the prevailing law. They know the risk of breaking the law. They wouldn’t want to cause an accident which could injure others or themselves. There is no point to being free from having to stand in front of the red light when it is only for a few extra seconds. It seems useless to speed up since no one appreciates such a selfish attitude. For them it would be far wiser to patiently stand in front of the red light and give a safe opportunity to others to cross their road. They will only proceed when the green light is on without blowing their horns. Such a wise attitude describes their ego part which is awareness of reality, and recognizes, and understands that every behavior has consequences in other people`s lives, (http://changingminds.org/explanations/ personality/freud_ personality.htm).

Consciousness

It very often happens that motorcyclists do something for no purpose or because others are doing it. For example, stepping over a line or blowing horn or enter into a restricted area, or cross the red light when no policeman is around, and so on. On the other hand, many motorcyclists with a great conscience and high self-esteem do not do so. Even people who have done something wrong in the past would not do so at another time. They know very well when and where to stop or stand or which area is one allowed to enter. They know which areas they are allowed to ride their motorcycles and where it is appropriate to blow the horn. Every motorcyclist that passes by a public place, like a mosque or church or temple always does so consciously and respectfully , because they are concerned for other people`s need for silence to pray. They think that breaking the traffic low is embarrassing and morally wrong. Such an attitude matches another part of the human personality, i.e., the super ego which contains conscience, social and moral values. (http://changingminds.org/explanations/personality/ freud_personality.htm).

Conclusion

The three personalities: disobedience, realism, and consciousness are deeply adhered in everybody`s self. While riding in the street, all three of them might appear at any one time at different levels of prominence but with one being more prominent. At another time only one or two of them might appear; only one is stronger. Nevertheless, the three of them influence and form the habit or attitude of the same person to make a full personality. Every motorcyclist`s habit or attitude in the street depicts who the person is.

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CHILDREN SHOULD BE STRONGLY PUSHED TO ACHIEVE THEIR MAXIMUM

Without any strong push from anybody else, no one can reach any determined maximum. No matter how near or far, shallow or deep destination to achieve, one certainly needs such a push. This applies to senior high school children too which are known as adolescent with very unique attitude. They sometimes appear with peculiar attitude showing uncertainty of life. Yet, they keep moving ahead. In reaching their maximum in the future, senior high school children need a strong push from adults surrounding them, especially parents and teachers.

Obviously, not all children are happy with strong push method, but yet some of them need to be helped with this method because of some reasons, for example, misunderstanding of education, laziness, and uncertainty of future goal to reach. Strong push from the adults surrounding them makes them slowly aware of the importance of education in general and the subjects they take at school in particular. Some senior high school children can only start being diligent after a constantly long explanation with proofs of the negative effect of laziness happens to people`s life. Laziness never moves one even an inch ahead, but ruins one`s life. Uncertainty of future often makes school children hesitant to move ahead. A constant push from teachers and parents makes them aware of their own future life. They, then, slowly make real and certain efforts to move ahead. The other effect of strong push method is to make students aware of being among others; they are not alone in struggling for their maximum.

Strong push is proved as an effective method to create a hardworking character within adolescents` selves. It is not enough to only have an awareness of the importance of education, being diligent, their own future life, and being among others. Such a great awareness should be put in practice with hardworking character as their constant life style. Hardworking sustains them in challenging situation, obstacles, and hardships. When this character becomes part of their life, a great success will be easily achieved.

The other effect of strong push is to help students step onto higher education opportunities. Many senior high school graduates think that the knowledge obtained is enough to live a better life. Nevertheless, Indonesia`s situation demands a higher education equipped with soft skills. One cannot apply a better job, both in state and private, with only a high school certificate. When applying to teach at a kindergarten even, one should prove under graduate certificate gained at university.

Shortly, strong push done by the parents and teachers really helps senior high school students to fully aware of how importance of education is, their own future, and negative effect of laziness. Besides that, strong push helps them to be aware of being together with others who always help them move forward in reaching their own maximum.

SUCCESS IN WRITING CLASS

Writing is an art of combining words containing ideas to form a good, logic and complete understanding under a clear chosen topic or theme. In this Short Essay Writing Class II every student is supposed to be successful in producing such writing quality. How to reach this point is the key question for every one of us, the student in the Short Essay Writing Class II.
There are many tips proposed by experienced and successful writers that can be used to achieve our goal. I would like to point out and explain four tips to be taken into account by each one of us. The four tips – not put in graded sequence but they can go simultaneously – are: knowledge on writing, time management, reading, and writing drills – open to criticism. Tip one: Knowledge on writing. To be able to write any kinds of writing given by lecturer during the class activity, a student has to have a broad knowledge on writing. Knowledge on writing includes minimum requirements on grammar, spelling, punctuation marks, dictation, and ideas organization. Grammar is the base of formulation of a good and logic sentence. To have a semantic sentence, a writer should properly know words spelling (a,b,c,d, etc.), punctuation marks (. , ; : ! ? “..” ‘ etc.), dictation (repeating what is said/written), and ideas organization (organizing ideas in a logic way).
The second tip is time management. A well time management keeper is a winner. He/she always appreciates time and is loyally, steadily, and responsibly does all of the scheduled activities: daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. Obviously, as the students of Writing Class II, we have lots of assignments and other activities that require time and attention. However, to be a winner in writing, we should keep putting writing in our list as one of the daily activities and never miss it. Moreover, to be a great writer, we should never say “later” when writing, because one who always delays is a looser. In one of his talk show occasions, Mario Teguh said that the best way to achieve our dream was to right now wake up and start working.
Beside lecturer as the first reliable source of knowledge on writing, reading any kinds of writing is another important way and strategic tip in achieving the success in writing class. Reading is meant to broaden our knowledge and make ourselves accustomed to writing world. Reading provides lots of knowledge and information to be digested to elaborate and formulate our logic and understandable writing. We often do not know how to start writing, or get stuck in writing because of lack of knowledge and information. We also do not know how to combine all the loose ideas in a logic and understandable composition because we are not really accustomed to writing world. Mrican campus has an almost complete library. We can write about anything based on the books, magazines, newspapers prepared in the library. Besides, we can access to any information via sophisticated technology, like installed internet, Videos, Cassettes, CDs, VCDs, and DVDs. As the first start we can only concentrate on one discipline according to our interest. It could be only psychology or health or education and so on. After having a strong base in the certain knowledge we can expand our knowledge by reading other kinds of books or exploring to other information in the sophisticated tools.
The last very important tip is writing drill. We cannot put in practice all of our knowledge on minimum requirements nor elaborate all of them from readings if we never drill ourselves in writing. As a saying “practice makes perfect”, we should start practicing now; never delay or say “later.” We can start writing whatever in our heads every day. It would be good if we practice writing according to our time management: daily and weekly. It could be, later on, monthly and yearly. Experience shows that we fail in writing because we tend to think of being perfect from the beginning. This makes us hesitant to start or continue writing. I agree with Suherman – one of the lecturers in ITB – saying: “Tulislah apa yang Anda pikirkan, baru kemudian pikirkan apa yang Anda tulis…” : “Write what you think, then think what you have written. No matter how bad or confusing our writing, we only start writing by now. It will be corrected by our friends and lecturer. I agree with the way our lecturer does: asking us to correct our friends` writing. By doing so we learn from our friends and our own mistakes. Each one of us is supposed to be open to our friends and lecturer`s correction. We should not be embarrassed with our own mistakes, but we should “Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons,” from an unknown author (http://www.wow4u.com/teacher/index.html).
To be a successful writer in Writing Class II is a great dream. It is somehow hard to achieve but achievable if every one of us takes into account the above mentioned four tips leading us to producing logic and understandable writing.

Selasa, 07 Juni 2011

New Lifestyle

To be back to university is one of the most unforgettable beautiful experiences I have ever had. In some ways I found myself like “stepping into the same river twice”. I mean what I did in four semesters ago was just exactly like I did in twenty years ago when I went to my campus in Ledalero, Flores to study philosophy. As a student, first things I did some basic needs to do, like registering, paying, and taking entry testing. After knowing that I was admitted, I bought many things related to a student`s, life school bag, note book, pens, pencil, and so on and so forth. When coming to real class activities, I had to adjust myself with the campus environment and slowly made friends with classmates, seniors, and lecturers.
In many ways I have found my life like what Heraclitus once said, “You cannot step into the same river twice…." As life keeps changing over time, I have to make in my character a new personality: hardworking, adaptable, more easygoing, friendly, and helpful. To get into campus environment with different academic system, as I am taking English Teacher Training Program, is one challenging thing I have to face. To finish my study on time, as suggested, I have to work hard and put my extra attention on all the subjects I take. In connection to this, I have to change my lifestyle. To get all the assignments done on time I have force myself to sit in front of my laptop till very late at night and get up far earlier that before. To get sufficient references for any written assignments, I have to go to library or to search in internet. To make progress in study a bit further, I have to make good friends with my classmates, seniors, and lecturers. To step into the friendship circle is another challenging thing. My social status and age made my classmates keep distance with me in the first weeks even months. I am a “Romo” and 20s years older than my classmates, some ten years older than some lecturers. Only after two months or three, I finally could make friends with classmates, seniors, and lecturers. Actively taking part in the class, some extracurricular activities, and being helpful, friendly, modest, and some other more are the keys I use for conquering my ego to win the hearts of my classmates, seniors, and lecturers. They are my good friends now.
As a student, so far, I feel my life is awesome. It is like “stepping into the same river twice” on one hand, yet it is also like “you cannot step into the same river twice” on the other hand. To reach my dream to be a good student and friend for all my dear friends; and to finish my study on time, I need to keep all the good personality I am having now.
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Wonderful idioms I learn from this lesson:
• A fish out of Water.
• Shown the red carpet
• At east at last
• Chill out
• Show him/her off
• Reverse culture shock
• You can never go home again