THE PRINCIPLES OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A PAPER

SUBMITTED AS FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF QUALITY CONTROL TEST THE PRINCIPLE OF EDUCATION

By ANNAS SURDYANTO 1208066001

ENGLISH POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM THE UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH PROF. DR. HAMKA JAKARTA 2012

A. BACKGROUND Education is a process of humanizing people. It brings people from no knowing to knowing, from bad to be good and even from immoral to be moral. Furthermore, education purposes to produce people who are capable to do new things, creative, inventive, and discoverers (Piaget in Elkins: 97). It is not only to create people who are able to do what other people have done. Along with the development of society in the world whether it is in the term of population or culture, education is also developed by people in order to develop the quality of human. It has been developed and divided into four types of educations. They are formal education, informal education and non-formal education. Each kind of education has different style and process in educating students. So far, formal education is considered as a very essential kind of education in society related to the human resources and living development. It has an important role in developing people, society and country. The role of formal education cannot be banned from the society because it is an element of life that controls culture and way of life. Formal education is divided into five hierarchies. They are Primary School or Elementary School, Middle School or Junior High School, Secondary School or High School and Post-secondary Education or Higher Education.

Elementary School is Education place that gives education in basic level. In other words, it can be assumed that Elementary School is kind of education place that provides basic education to children in the term of attitude and knowledge. It is expected to prepare students to have further education. According to Thomas, The mission of elementary schools is to assist students in order to be the children who are able to contribute in society (K. Thomas, Lee and J. Thomas 2008: 16). The students will be set to be persons who have a concern to their environment where they live. Nowadays, Elementary School in Indonesia is often considered as a little and small part of human development whereas it is a very determined level of human character development. As a result, the students who graduate from elementary school get knowledge only. They may have a good skill in calculating and reading something. Moreover, they may be able to mention some discipline theoretically. On the other hand, they do not have good morality as what becomes the goal of Elementary School, however. It can be occurred due to the lost of principles of Elementary School. The principles of education of Elementary School are the most important thing that must be held in running education in Elementary School. It attracts the writer to write this paper in order to give and remind back the principles of Elementary School. The writer considers that the principles of Elementary School are important to discuss. It is in order to improve the quality of education in Elementary School.

B. THE THEORETICAL STUDY 1. Elementary School In accordance with the National Education System of Indonesia in 2003, Elementary School is defined as a basic education that underlies Middle Education or Secondary School (UU Sisdiknas 2003: 6). It is the place that students undergo education for a very long time. The students should run education in this level for six years long. This level of education is very crucial towards the students character development. 2. The Principles of Elementary School Principle is defined in two dimensions, the first is a fundamental truth, law, etc. upon which others are based; the second is a rule to conduct and adherence to such rules (Webster in York 2012: 119). It shows that principle is very essential in holding something as well as in running education and conducting Elementary School. The principles of Elementary School cannot be ignored by schools. It is the stream of education for schools. It is very important for school because it provides direction on what way school should give and treat students and what thing school should present to students. Therefore, there are some principles of Elementary School. They are as follows: a. Building Character Character building is the first thing that must be concerned by schools. This is the dimension on what students will act and be. The school should

give and expose the values of character in order to produce good morality in students self. b. Giving religious values Students who have good morality might change to be bad students. This is due to the environment that might give bad influence and impression. Therefore, schools have important role in preventing this problem. By giving religious values, students character will be controlled by the values. Students are expected to compare everything within the religious values. c. Giving responsible manner Schools should give responsible manner to students in order to create students with responsibility attitude. This is also the most important manner to live with society. Through the manner of responsibility, students are viewed as people who are suitable to believe or not by the society. This is a reason why school should implementing responsibility manner on students. d. Giving discipline manner Discipline manner is a part of responsibility. By applying discipline habit, students are expected to be responsible persons. The impression in applying habitual discipline on students are very strong to students self development. This is the point that schools should also concern on. e. Providing basic knowledge

Providing basic knowledge is the thing mostly forgotten by schools. Many schools focus on the material and theoretical study whereas they should give basic knowledge only. It makes students weak in character values so that there are many students graduate with bad character and morality. f. Preparing students to Middle School or Junior High School As a basic level of education, Elementary School should prepare students to forward education to the Middle School or Junior High School, lest students lost their willing to study in further level of education.

C. Conclusion The principles of elementary school are rules that must be held in running schools. They are seven principles of elementary schools. They are building character, giving religious values, giving responsible manner, giving discipline manner, providing basic knowledge and preparing students to Middle School or Junior High School.

REFERENCES Elkins, David. 1991. Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Philosophical and Practical Implications. In Early Childhood Education. ed. Barry Persky and Leonard H. Golubhchick. Maryland. University Press of America, Inc. Nasional, Departemen Pendidikan Republik Indonesia. 2003. Undang-undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 20 Tahun 2003 Tentang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional. Jakarta: Depdiknas. Thomas, Katherine T., Amelia M. Lee, Jerry R. Thomas. 2008. Physical Education Methods for Elementary Teachers-3rd Edition. Champaign: Human Kinetics York Malie (Fowler). 2012. Is Your Jesus the Bible Jesus? Bloomington: Westbow Press.