The Innards of schools 2/4

The literal innards of school mostly consist of a rickety, possibly squeaking whiteboard, a teacher's desk, and roughly 20 tables and 40 chairs, complete with lights and possibly several fans. There's usually a "Mading" (Majalah Dinding) or "Wall magazine", too, as well as some sort of cabinet to hold the class property. Teacher's desk is to be covered by a table cloth and the class markers and erasers are to be placed there. When the markers are empty, the students are the ones to fill them.



Mading is basically a board-- honestly, they're just several cartons-- decorated by the students filled with... things. It can include drawings, poems, cut-out clippings, stories, photos, and mostly exists for class competition. You can bet that when they say "aesthetics" they're talking about these. Most of the times they're neglected, but I've seen several classes who do great jobs at maintaining it for the whole year, changing every month or so.

Your class is fixed for the whole year. You don't leave the class to attend different classes-- the teacher comes into yours. You only wish there's homeroom. Depending on the school and how religious they are, you might have a 30 minute period to read the Qur'an.

By junior high, you have two recess-- the first is a 15 minutes one, usually around 10 am, and the second is a 30-45 minutes around 12-1 pm. The second one exists solely for noon prayer.

Some schools are joined, like Junior high being combined with high school. You either see an Elementary + Junior high + High or a Junior high + High school combo. The reason is simple-- Elementary has 6 class. You either go all out or make a building big enough for 6 grades instead of 9.

A class depends on the school. Right now I'm attending a "private school", which is actually viewed as less than public schools. Back to topic, a private school can have as little as 15 students, while most public schools have up to 40. Public schools are viewed as better because it adheres to the national standards... kind of.

(Speaking of which, anyone interested in reading about the national test?)

Now that the literal part's done, let's get to the people stuff.

On the business of teacher-student relationship, we're taught that teachers are your second set of parents, and some took it literally-- I've seen a couple of students who actually stay over in the teacher's home when they have problems at home. Even if the students don't like the teacher, they will show basic manners. While they might talk about said teacher when they're not looking, the students will move out of the way or greet the teacher.

As for the students... Depending on class size as well as its contents, there could be a really well bonded class (like my 9th and 10th grade) or one where the social cliques really show themselves. Generally the smaller OR smarter the class, the more likely they'll be solid. Because logic.

I'm... really not one to talk about this, considering I'm basically an outcast, and a creepy one at that, but based on my observations, the class are really solid when it comes to cheating. (Sorry everyone. It's true and we know it.)  Answers from smart kids travel faster than a plane, spreading like the plague. I'd disclose how but I'm pretty sure most people already know. Aanyway that's all I could think of, so that wraps up this post. What a nice end note.