Recently we have heard, read or seen the news of student brawls that happen in Jakarta. There were two student brawls that happened in the end of this September. The first one was between the students from SMAN 6 Jakarta state school and SMAN 70 Jakarta state school which happened on September 24, 2012. They were armed with sharp weapons and stones. This incident was followed by a brawl between SMK Kartika Zeni vocational school and SMA Yayasan Karya 66 high school which happened 2 days after the first one occurred. Each of this phenomenon took a life of a student.
Based on the article that I read, the suspected killer from SMA Kartika Zeni vocational school with initial AD gave a shocking answer. When the Minister of Education and Culture, Muhammad Nuh, asked him whether he was satisfied with his act of murdering the victim, he answered with his eyes glisten, "I'm satisfied, sir." When M. Nuh asked him once more, he said that he was satisfied but he quite regretted it. His answer showed his hatred to the victim that he murdered.
According on the other article that I read, acts of violence involving students became more common when character education was integrated into the school curriculum. Thus, a question arises. Does the school teach them the right things? When I was in high school, I got my character education from the study of religion in school. However the study was just like other subjects. We mostly spent our times in class and learned about what was in the textbook. Only once in three years we had a retreat that, for me, was giving more contribution in building our character compared to the study we had in class. Therefore, the system of character education in school must be revisited and reevaluated.
Besides school, I think family has a more important role in character building because we started our lives in a family. Character building is a long process of learning, so it is important that it is started as early as possible in a family. Moreover, from my own experience, I get more of character education from my family, especially my mom. She listens to my stories and helps me learn about how to face different kinds of problems and different kinds of people that I found in my daily lives. She becomes a model for me in how to behave. She teaches me to love others rather than to hate, because hatred just brings pains to your own heart, but love brings peace to your heart. Unfortunately for AD, he seems to have so much hatred in his heart. Maybe this incident can be a lesson for parents to build the character of their child in the right way.
