Green School. Nama sekolah di Bali yang sudah cukup lama terdengar. Telinga rasanya berdenging mendengar nama sekolah berbahan dasar bambu kelas super, yang didirikan oleh para kreator pendidikan berwarganegaraan asing. Rasa ingin tahu akan segera berganti decak kagum kala kaki melangkah menuju sekolah yang curam terbenam di antara kenampakan alam dan buatan nan permai.
Galeri sekolah terhampar. Berkelok, menyeberang jembatan berkaki kali penuh bebatuan besar. Aroma orisinalitas, integritas segera merebak. Makin lengkap, saat kami disuguhi minuman segar. Air kelapa diperasi jeruk nipis. Gelas dari kayu kelapa dan sedotan dari batang sereh, mematenkan komitmen: Go Green!
Tak ditemukan sedikit pun bahan plastik. Keindahan ini muncul dari ide dan kreasi para bule yang tampak sangat sungguh sungguh menjalani hari-hari mereka, di tengah sepi alam raya milik kita. Green School, seperti dituliskan Gretel Hunnerup, dalam majalah in flight magazine Mandala, adalah seumpama ‘class in the grass’. Green School, sebuah masterpiece.
Sekolah ini benar-benar sekolah internasional, mungkin dapat disejajarkan dengan Summerhill di Suffolk, Inggris. Berlokasi di Ubud di alam sekitar 8 hektar, programnya untuk anak usia pra sekolah hingga kelas 9. Ada 118 siswa dari 20 negara. Segera akan membuka kelas 11 dan 12 di tahun 2012 mendatang. Sejumlah 20% siswa adalah anak-anak Indonesia dengan beasiswa. Tingkat SMP menggunakan kurikulum Cambridge.
Ruang kelas dilengkapi toilet kompos, dengan fermentasi menghasilkan biogas untuk menyalakan kompor-kompor dapur kampus. Tak tampak kotak makan siang, mereka makan masakah olahan dari hasil panen kebun sekolah.
Tak ada ayunan berwarna-warni layaknya di kebanyakan sekolah. permen. Siswa memanfaatkan waktu senggang dengan merawat kambing piaraan dan berlatih seni perang Bali - mepantingan. Sekitar 35 penduduk setempat terlibat bekerja di sini, dan sekolah memberikan kontribusi berupa pengelolaan air serta penanaman bambu.
Adalah John Hardy, lulusan Akademi Sastra Kanada yang tiba di Bali tahun 70-an, menggagas sekolah ini. Visi Green School ingin menyatukan siswa dengan lingkungan, menanamkan tanggungjawab pada bumi, serta memberi inspirasi untuk menghadapi abad mendatang yang penuh dengan ketidakpastian.
Menurut John Hardy, siswa diharapkan kelak trampil melakukan apapun yang perlu guna melestarikan planet bumi. Jika nanti menjadi seorang bankir, akan menjadi bankir yang hijau dan berjuang bagi masyarakat.
Di sana, siswa diminta ikut berbagai projek lingkungan, seperti membuat penampungan air di tanah, merancang bangunan yang hemat energi. dari bahan tahan lama. Semua pelajaran ini adalah tambahan selain bidang studi inti.
Suatu waktu, kita dapat menyaksikan gadis-gadis kecil bernyanyi sembari melemparkan makanan ke sekumpulan ayam peliharaan. Layaknya sekolah alam, di Green School juga ada rayap yang menggerogoti kayu-bambu bangunan sekolah, serangga yang menggigiti lengan, serta hujan lebat yang membuat kelas basah kuyup. Ada pula siswa yang perlu penyesuaian akibat perbedaan budaya dan iklim.
Menurut seorang guru, saat ini sekolah sedang dihadapkan pada tantangan, yakni keingintahuan siswa yang muncul terlalu cepat!
Saat mendengar penjelasan mereka tentang proses belajar, membuat kami, para peserta Leadership Forum ANPS (yang saat itu berkesempatan berkunjung), liar berfikir tentang sebuah keniscayaan. Mengembalikan kesadaran akan keseimbangan kehidupan melalui proses edukasi.
Ingin lebi memahami Green School, berikutnya Teachers Guide layangkan wawancara tertulis melalui dunia maya. Sengaja kami kutipkan aslinya, agar pembaca dapat merasakan feel sekolah ini. Berikut petikan pendapat Ronald Stones OBE, Director of The Green School Project:
What is the message that Green School actually wants to bring to the public?
Teaching and learning are in inspiringly beautiful structures made of bamboo. There are no walls, no doors. We are open to nature and the environment. We are going back to basics – not depending on air-conditioning, minimal use of electrical power, re-using and re-cycling… What we hope our students will take away is green habits that will be with them for life.
Coming to school at Green School is a learning adventure. And we move learning around – in different spaces in large classrooms (at bamboo desks, or on mats on the floor), or in gardens, or in a bubble (a soft cotton-canvas which can be inflated with a small electric fan), or in a yurt, or in a man-made mud-walled cave…
We are showing how all learning does not have to be in enclosed spaces without distractions. We believe that creative juices flow better when there are distractions.
What is your comment, specifically about Education in Indonesia?
Many schools in Indonesia have developed or are in the process of developing green aspects to their education on offer beyond the classroom.
The difference in Green School is that the green approaches are part of what goes on in the classroom and in the curriculum.
We are Indonesian, not just Balinese admiring the Green School Founders’ idea. What stage of education do you actually wish to achieve?
We are aiming for Green School to be the #1 Model in the world. Then we can help others to move towards the model.
Our oldest students are currently Grade 9. We will progress the age range until we are a Pre K to Grade 12 school, offering Cambridge International Courses leading to IGCSE, then Internationale Baccalaureate courses leading to university admission.
All citizens in this school are very friendly to the environment. Are there any guarantees that all teachers, staff and students will apply such patterns outside the school environment?
What we hope our students will take away is green habits that will be with them for life.
Are all the teachers from overseas? If not, then what are the differences in comparison to intelligences and knowledge? What is your opinion of ‘out of the box ideas’ and working spirit?
Our teachers are international and local. They are committed to the mission of ‘Delivering a generation of global citizens who are knowledgeable about and inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world’.
We are an international school with an international and local enrolment. It is important that our students work towards and achieve international standard. Our methodology is engaging students in their learning; ‘learning by doing’ is not just our tag line, it is a belief system at Green School.
Teaching and learning in this environment in these amazing bamboo structures IS out of the box. There are many natural distractions, and creative thinking is fuelled by distractions.
Do you wish to duplicate this concept in other places?
We are aiming for Green School to be the #1 model in the world. Then we can help others to move towards the model. That does not mean that other green schools have to be in bamboo structures in the jungle, but parts of what we are doing can be replicated or adjusted according to the local environmental circumstances and/or restrictions.
Are you familiar that in Jakarta and other places there are also several nature schools? What is your comment?
We are pleased to see that education is moving in this direction.
All this bamboo is from Indonesia. What kind of sense of belonging do the teachers that comes from overseas have to public education in Indonesia?
Green School has an international licence; our teachers are not teaching in public education. However, we welcome visits of teachers from public education to see what we are doing and how we are doing it. TG
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