(updated from the previous entry)..If you think communication is easy, read this..

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/05/13/educating-children-timika-no-easy-task.html

This article is talking about the difficulties faced in getting the local children to attend school, even though the school is fully subsidized by the government. Instead, the children are still clinging to their old ways and thus have ignored the government’s efforts.

It has been years since native Papua has not attending school to pursuing a standard education, but in the other hand they are frequently companying their parents hunting goods to help their family’s earnings by selling the goods they have found. As human, we select stimuli based on specific qualities to process the information that we get through frequency, contrast, intensity, and novel stimuli. Searching for some recycled goods has been a routine habit that has been influenced through their upbringings, routine that has been transferred from the adults, and the surrounding circumstances. The major influences have shaped the local children perception regarding their education, which has been an opposite issue for the big cities children where they are already being taught since they are young to pursuit an education as high as they can.

The local children’s routine has been shaped through their frequency and surrounding environment. However these factors have shaped the local children’s perception towards education contradicting with the government efforts to help them in education.  The new stimuli about education that is purposed by government does not interest them since the children is still prefer to cling to their old ways. The children do not prefer to achieve the education, which actually can help their family’s earnings better in the future, instead they still doing their old habit since they think helping out the parents is more essential than studying. 

This circumstance is considered as psychological perspective where individuals create the communication, since the local children still have the point of view towards education as they have been shaped. Although government has already subsidized the education, neither the local children nor the local adults can understand and set their point of view towards education as same as the government’s. In this case, the government has not been able to achieve the basic purpose of the effort; as the local children are still cling around with their old habit.

Francis Bacon analyses in the modern period are applied in this situation, which are idols of tribe and idols of cave. The idol of tribe is applied for the reason that government has rushed to conclude that they will achieve the wishful thinking to change the human cultural habit. In the other hand, the idol of cave is applied since the native children are still attaching to the frequent routine that is difficult to change.

Generally to change a basic routine that already being considered as a culture is indeed not an easy task, not even for a very powerful party as government. Nonetheless communication towards people from different backgrounds and culture is not as easy as people thought. But then I do not say that it is an impossible to be accomplished. It indeed needs a long period to make the people there understand about what are benefits of having proper education.  However it indeed need to have a special way to make them understand thus the people can start looking the education in a higher perspective that will give a better condition in the future.

Therefore, do you still think that communication is as easy as you thought before? Does the powerful government can change people in a short time period?