Day 5: Islamic Public Boarding School

I once had a roommate who went to a boarding school as a kid.  My only experiences with boarding schools was with kids who were poorly behaved and "sent away" to boarding school.  She didn't seem like a person who was a bad kid, but according to her, "everyone" out east went to boarding schools.

Today we visited a public Islamic boarding school in Jakarta.

Here's what I learned in Indonesia, the US also has public boarding schools!  Another teacher told me about that program in her state.  Again... just needed to travel 31 hours away from the US to know more about the US.  From the Islamic boarding school, I also learned:

• This boarding school accepts 150 kids into their program each year and is fully state covered.  
• Students get to go home twice a year - at the end of each semester
• They don't get to use cell phones at all.  They check them in at the beginning of the semester and then get them back at the end of the semester.  If they find a cell phone on a person, they destroy it.  They did say every year this policy becomes harder to enforce.  Sounds like a familiar theme.
• Students also don't get to use their laptops in their dorms - they can use their laptops during a designated time.
• Students are VERY segregated by gender.  It sounds like this is a self-inflicted segregation (using different stairways, sitting on separate sides of the classroom, and using different lunch areas).  It was a bit odd. 
• Much like the US, the teachers are very proud of their kids.  
• It was so much easier to talk to students here - maybe it was that they were more mature than the elementary school kids or maybe it was just that their English was better, but asking students about their school and their community was really easy.  I am hoping in our host community, we will be able to communicate with the kids as easily as we did here. 
• Families are not allowed in the school except for first year orientation and third year graduation.  Somewhat the opposite of the family involvement plan we have in the US. 
• Kids tested into this school and they only accept up to 10 kids from each middle school to try to get a variety of students.

Once again we were welcomed with two different dances.  I keep thinking how much my Grandma would LOVE all this music and dance.  Whenever I travel, she asks me "what's the dancing like?".  95% of the time it is the same club dancing as the US, but here I don't get a sense that there is a huge club scene.  There is a lot of ceremonial dancing though.

I cannot help but love these welcoming performances! How would your school welcome guests to your building? pic.twitter.com/wpJxV0V7r9

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 27, 2019

One more welcome dance to Indonesia! @FulbrightTeach pic.twitter.com/O8PWUxb6nQ

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 27, 2019

After the school visit we went back to the hotel and had a "pre-host visit meeting".   Leaving the cush-y life the the Shangri-La is going to be tough.  I am used to getting 6 bottles of water in my room every day and a gross amount of delicious food for breakfast and lunch.  I am excited to build some deeper connections at our host school in Padang.  

In the evening I traveled to a modern art museum with another teacher.  They had an Infinity Mirror Room by Yayoi Kusama there.  Eleanor tried to get us ticket to the exhibit in DC when I was there but it was sold out, so this was my first experience.