the first day of school

there is nothing like the excitement of the first day of school each year! a day out of time...and today was the day that the balinese children began the new school year after their month of summer vacation. i happen to be traveling to the next city on the back of a motorbike so i was able to get the whole array of seeing them all off to school.

it started when i arrived at ketuts house at 6:30 and he was just ushering his kids out of the complex onto his motorbike to drop them off 3 minutes away at school. his daughter started second grade and was unrecognizable underneath the uniform she was wearing! i had know her as a very exotic beautiful little balinese girl that was always busy being feminine. and here she was with a burgundy and white baseball cap on her head and her long sensuous layered hair was pulled into two pigtails with the mandatory burgundy ribbon on them, a knee length burgundy a- line skirt with a black belt and a white button down short sleeved shirt, white socks to mid calf and, ah yes....the brand new black shiny patent leather flats with a black bow that she bought for the new school year! where were her thin delicate long balinese feet that had run barefoot or in flip flops all day? and those poor toes, closed up inside the slightly too large firm brand new shoes as she clumsily learned to walk in them. her older brother, maybe 10 years old, was dressed exactly the same, but with burgundy knee length shorts. each had their backpack on them (yes, pink for the girl, as most all the girls choose , not mandatory color) and how could i forget...each wearing a burgundy tie!

i drove off with their mother who was wearing a snow parka,gloves, and socks and mask for smog and helmet as we drove along the main east west road of bali over to the big city an hour away. i was grateful that we left so early so that i could watch all the kids walking along the sides of the narrow road to school today. even the high school kids wear the same uniform, just in grey and white instead of burgundy, and the pigtails are changed to ponytails in high school and get a red and white ribbon, and no cap. i wondered what the impact was on an entire country of school kids when this mandatory "serious" dress (belts, tie, button down collar, shoes) is worn...how does it influence their individuality? their sexuality? their attitude to studying? to the opposite sex? competition? body image?

as we passed one village after another of children walking happily to school, chatting, laughing, some carrying a little bucket, which meant they would be doing some civic service work with it, like carrying stones for fixing the street, etc, others with their little palm stick broom for their lesson in sweeping, others with a bamboo woven funnel shaped strainer for rice, which is used as a means of discipline (learn to bring it everyday and carry it and if you are naughty,,,you stand with it on your head in front of the class!) i wondered about the principles that were being instilled in them. is it just old fashioned male dominated superiority controlled, or is it a means of instilling a serious attitude to work and learning and school and unity.

we passed a group of kids wearing blue and white sports clothing (shorts and t-shirt for both sexes) and i laughed that the excuse that " i forgot to bring my gym shoes today" doesn't work here, since you are dressed like that for the entire day, or sent home to get dressed! i tried to understand how the families can pay for all of these uniforms, and shoes!? (i don't even think there is a "shoe store" in this entire village, since they all wear flip flops all day which are sold at every single kiosk). i asked the staff here, and they said that they put money away everyday so that they can buy this at the beginning of the year. what?! you have such discipline, when sometimes you don't even have enough money for basics? and they told me that they send the kids to school with 2,000 rupias (8,000 = $1) and that is enough for them to buy a little snack at school for recess and the rest the children put in a little piggy bank that they each have in class, and that they keep track of how much they have saved up in order to buy the school items for the coming year!

it all sounds so well thought out in order to instill such good habits, and obedience. it is very obvious that the respect for elders, including teachers, is top priority here (possibly a tangent from the caste system). and all the children i spoke with were happy to be going back to school and had no desire for a longer vacation. mitha said that she had a few new children in her class of 40 since each time a child can advance to the higher level of his grade if he makes an effort in all of the studies...she is at the A level for her grade, while there are also B and C for the children that do not make an effort to be clever. i also wondered how that influences the childrens' self esteem, and also the ability of the teachers to pace how they teach a group of kids all at the same level...

i have been trying to figure out also what happens to the ego, and self will? it just doesn't seem to exist here, and i know it must. and whether it has just been suppressed by the hinduism, the education, the patriarchal society (even though it is clear to one and all that the woman is the power house here!), OR that they have been taught from birth that community, friendship, unity, consensus, loyalty, family, clan, village, nation, god, is the source for a happy healthy meaningful life and that self will and ego are our "lower" shadow side and need to be recognized internally but not allowed to be expressed externally, thus using the always present "smile" to cover all emotions and to allow them to pass eventually without having done damage to ourselves or others along the way.

and on a lighter note....no matter what time it was when i passed all the schools along the way in early in the morning or on my way back at 11, all the kids were standing in the courtyard having a nice time playing with each others hair or talking, while the teachers and the system got ready for the beginning of the new school year.