Bring Religious Sight into Classroom

Indonesia in its important month now. It is fasting month or known as Ramadhan. Students and teachers are doing fasting since dawn, around 4 o'clock in the morning till 18 in the afternoon.  This month is quite tough for students and teachers as the school runs as usual.

This Ramadhan is tougher as the final test falls during the fasting month. It becomes a piece of bad news for students. Another bad news is that after the test, the students are obliged to join religious activities issued by the provincial rules. The students should be in the classroom and get lessons from clerics. This rule is also new. The new governor makes this rule as a must in order to raise students' faith in Islam.

It is understood that clerics have a different way of teaching. They teach in a small group of students who are from different levels of knowledge and the main difference is that clerics teach without a formal test. When clerics come to teach in the classroom, it may bring a bit chaotic classroom atmosphere.

On the contrary with the worrisome above, it is good news when clerics come to the classroom to teach. The clerics will see that the students believe that Neil Amstrong landed on the moon. Meanwhile, the clerics will oppose and argue that it is not true that humans landed on the moon. These two different points of view will meet in the classroom. The rigidity of clerics towards science and technology including art hopefully reducing.

Some clerics believe that it is a sin to put photographs of a human. The reason is any photograph or things that resemble human should not be displayed as only Allah (God) who can do that.

Orthodox points of view meet secularism may bring understanding for both the clerics who teach in the classroom and the students who receive different angle of science.