Traditional Roof at West Sumatra
Where do we get our moral lesson? We got it from our parents, social environments, school, and also from stories. Nowadays, children get moral lesson at public school only from religious subject. School did not provide moral lesson from another subject so children can’t get moral lesson from another perspective. It is really sad, because for me, moral lesson more important than another subject because it helps children to learn about manners, empathy, mutual help, preventing violence, and many more. When Children know about moral, they can have strong character to help them in the future. For parents, what can we do for our children? Let’s remember about Indonesian Tale.
Indonesia has a lot of tale like folklores, urban legends, myths, and many more from various regions. Children can get a lot of information from tale that their read. Another benefit that children can get from reading tales is moral lesson. In the end of every Indonesian tale has moral lesson that we can learn.
One of my favorite folklore is about Malin Kundang from West Sumatra. The story is about ungrateful son. Once upon a time, in a remote village on the coast of West Sumatra, there was a family of fishermen. Due to poor financial condition of the family, the father decided to make a living in the country by wading across a vast ocean. Malin’s father never returned to his home so that his mother had to replace the position of her husband to make a living. Malin felt sorry for his mother who worked hard to earn a living to raise them. So he decided to go wander in order to become rich after returning home later. After becoming rich, Malin Kundang married a girl to be his wife. When he returns to his village, he didn’t want to recognize his mother because he feel ashamed to his wife. His mother feel sad and angry cursed Malin to a rock.
The folklore has moral story to always respect the elders. Malin Kundang story has tell us that our mother’s prayer about her children is always granted by God. So love and cherish our mother. Another lesson that I learn is do not forget where you are from. It helps you to respect yourself and feel blessed about what we have today. The last lesson that I learn is wealth not going with us when we die, so don’t be arrogant in this world.
* Child Development Theory from Lifespan Development, 12th edition (Santrock)
** This post is submission for English Friday Challange
*** Feel free to be grammar Nazi 🙂
Cokelat dan Hujan 