the story of “malin kundang” and its implic toward

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2 nd International Seminar on Education 2017 Empowering Local Wisdom on Education for Global Issue Batusangkar, September 05-06-2017 397 THE STORY OF “MALIN KUNDANG” AND ITS IMPLICATION TOWARD CHARACTER BUILDING OF YOUNG LEARNER. Sahyoni [email protected] English Department, State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Batusangkar ABSTRACT Young learners are golden generation for future, those who will depart this nation into a good civilization and a well-educated era. To realize this hope, those young generations must have good character. Building good character ideally must be started in earlier age. One of the ways is by telling them folklore, or local story on this case is the story of MalinKundang. This kind of story tells more about value, norm, character and attitude later it gives moral value for young learner. As local people, it is a must for us to tell good story for young learner in order to build their good character. This paper discusses how to build good character for young learner through story of MalinKundang. The story of MalinKundang has been chosen as a medium to build young learner character since it is a local wisdom. In this complex era, the presence of character building for young learners is one of among major solution for this nation. Key words: character building, story of MalinKundang, young learner. INTRODUCTION owadays, it is widely accepted that character building for students should be introduced since early age. It is critical point that must be considered by citizenship in order to prepare future education. Character building is one of ways for people to get a civilized nation. Young learners as valuable assets of Indonesian ideally should have proper education in term cognitive (intelligence), psychomotor (willingness) and affective (moral and character). They must get good guidance from teacher and their parents for the development of their character. It goes without saying, long time agoIndonesian fathers founding have declared the important of character building for students. They believed that education is a part of human life; it is a medium for society to get better civilization. They believed that good civilization can be reached by having characterized people. The purpose of Indonesian education has clearly put foundation of character building which will drive our education to be a higher position. In term of Indonesian education, education is expected to produce well-educated people who can manage this country for better future. According to national education system No 20 year of 2003 education can be defined as a conscious and well-planned effort in creating a learning environment and learning process so that learners will be able to develop their full potential for acquiring spiritual and religious strengths, develop self-control, personality, intelligence, morals and noble character and skills that is needed for personal, for the community, for the nation. One of national education purpose is to develop students’ character. Students are demanded to have intelligence, skill, and noble character. Theoretically, most experts believed character building should be introduced since early age or young learner. Nowadays, one of argumentative reason is several massive problems occur in society such as: brawl by students, drugs N

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Page 1: THE STORY OF “MALIN KUNDANG” AND ITS IMPLIC TOWARD

2nd International Seminar on Education 2017Empowering Local Wisdom on Education for Global Issue

Batusangkar, September 05-06-2017

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THE STORY OF “MALIN KUNDANG” AND ITS IMPLICATIONTOWARD CHARACTER BUILDING OF YOUNG LEARNER.

Sahyoni

[email protected] Department, State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Batusangkar

ABSTRACT

Young learners are golden generation for future, those who will depart this nation into a goodcivilization and a well-educated era. To realize this hope, those young generations must have

good character. Building good character ideally must be started in earlier age. One of the waysis by telling them folklore, or local story on this case is the story of MalinKundang. This kind ofstory tells more about value, norm, character and attitude later it gives moral value for young

learner. As local people, it is a must for us to tell good story for young learner in order to buildtheir good character. This paper discusses how to build good character for young learner

through story of MalinKundang. The story of MalinKundang has been chosen as a medium tobuild young learner character since it is a local wisdom. In this complex era, the presence of

character building for young learners is one of among major solution for this nation.

Key words: character building, story of MalinKundang, young learner.

INTRODUCTION

owadays, it is widely accepted thatcharacter building for students should be

introduced since early age. It is critical pointthat must be considered by citizenship in orderto prepare future education. Character buildingis one of ways for people to get a civilizednation. Young learners as valuable assets ofIndonesian ideally should have propereducation in term cognitive (intelligence),psychomotor (willingness) and affective(moral and character). They must get goodguidance from teacher and their parents for thedevelopment of their character. It goes withoutsaying, long time agoIndonesian fathersfounding have declared the important ofcharacter building for students. They believedthat education is a part of human life; it is amedium for society to get better civilization.They believed that good civilization can bereached by having characterized people.

The purpose of Indonesian educationhas clearly put foundation of character

building which will drive our education to be ahigher position. In term of Indonesianeducation, education is expected to producewell-educated people who can manage thiscountry for better future. According to nationaleducation system No 20 year of 2003education can be defined as a conscious andwell-planned effort in creating a learningenvironment and learning process so thatlearners will be able to develop their fullpotential for acquiring spiritual and religiousstrengths, develop self-control, personality,intelligence, morals and noble character andskills that is needed for personal, for thecommunity, for the nation. One of nationaleducation purpose is to develop students’character. Students are demanded to haveintelligence, skill, and noble character.Theoretically, most experts believed characterbuilding should be introduced since early ageor young learner.

Nowadays, one of argumentativereason is several massive problems occur insociety such as: brawl by students, drugs

N

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abuse, sexual harassment, drink liquor,bullying and cheating. Ironically, this action islargely done by several students, peoplewhoare expected by society to be welleducated people in future. The need forcharacter building in education lies in the factthat a sustained process of teaching, beingshown examples of good character, andconstant by practicing what they learned is thethings needed to invest good character traitsforyoung learner. And since young learnersspend most of their time at home, it is theperfect place to teach moral values orcharacter in them. Parents as the closest peopleto the young learners might teach them how toact, speak, even the way they trait other peoplein good way. If it is done regularly thenbecomes habituation, unconsciously it fostersgood character for them. The reason forintroducing character building since early ageis to prepare the students to face manyopportunities and unknown dangers that are intoday's society. In the early age period, theyare in development phase. In this phase, theycan obtain the meaning and value quickly;record the message in their mind permanently.Character building gives the students theknowledge that they need to know whatsomething good and bad to do is.

There are several alternative ways ofintroducing character building for younglearner. One of them is by telling them a localstory which is familiar and full of moral value.As it is widely known, young leaners lovestory or folklore. They have good imagination;it is much easier for them to get the moralvalue if the parents tell them in simple way.Why should tell them local story? Perhaps thisquestion occurs in our mind, local story isfamiliar story and local story is local wisdom.In addition, local story is valuable assets foryoung generation. They can comprehenddeeply the implication of local story forcharacter building. Besides they can alsopreserve their culture from extinction.

LITERATURE REVIEW

a. Character building

The terms of character building is derivedfrom two words namely character and

building. Those terms have been echoed byIndonesian government several years ago.Character building becomes one of favoritetagline for national education. Indonesiangovernment hopes the students to be a skillful,smart and civilized personal. Generally,character can be defined as moral values,attitude, and habitual deals with someonepersonal. Character always sticks to oneperson, in this case a student. Theoretically,there are several theories of character by theexperts.

First of all, According to Oxforddictionary (2010:234) character is all qualitiesand features that make a person, group ofpeople and place different from others.Dealing with this concept, character is wholefeatures of one person that others do not have.Based on this theory, every human being hasdifferent typical of character. It means,character leads people have different attitude,point of view, and moral personally orcollectively. Second, almost similar withprevious theory Echols and Shadily(1993:107) highlight several terms that relatedto the character, like attitude, temperament andcharacter itself. This concept is not muchdifferent with previous one, character consistsof three basic elements namely attitude,temperament and character itself. Thoseelements are interconnected one to other thatshape people’s personality. Attitude deals withhow people act in their life and environment,temperament deals with how people viewsomething and what is their reaction, andcharacter tells how they different and uniqueto another.

In the second place, in more detail,Abidin (20120 assumes that character ispsychological characters of someone’s identitythat differentiates one person to another. Hewidely deals with character in term ofpsychology where it is unseen, not likeabstract concepts that can be touched.Character is inner personality of someone ashuman being that marks them personally. Noone has exact character even they are twins.Their character can be seen by viewing theirattitude, the way how they speak, their actionand how they treat people in their daily life.Commonly, someone who has good character

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tend to have good attitude, behavior andmoral. In contrary, someone who ismisbehaving, speaking sarcasm, and treatingpeople improperly tends to have badcharacteristic.

In the third place, Naim (2012:55)alleges character is a set of attitude, behavior,motivation and skill that people have.Character relates to people act in their society.How people do action, play their role andspeak one another commonly are reflection oftheir character. Based on this concept, peopleas a social citizenship must have good attitudein their life and environment. How they act insociety is dominantly influenced by theircharacter. Personal or individual as smallestpart of society should play his/her own roles inthe social life. Having good character in life iswhat makes people believe in another one andis essential both for individual success and forour society to function successfully. Eachindividual must do his or her part every day byliving a life of integrity. They should integratewhole qualities of their features in order tokeep their characteristic alive.

In short, character is a set of featuresthat consist of behavior, attitude, moral, thatmake a person different one another in asociety. Character takes important rules for aperson in his/ her life. It is most valuable thingpeople have and nobody can ever take away. Aperson’s character is shown by how they act,think, and feel in life. Character isn't one thing;it's the pattern a person demonstrates by howthey interact with others and how they treatthemselves.

In the fourth place, Parvez in Yaumi(2014:7) states there are several definitionsthat related to character as follows: (1).Character is something inside of someonepersonality. Character is the power of soul. (2).Character is manifestation of the truth ofpeople. (3) Character adopts kindness, where itagainst the violence. (4) Character has powertoward our personality itself. (5) Character is ahuman attitude toward their environment thatis expressed in an action. There are theremajor components of character such as moralknowing, moral feeling and moral action.Those components of good character can beseen completely in picture as follows:

Picture 1.Component of Good Character.

There are three basic components ofcharacter namely moral knowing, moralfeeling and moral action. Siswayanti(2013:227) explain thought, feeling andattitude is integrative components which shapestudents’ characteristics. Knowing the good(moral knowing), loving the good (moralfeeling) and doing the good (moral action) areentities that interconnect one another. Missingone connection means someone cannot belabelled as good character. In more detail,three above components can be explained asbelow:1) Moral knowing (Knowing the good) it

means young learner know bad and rightthing and know how to do good priorityaction. In this case, young learners arethought not only the good thing but alsowhy should do good thing.

2) Moral feelings (feeling the good) meansyoung learners should love somethinggood and hate something bad. Thisconcept evokes students’ feeling to feelthe effect of good thing. They are trainedto feel the effect of doing good action.Train them more and more till they feeldoing something good is a must in theirlife.

3) Moral action (doing the good) meansyoung learner able to do something goodin every moments and every activity. Thisfinal step, after they know somethinggood, feel something good, and last themust apply something good in their dailylife.

b. Roles of character building for younglearners

Character building is an effort todevelop people’s character and internalizesomething good for their moral. According to

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Harper Collin Dictionary character building isimproving certain good or useful traits in aperson's character, especially self-reliance, endurance, and courage. Dealing withthis definition, character building is conductedin order to develop or improve peoplecharacteristics. But, in education area,especially for young learner, the concept ofcharacter building is introduced earlier in orderto leads students to have good character sinceprimary age. It means, not to develop but tointroduce and guide them.

Character building is believed bymany people as a bridge for students to behumanism, civilized and well-educatedlearner. Since character building consists ofcomplete elements such as behavior, attitude,

motivation and moral. Need more process tobuild good character, it is not instant one.Building a good character means guidingsomeone to do something good which isaccepted by the social norm and develophis/her attitude to be humanism and civilizedsociety.

To emphasize, character building is away of introducing good character for learnerin their earlier age. Government, teacher andparents have their own responsibility forguiding the students. It needs more effort andpatient in order to build students’ character.

In line with character building forstudents, Reiner (2015) states several role ofcharacter building for learners as follows:

Table 1. Roles of Character BuildingNo Roles Explanation

1 Character buildingis the basis forpersonal growth.

As children practice skills that promote character development,they build a reservoir of strength that they can draw onthroughout their lives.

2 Character buildingis the foundationfor lifelonglearning.

Schools that teach character education report increasedacademic performance and attendance. They also reportdecreases in disciplinary problems. Children appreciate the safeenvironment that occurs when their peers are also learning aboutrespect, honesty, and compassion.

3 Character is thebedrock that solidrelationships arebuilt on.

Our children will be happier, more caring, more forgiving, andmore responsible as they are taught to think about the needs ofothers.Cooperation, tolerance, and teamwork are examples of socialskills that can be experienced firsthand when children are giventhe tools and opportunities.

4 Character shapes usas neighbors andcitizens.

Our character is a holistic language we daily communicate toothers. We constantly affect one another. Beyond our homes andschools, our children’s character will also affect all of us in theworkplace and in our communities as they grow to be ouremployees, neighbors, and leaders.

Character building is crucial point for younglearner. If they have good character,automatically they may drive our nation intobetter a civilization. Character plays essential

roles for human being started from smalldomain such personal up to broader domainlike nation. As human being, character is basicfoundation for people to face their own unique

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world. It is a kind of alarm that controls theirattitude in society. Since early age, parentshave taught their children to act in goodmanner. Then, character building is thefoundation for lifelong learning. It means, theywill act and do something based on their owntrack. Character will stick as long as their livespan. One of foundation to drive their life is byhaving good character. Then, characterbecomes concrete symbol that shapes ourpersonality, society and citizen. It indicatesgood nation can be traced by viewingcitizenships’ character.

c. Young Learner

1. Nature of Young LearnerIn general, young learner is students who

are at childhood period. Young learnersusually are fast learner. They can grasp thelesson quickly. There is a synonym for theterm of young learner that is early childhood.According to Kalendova (2008:14) Younglearners are supposed to be children from thefirst year of formal schooling (five or six yearsold) to eleven or twelve years of age. Shedivides young learner into two categoriesbased on their ages namely one to six year old,six to twelve years old. Young learners arestudents who at first year school period up to12 years old.

Then, Santrock (2007:41) definesyoung learner or early childhood as periodafter infant up to five or six years old. Usually,this period ends when they finish studying inkindergarten. Along this period the younglearners become more independent, ready togo to school. This period is golden age forlearners. It means, it is the exact time to shapetheir character and lead them to be goodlearner. Santrock limits the age for younglearner in six years old. The young learner inthis period can follow play group and evenkindergarten. Early childhood is a time oftremendous growth across all areas ofdevelopment. The dependent newborn growsinto a young person who can take care of hisor her own body and interact effectively withothers. For these reasons, the primarydevelopmental task of this stage is skilldevelopment.

Almost similar with Santrock’sopinion, UNESCO presumes early childhoodas a period from birth to 8 years old. A timesof remarkable brain development, these yearslay the foundation for subsequent learning(Berdekamp,1992). From those theories, itcould sum up, young learner is a student whoat early childhood from birth until 8 years old.Young learner is asset of a nation due to theywill drive this nation to be better in future.

2. Characteristics of Young Learner

It should be noted that, young learnershave own special characteristics thatdifferentiate from adult learners. Thiscondition should be known and understood bythe teacher in order to give contribution toimprove their quality of teaching and learningprocess. In relation to this argument, Halliwel(1992: 3-5) clarifies the characteristics ofchildren;

(1). Children are already very good ininterpreting meaning without necessarilyunderstanding the individual word. (2).Children already have great skill in usinglimited language creativity. (3). Childrenfrequently learn indirectly rather thandirectly. (4). Children take good pleasure infinding and creating fun in what they do.(5) Children have a ready imagination,children words are full of imagination andfantasy, and it is more than simply matterof enjoyment.

Drawing on Halliwel’s arguments,young learners or sometime called earlychildhood, are learners who have their ownimagination and perspective. They caninterpret the meaning or the content withoutunderstanding word by word directly. Theytend to grasp the meaning of something byquestioning several questions. In this age theyhave good memory. One of crucial points ischildren have good imagination aboutsomething. It indicates that they graspmeaning of something if they get enjoymentand pleasure. Telling them a story is asuggested way to build their imagination.

Besides, it can teach them how to dogood action and even teach them how to build

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good character. Since they have limitedlanguage exposure, they can obtain themeaning well if teacher or parents exposemore repetition on their language acquisition.In simple way, when teacher or parent tellingthem a story, it is widely suggested to usebody language and gesture so they get

meaning easily. Besides, intonation and mimicalso should be delivered in simple way that isunderstood well by them. Important to benoted, tell the story in fun and enjoy way.

To support statement above, Piaget(1952) classifies four stages of cognitivedevelopment as in table below:

Table 2. Stages of Cognitive Development

It could be assumed that children atthe sensorimotor stage are explorers. Theywant to see, hear, taste, and touch everythingaround them. They generally don’t appear tobe thinking about what they do. They try toexpose their curiosity during this period. Theytend to move around, grasp everything aroundthem. Around age two, children enter thepreoperational stage where they learn how tothink abstractly, understand symbolicconcepts, and use language in moresophisticated ways. During this stage ofcognitive development, children becomecurious and begin to ask questions abouteverything they see. They can imagine peopleor objects. This period is suitable way to teachthem something good. Training their languageskill such as asking them to communicate,

doing repetition and telling them a story aregood activity at this stage.

Then, by the time they are 7 years old,children can understand much more complexabstract concepts, such as time, space, andquantity. They can apply these concepts toconcrete situations, but they have troublethinking about them independently of thosesituations. Starting at around 11 years old,children become capable of more abstract,hypothetical, and theoretical reasoning. In thisperiod, commonly they are in elementaryschool. Their language ability develops step bystep. They start thinking more abstract whenview something.

No Stage Age range Description1 Sensorimotor Birth-2 years

oldCoordination of sense with motor response,sensory curiosity about the world.Language used for demands andcataloguing. Object permanence developed.

2 Pre-operational

2-7 years old Symbolic thinking where it uses of propersyntax and grammar to express fullconcepts. Imagination and intuition arestrong but complex abstract thought stilldifficult. Conversation developed much bythis period.

3 Concreteoperational

7-11 years old Concepts attached to concrete situation.Time, space and quantity are understoodthat can be applied but not as independentconcepts

4 Formaloperational

Over 11 yearsold

Theoretical, hypothetical and counterfactualthinking. Abstract is logic and reasoning.Strategy and planning become possible.Concepts learned in one context can beapplied to another.

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d. Local Story or folklore and The Story ofMalinKundang.

There are synonymous terms for storysuch as folklore or folktale. Those conceptsgenerally have same meaning. Story can beinterpreted as past event that told by peopleespecially elderly to the young generation.Some of the stories are factual and othersfiction. Essential point in a story is moralvalue of the story itself. Story in this paper is alocal story that has been told generation bygeneration. According to Mustakim (2005:53)local story is a story which is told orally fromgeneration to next generation. The story isanonymous, means unknown writer. Ithappened as it is naturally; elder generationsonly knew the story from another tellerwithout knowing who the first teller was. Longtime ago, story is effective way to teachchildren moral and character. Usually, olderpeople tell the story in their leisure time. Thelisteners are amused and later they got moralvalues.

It goes far deeper, Kiefer (2010:227)defines folktales as all forms of narrative,written or oral which have come to be handeddown through the years. All types of storysuch as legend, myth, fable and epic arefolktales. The keywordsof story areit isnarrative and it is handed down through theyears. Commonly, astory narrates someone orthing in several events and plot. Sound similarwith previous statement; Nhung (2016:1)devotes clearly the definition of folklore asfollows:

A folktale is a story, myth or legendforming part of an oral tradition, does nothave a single, identifiable author or writerand is or was passed down from onegeneration to the next. A folktale canchange over time, be reshaped bymodifications and was often changed witheach retelling. As a result, there can bevarious versions of the same folktale.

Dealing with above theory, local storyon this occasion is folktale, is anonymous oraltradition of one place. The story is told year byyear through their generation. No exact writerof folklore, even unwritten. Folklore or localstory, in some places, remains only artefacts as

witnesses. Since it is no written record,folklore tends to change over the time. Onemajor important thing is folklore can be amedium to build students’ character. Usually,there are some components in folklore; one ofthem is the actor-usually called character.Character, on this occasion is a person whodoes the action. The story teller inserts moralvalue in a story. The purpose is to lead thestudents to do something good.

By telling a story, parents can teachchildren character building and moral values.Suntana (2014:82) argues a story can teachchildren about humanity concepts in their soulsuch as fairness, love, faith, attitude,consistence, esthetic, and hate. Most ofIndonesian folktales are taken from local story.Usually it tells two contrary points of view-bad and good, honest and lie. As it is knowngenerally, telling bad and good thing is themost basic one character building. The goodaction will be done by people and bad one willbe discarded out. Bad action/thing can bepictured out as someone who is dishonest,impolite, cruel, misbehave, lazy and others badcharacteristics. In other hand, good charactercan be drawn as someone who is honest,polite, kind, hardworking, respect and othersgood characteristics.

Each province in Indonesia has itsown local story or folklore. The existence oflocal story is considered as local wisdom andassets that must be preserved by indigenouspeople. For several region or place, folkloremostly is believed as source of philosophy,guidance even tradition. To preserve it fromthe distinction, folklore is told generation bygeneration, older people told to youngerpeople, head of clan told to his community, theking told to his people. In the past decade,telling a good story to younger generation wastraditional media for teaching and buildingmoral value. It could be said it was aneffective media on that period.

The story of MalinKundang comefrom West Sumatera, especially known asMinagkabau land. As Minangkabaunese wholove local wisdom, the story of MalinKundangis told generation by generation to youngpeople. Most of Minangkabaunese have

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known the story of MalinKundang. This storyprovides much valuable lesson for characterbuilding. Writer believes this story is familiarlocal story for young learner. In specific, thisstory evokes character building for younglearner. The plot is simple, andunderstandable.

DISCUSSION

As it is mentioned above, characterbuilding is important thing for young learners.Without a doubt, one of the essences ofNational Education purpose of Indonesia is toprepare students to be a good citizenship forfuture. Many theories related to characterbuilding for young learner by experts, most ofthem believed that character building shouldbe started in the early age. As it is mentionedseveral times, young learners are goldengeneration for a nation. Much hopes areembedded on their hand, one of them is tobuild a civilized and well-educated nation.How the way? In general one is by introducingcharacter building in early age to them. Inmore detail, character building can be investedby telling them local story in this case, thestory of MalinKundang.

Our government has put the importantof character building in educationalcurriculum, particularly in kindergartencurriculum. In Indonesian kindergartencurriculum as stated in Dirjen PAUD 2012,there are four aspects that relate to thecharacter building such as: (a) spiritual aspect,(b) personality or personal aspect, (c) socialaspect and (d) environmental aspect. Inspecific explanation, there are several moralvalues that should be introduced andinternalized to the young learner for example:religious, honesty, discipline, tolerance,independent, helping each other, self-confidence, working together, politeness, andrespect, responsible, hardworking, leadership,creative, humble and love for nation.

It implies that, our government haspaid more attention on character building foryoung learner. Early age is believed the bestway to internalize and shape of students’character. Scott and Ytreber in Nhung(2016:2) explain that psychologist and

educator have emphasized vital roles of storyfor children’s development. Story especiallyfolklore or folktale provoke their imagination.Story can also stimulate their imaginationabout the world, allow them to visualize theworld surrounding them, understand the rightand wrong, what is accepted and rejected intheir cultural norm or tradition. By tellingstory to the young learners, teacher or parentscan internalize moral values, introduce localwisdom and keep tradition alive. Story hasmuch moral values such as: honesty,responsibility, hardworking, responsibility,braveness, politeness. All of those normalvalues are important for themin future life.

First of all, story can internalize moralvalues. The story of MalinKundanginternalizes several moral values that canshape students character building. There areseveral moral values of that related tocharacter building as follows:(1) Humble: humble is one of good characters

for people in their life. As in Indonesianculture, specifically in Minangkabaumeans down to earth and enjoy lifewithout having much complaint. It is goodcharacter for young learner sincenowadays much citizenship over acting intheir life style. Many people areconsumerism. Sometimes they tend toforce themselves on that condition; in factthey are unable to fulfill their life style.MalinKundang and his mother lived ashumble people. After listening the story ofMalinKundang, young learners areexpected to life humbly as MalinKundangdid.

(2) Hardworking. Hardworking is effort ofsomeone to get something by working ortrying more and more. Hard working alsomeans work with commitment seriousness.Based on the story, MalinKundang is ahardworker. He worked seriously day byday in order to change his life to be better.He worked in a ship, he worked seriouslyand full of commitment. After severalyears he finally got what he have expectedlong time ago. This story motivates younglearner to work harder in gettingsomething better in school even in theirfamily. Hard working leads young learner

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to get best achievement, such as havinggood score, passing examination andhaving permanent commitment.

(3) Religious. Religious is an action, state andmanner to faith and follow a religionorder. Someone who is religious, she/healways followsreligious order fully.MalinKundang and his mother arereligious people. They always conductIslamic religious orders. As Muslim theyconduct five daily prayers every day andfollow other religious orders. This type ofmoral values is the most primary one foryoung learners to build students’character. In Indonesian country, religiousis the basic foundation for people. Dealingwith this moral value, spiritual andreligion should be internalized in earlyage. The earlier they get religious valuesthe more effective for them.

(4) Loyal. Loyal means the condition or statewhere someone pays much faithful toanother. Loyal also deals with trust tosomeone. In other words, loyal meansgiving or showing firm and constantsupport or allegiance to a person. In thisstory, MalinKundang’s mother is loyalperson who always cares and gives faithfulto her son. Her loyalty had been testedyear by year since her son went to anotherplace till he visited the village. Loyalty isimportant character for students. Younglearners are introduced loyalty through thestory of MalinKundang. Young learnersshould be a loyal person which can trustand keep relationship alive to others.

(5) Love and care. The story ofMalinKundang implies two elementsrelates to a mother. Loving and caring aretwo characters that stick tightly in thestory. His mother always cares and loveshim since in early age until he grew up. Healways askedabout Malin’s news to peopleshe met. It indicates, his mother loves andcares him forever even MalinKundang hadnot accepted her as mother. For younglearners, love and care cannot be separatedfrom their life. They need people who careto them, love them in whatever theconditions.

(6) Don’t be arrogant person. Arrogant isopposite of friendly. Arrogant is badcharacter that must be discarded inneighborhood or society. someone whois arrogant behaves in aproud, unpleasant way towards otherpeople because they believe that they aremore important than others.In the story ofMalinKundang, his wife is arrogant. Shewas proud to her husband and prosperity.She underestimates others people inMalin’s village especially to her mother-in-law. Arrogance should be avoided byyoung learners since character leadsstudents’ behave proudly to themselvesand treat other students unpleasantly.Inmost religions, so is in Islam, arrogance isconsidered a spiritual disease simplybecause thinking that you are superiormeans that you claim that you are the onlyone responsible for your success and so,implicitly denying the role of God. Younglearners should know how to keep awayfrom arrogance in their early age. Usually,arrogant students tend to have a fewfriends in their life and neighborhood.

(7) Obedience. Obedience is an effort orwillingness to follow and do something. Infamily context, children should follow therule or order that is asked by their parents.In the story of MalinKundang, he ignoresseveral roles how to obey his mother. Inour culture, obedience is most valuablecharacter. Respect for elders is one of themost important in our traditional virtues.Since young, children have been taughtthat they should respect those older forexample our parents, grandparents,employers and teachers. We should givethem due respect because of their seniorityand years of experience. We can show ourrespect by greeting them, helping themaround and buying them gifts as tokens ofappreciation. By being polite and listeningto their viewpoints, we are also displayinga form of respect.

To sum up, young learner is goldengeneration for a nation. Young learner shouldhave proper education and character. To

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realize this expectation, young learner must beprepared by their parents, teacher and educatoras early as possible. Internalizing character toyoung learner is real action that should betaken government. One of the ways is bytelling a local story for young learner. Localstory has multiple functions for younglearners. In the first place is a medium forintroducing character building for younglearners.Character building can beninternalized by telling local story for younglearners. After they listening the story, parentsor teacher may ask them about who are thepeople on the story, how their attitude, whatthey do. The story of MalinKundang teachesus several valuable moral for young learners.These valuable moral are important for themto face and drive our golden generation better.

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