The Foreign Service Journal, January 2008

president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoy- ono, in May 2005. Altogether, school- children in the United States and those connected to the Jakarta Inter- national School contributed about $300,000. Subsequently, major corporations led by Newmont Mining AIG, Exxon- Mobil and Boeing, as well as the char- itable arms of Bank Indonesia and Bank Danamon in Jakarta, provided over $2 million. JIS trained the prin- cipals and librarians and provided engineers to monitor construction. IBM has given computers and train- ing. Many other companies and indi- viduals have also provided funds and much-needed equipment. Thus, bit by bit, the package came together. And so did the school, slow- ly, in fits and starts, just like the world around it. Ideas into Reality The central players (Pak Ramang and I are the only non-Acehnese) have been a team for nearly three years now — again an advantage that other pro- jects in Aceh have not always had. As project coordinator, I became a com- muter — making 16 round trips in 34 months. The effort involved honchoing design and construction, facilitating the requirements for turning empty space into a truly exemplary school, and coor- dinating the myriad details that go into the complicated partnerships that are making it possible. We held discussions about how space affects learning and fosters pos- itive change and, therefore, what we needed to build: larger, more flexible, light and airy classrooms in safe build- ings with multiple exits that can with- stand earthquakes. And because they are two-story structures, these build- ings provide neighborhood safe havens should there be — God forbid — another tsunami. The design also includes a func- tioning library, where students can actually use books (not the traditional textbook storage room) and are encouraged to do independent re- search; a computer/language lab; and science labs. The entire school will have Internet connectivity and, at the neighborhood leaders’ request, a com- munity center that can be used for adult education after hours. Large, low windows were the biggest point of contention (the small windows in traditional classrooms are above students’ seated height). “The students will fall out.” “They will fight and break them.” “If they can see out, they will not pay attention to the teacher.” At last, truth: “Well, in that case, we will just have to have better teachers.” Pak Jalaluddin and his design team from the university engi- neering department translated these ideas into working designs and, ulti- mately, into a cluster of lovely build- ings that are an elegant simplification of Acehnese traditional architecture. Meanwhile, ongoing discussions with the university’s College of Edu- cation and Training and the provincial and local education departments focused on how the school should operate so that it fits within the nation- al education system, yet at the same time retains the special status that will allow it to be truly transformative and innovative in a system that often is not. A yayasan (managing foundation) was formed, mainly from the universi- ty community and provincial and city education department representatives, but with USINDO, the Sampoerna Foundation and the Jakarta Inter- national School as members, as well. The university named a principal, Ibu Syarifah, and a vice principal, Pak Nasir, both well-qualified, delightful, thoughtful and committed people. They have been central to the plan- ning. The school advisory committee decided that all of the teachers should be young, so that they would not be locked into old ways of teaching. Of 200 applicants for teaching positions, 13 were chosen. In June 2007, 102 students were chosen out of 650 appli- cants for the first class of 10th-graders. Sixty come from the immediately sur- rounding neighborhood to keep it a truly community-based school, serving an area that had been badly damaged and dislocated in the tsunami and the previous troubles. Rather than taking only the bright- est test takers from all over the city, the students were chosen for their range of abilities and backgrounds. The school motto is “Everyone can learn.” J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 55 Students at their lockers between class — lockers are not the norm in Indonesian schools, nor are large trash bins (so that students can be responsi- ble for keeping the school picked up) or the habit of asking questions. Margaret Sullivan