Factors that Influence Characters of a Child

Characters are important and fundamental things to have for children to determine their success. Actually, what is character itself? According to Kemendiknas (2010), “karakter adalah watak, tabiat, akhlak, atau kepribadian seseorang yang terbentuk dari hasil internalisasi berbagai kebajikan yang diyakini dan digunakan sebagai landasan untuk cara pandang, berfikir, bersikap, dan bertindak.” Currently, if we look around our surroundings, we’ll find our teenagers have already out of line. There are lots of juvenile delinquencies around us such as violence, fighting, theft which are done by students.  Do they have a good character? I don’t think so. So, what is the best characteristic of teenager who has good character? Tolerances, discipline, hard worker, democratic, honest and creative are some examples of good characters that they have to have. In order to have those characters, they must be educated in a precise and correct ways because the process to get the characters is not short but it takes times through the education process which is taught seriously, earnestly, consistently, and creatively starting from the smallest unit in the family to formal education. The important thing is that we have to start the process of characters building since golden age (around 4 years old). Basically, there are two factors that influence the characters of children; family circumstance and formal education.

Let me start with family circumstance. In this case, the role of parents is really important. They have to be perfect model to their children. Don’t forget that the children are really good imitator so that the parents have to be very careful if they want to do something. Do you know ayah Adi and dika? Pepsodent commercial! Ayah Adi wants Dika to have good behavior by brushing his teeth regularly and then he also do the same as a model to show Dika that he also brush his teeth regularly. Another example, ok now let’s take a look at your childhood. Have you ever experienced when you saw your parents did something and you really wanted to follow what they did like giving money to poor people or to someone who was singing in front of you house. I’m sure you have. Furthermore, it’s important to realize that the children will learn anything including characters through parenting style. The parenting style itself will affect the character of the children.  According to Hurlock, hardy, and Heyse, there are three kinds of parenting style; authoritarian, democratic, and permissive. In authoritarian parenting style, parents have strict rules which must be followed but they don’t explain the reason behind the rules. They offer no choices at all to their children (Just follow my instruction or I’ll punish you). On the other hand, democratic parenting style is really better than authoritarian parenting style since both parents and children work together to make decision.  The role of parents is flexible. Parents allow their children to do what they want but still under the guidance of the parents. Then, permissive parenting style, the children are totally free to do whatever they want and there is neither guidance nor control from their parents.

Now, I’m going to talk about formal education. School gives big influence to the characters of children in the future as William Bennett (1991) said. As we know, school is an effective place to internalize characters to the children because it’s second home for our children to spend their time. The fact is that most of our schools are more oriented to educate hard skill (IQ) than soft skill (EQ). It happens because most teachers think that students who have the best competencies are those that get high results in a test and they will be success in the future. Actually, Person’s success is not only determined by the knowledge and technical skills (hard skills) that they have, but also the ability to manage themselves and others (soft skills). In this case, who must change the mindset? The agent of change “TEACHER”. Another factor that influences students’ characters at school is teacher. Teachers have some roles. The teachers become both educator and model at the same time. The important thing is the teachers have to know and have the characters itself. How she can educate the characters if she neither understands nor have it. According to Munif Chatib, there are there kind of teacher. First is robot teacher or “guru robot”. Teachers work just like a robot. They just come in, teach, and go home. They have no concern for students' difficulties in accepting the material. Second is materialist teacher or “guru materialis”. Teachers always do the calculations, similar to buying and selling a business activity. They just only pay attention to their right. They only do their 'OBLIGATION' depend on the ‘RIGHT’ for which they receive. The last is human teacher or “gurunya manusia”. Teachers have sincerity in terms of teaching and learning. The teacher believes that the goal of his job is to make the students understand the material. The teachers won’t stop learning because they are aware that the profession is a creature that should not stop to learn.

One last thought, no one can deny that characters are substantial aspects in someone’s life. Strong character will form strong mental. So, it’s really needed by our children to face their bright future. In fact, they have already had their own character since birth, but both parents and teacher have crucial roles in order to help them to develop their character to be better.