SMP Negeri 01 Talang

The education system in Indonesia in general is still focused on cognitive intelligence. It can be seen from the orientation of the schools are still busy with exams, ranging from mid exam, final exam to exam. Plus the exercises daily and homework to solve the question of textbooks that are usually not relevant to students' daily lives.

Time for policy makers, educators, parents and the community continues to enrich the perception that the measure of success is not exclusively seen from the figures on achievement. School institutions should be a place that always creates the experience of experiences for students to build and form the superior character.

Understanding Character Education

Understanding the character according to the Ministry of Education Language Centre is "innate, heart, soul, personality, character, behavior, personality, traits, character, temperament, character". The character is a personality, behavior, character, temper, and character ". According Tadkiroatun Musfiroh (UNY, 2008), the character refers to the set of attitudes (attitudes), behaviors (behaviors), motivation (motivations), and skills (skills). Character comes from the Greek word meaning "to mark" or mark and focus on how to apply the value of kindness in the form of action or behavior, so that people who are dishonest, cruel, greedy and other bad behavior saying bad character. Conversely, those whose behavior is in accordance with the moral code called noble character.

Concept Character Education

Noble character means the individual has knowledge of her potential, characterized by values ​​such as reflective, confident, rational, logical, critical, analytical, creative and innovative, independent, healthy, responsible, love science, patient, careful , self-sacrificing, courageous, trustworthy, honest, keeping promises, fair, humble, shy err, forgiving, soft-hearted, loyal, hard-working, diligent, tenacious / persistent, meticulous, initiative, positive thinking, discipline, anticipatory, initiative, visionary, humble, passionate, dynamic, efficient / inefficient, appreciate the time, dedication / dedikatif, self-control, productive, friendly, love of beauty (aesthetics), sportsmanship, resilient, open, orderly. Individuals also have the awareness to do better or superior, and individuals are also able to act on the potential and consciousness. Characteristics is a positive development as the realization of the individual (intellectual, emotional, social, ethical, and behavioral).

Individuals who are better or superior character is someone who tries to do the best thing for the Almighty God, themselves, others, the environment, state and nation and the international community at large to optimize the potential of (knowledge) itself and accompanied by consciousness, emotion and motivation ( feelings).

Character education is a system of cultivation of character values ​​to the school community, which includes knowledge, awareness or volition, and actions to implement those values. Character education can be defined as "the deliberate use of all dimensions of school life to foster optimal character development". In character education in schools, all of the components (education stakeholders) should be involved, including the components of education itself, ie the curriculum, learning and assessment, treatment or management subjects, school management, the implementation of the activities or co-curricular activities, empowerment infrastructure, financing, and working throughout the school ethos / environment. In addition, character education is understood as a citizen behavior in school education should be characterized.

According to David Elkind and Freddy Sweet Ph.D. (2004), character education is interpreted as follows: "character education is the deliberate effort to help people understand, care about, and act upon core ethical values. When we think about the kind of character we want for our children, it is clear that we want them to be Able to judge what is right, care deeply about what is right, and then do what they believe to be right, even in the face of pressure from without and temptation from within ".

Further explained that character education is that teachers do everything, that can affect the character of the students. Teacher helps form the character of students. This includes the example of how the behavior of the teacher, the teacher talk or submit material, how tolerant teacher, and various other related matters.

According to T. Ramli (2003), the essence and character education has the same meaning as moral education and moral education. The objective is to form children's personalities, to become good human beings, citizens, and good citizens. The criteria of good people, good citizens, and good citizens for a community or nation, in general is a certain social values, which are influenced by the culture of the community and nation. Therefore, the essence of character education in the context of education in Indonesia is the value of Education, the educational noble values ​​sourced from Indonesia's own national culture, in order to nurture young personality.

Character education rests of basic human character, which is sourced from the universal moral values ​​(absolute) derived from religion which is also referred to as the golden rule. Character education can have a definite goal, when the footing of the values ​​of the base character. According to the psychologist, some basic character values ​​are: love of God and His ciptaann (natural content), responsibility, honesty, respect and courtesy, compassion, caring, and cooperation, confidence, creativity, hard work, and never give up, justice and leadership; kind and humble, tolerant, peace-loving, unity and love. But others argue that the basic character of a human being consists of: trustworthy, respect and attention, caring, honesty, responsibility, citizenship, honesty, courage, perseverance, discipline, visionary, fair and have integrity. Implementation of character education in schools should build the basic character values, which then developed into values ​​more or higher (which is not an absolute or relative) in accordance with the needs, conditions, and the school itself.

Today many parties demanding increased the intensity and quality of the implementation of character education in formal educational institutions. The claim is based on a growing social phenomenon, namely the increase of juvenile delinquency in the community, such as the mass brawl and various other cases of moral decadence. Even in some large cities, these symptoms have been to the extent that very troubling. Therefore, the formal educational institutions as the official carrier of coaching youth is expected to increase its role in the formation of personality of students by increasing the intensity and quality of character education.

Based on the grand design that was developed Kemendiknas (2010), psychological and socio-cultural formation of character in individuals is a function of the entire potential of the human individual (cognitive, affective, conative, and psychomotor) in the context of socio-cultural interaction (in the family, school, and community ) and last a lifetime. Configuring the character in the context of the totality of the psychological and socio-cultural can be grouped under: Sports Heart (Spiritual and emotional development), Sports Thought (intellectual development), Sports, and Kinesthetic (Physical and kinestetic development), and Physical Sense and Karsa (Affective Creativity and development) that can be described as follows diagrammatic.

Kofigurasi Character

Experts have suggested various theories on moral education. According to Hersh, et. al. (1980), among the various theories developed, there are six theories are widely used, ie: a rational approach to the development, consideration approach, values ​​clarification approach, cognitive moral development approach, and the approach to social behavior. In contrast to the classification, Elias (1989) classifies the various theories developed into three, namely: a cognitive approach, the approach affective, and behavioral approaches. The classification is based on three elements of morality, which used to be the foundation of the study of psychology, namely: behavior, cognition, and affection.

Based on the above discussion it can be affirmed that character education is an effort that is designed and implemented in a systematic way to help students understand the values ​​of human behavior related to Almighty God, ourselves, our fellow human beings, the environment, and nationhood embodied in thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and actions based on religious norms, laws, manners, culture, and customs.