The Inculcation of Religious Humanist Values to Build the
Elementary School Students’ Character
Heny Perbowosari
Dharma Acarya Faculty, Hindu Dharma State Institute Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Keywords: Religious Humanist Education.
Abstract: This religious humanist education is crucial to be applied since the teachers’ behaviors become the main
attention in the learning process. This religious humanist education is a learning process, which contains
basic values of humanity and religion to reach the successfulness in building the characters of the students.
The aim of this study was describing the inculcation of religious humanist values in building the
characteristics of students, which is supported by all of the school members in its application. The subjects
of this study are the headmaster, teachers, school officers and the students’ parents. The results of the study
are: 1) methods of inculcating the religious humanist values emphasized more on the method which is based
on the teachings of Catur Paramita, which consists of Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, and Upeksa, where, this
teaching, emphasizes the aspect of love, sympathy, and empathy that instilled in students, so it becomes a
habit 2) the effect of the implementation of religious humanist values in building the students’
characteristics were; the increasing of sradha and bhakti, the growth of toleration among students, (Tat
Twam Asi) and 3) the support of all school members and the students’ parents who took the responsibility
to invest the values of religious humanist both in school environment and at home as well.
1 INTRODUCTION
In its application, education should be able to run the
learning process, which is based on the four pillars
of learning such as; learning to know, learning to do,
learning to be and learning to live together. With
those pillars it is expected that education will be able
to actualize, the human resources who are mastered
the technology, faith and piety.
Education is not merely transferring the
knowledge from teachers to students, it is also
important to transfer the values to the learners.
Furthermore, education is also aimed to develop the
creativity and the potential of the learners to go
through their lives.
In the reality, in the practice of dehumanization
is still can be found in the learning process, it can be
seen from the learners themselves, it seems that they
only have knowledge so they bully the others.
Moreover, love, honesty, togetherness and the other
fundamental values seem begin to vanish in the
educational world. The decrease of humanity and
religious feeling in the youth generations make them
lost their self-identity and social awareness.
Therefore, in order to make this does not happen
sustainably in the world of education, there needs to
be a planting of religious humanist values in schools.
This is in line with a research conducted by
Jumarudin (2014), which emphasizes the
development of a model of religious humanist
learning in primary school, where it is said that this
religious humanist education is a process of teaching
and learning in the classroom, which contains the
basic values of humanity and religion to achieve
success in character formation. In addition, the
religious humanist is a blend of religious concepts,
which puts human in their position as a human being
and is accountable to God (Mumpuniarti, 2010).
If we consider the condition at this time, the
learning process of Hindu religious education still
prioritizes the cognitive completeness of the students
only, whereas, in the change of attitude and
behavior, there are still students who are often
ignored by the teacher. In addition, current
educational practices tend to be traditional
education, such as authoritarian teachers, more
emphasis on textbooks, students only as recipients of
information, and an unpleasant learning atmosphere.
Such circumstances also a concern of David (2015),
stating that religious education materials must
584
Perbowosari, H.
The Inculcation of Religious Humanist Values to Build the Elementary School Students’ Character.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 584-588
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

undergo a transformation which leads to humanist
values) the inculcation of religious humanist values
is important to do especially for the elementary
students through Hinduism education. The role of
Hinduism education is define the character building
of the students, thus the education of Hinduism is
not only transferring knowledge but more on
transferring values. Furthermore, in the government
rules namely permendiknas no 22 Tahun 2006 states
that the religion education is expected to be able to
produce the humans who always try to improve their
faith, believe and having good attitude, aptitude or
moral as the reflection of the education.
The religious humanist values should be taught
in religion education, thus Hindu has religious
humanist values. Not only Hindu education but also
all lessons at school have their own values. The
inculcation of these values from elementary level is
expected that the students can possess the character
that able to humanize humans and having good
attitude.
Based on the explanation above, the problem
solving are needed for : 1) the implementation of
Catur Paramita in the inculcation of religious
humanist values in Elementary School, 2) the effect
of the implementation of religious humanist values
which are invested in the elementary schools, 3)the
support of the school members towards the
implementation of those values at school.
2 METHODS
This research used qualitative approach, which more
emphasized on the analysis rather than deductive
and inductive concluding process; it also considered
the analysis of the dynamic relationship amid the
phenomena, which were observed through scientific
approach. The research was conducted at SD Bali
Public School Denpasar. The object of this study
was the inculcation of religious humanist values of
Hindu in SD Bali Public School Denpasar. The
technique of data collection including: (a)
observation, (b) interview, (c) documentation study.
The type of data analysis used the qualitative data
analysis was done directly and continuously to reach
the stage such as data reduction, data analysis and
data verification.
3 FINDING AND DISCUSSION
3.1 The Implementation of Catur
Paramita in the Inculcation of
Religious Humanist value in the
Students of Elementary School
The aim of humanist education is to humanize the
young generation to grow their potential holistically
and to help them to be the individual, which have
willingness to improve himself or herself. The
principals in humanist education consist of: teachers
as learning mates, students as the learning center,
focus on the students’ engagement and activities,
students learn from the experience and build the
discipline cooperatively and dialogically.
A humanist educator always opens the spacious
freedom for each individual to build her/himself
based on his/her purpose. The purpose of religious
education is to increase the moral, train and increase
the spirit, respect the values of spiritual and
humanity, educate the learners how to be honest and
prepare the learners to live a humble life
(Zamakhsyari, 1994)
Religious humanist education begins from the
teachers to their learners thus the practice of
education is directing, independenting, and
empowering the learners as the creature who are in
horizontal and vertical dimension. Religious
humanist education focus on the values of humanity
in every understanding and religious life experiences
(Adhiatera, 2008).
The inculcation of religious humanist values
becomes something prominent in SD Bali Public
School. This can be seen from the implementation of
Catur Paramita in the learning process. Catur
Paramita comes from the Sanskrit language; Catur
means four, Paramita means main attitude. Catur
Patamita means four main attitudes, which become
the base to act in Hinduism. The parts of Catur
Paramita are as follow:
3.1.1 Maitri
Maitri comes from the word mitra, which means
friend, so maitri means love to make friends or
having a lot of friends. This means that everyone
should be able to put her/himself in the appropriate
place in the socialization, their neighbourhood, and
able to make other people feel comfortable with
her/him (Suhardana, 2006). By applying Maitri it is
expected that the students of SD Bali Public School
can make friends with anyone in their school
The Inculcation of Religious Humanist Values to Build the Elementary School Students’ Character
585

environment, not being choosy in making friends so
there is no gang formed in the school environment.
Maitri educates the students to behave nicely,
greet the other students, smile, since it is the sign of
friendliness and it also educates the students to
always think positively. Moreover, it also educates
students to use polite words to the other school
members and not hurt others’ feelings.
3.1.2 Karuna
Karuna is a noble action or affection towards
someone, this means that we as humans bring should
always to build affections to all creatures.
Moreover, we are expected to have willingness to
sacrifice our belonging for others’ happiness. It is
aimed to build a strong affection amongst all
creatures in the world (Suhardana,2006). In
Hinduism, it teaches its followers to always build the
affection
The study of Karuna which is applied in SD Bali
Public School includes; in the daily socialization
students are educated to not choose their friends
based on the social status, races or religion.
Moreover, the students are always given kind of
understanding to avoid bullying.
3.1.3 Mudita
Mudita means empathy or feel what others’ feel
whether it is sadness or happiness. It said that when
someone is able to feel what others feel, they will be
avoided from jealousy or envies. This shows that
Mudita is solidarity towards others (Suhardana,
2006). To be able to apply mudita, people are
expected to avoid the behaviours that make others in
trouble, or they have to avoid being jealous to
others.
The application of Mudita in SD Bali Public
School such as: involve all students in socialization
with their environment to build the sympathy and
empathy to their friends. The students are also
educated to be sympathy to their unfortunate friends.
3.1.4 Upeksa
Upeksa is an action to sacrifice him/herself for the
sake for the sake of other people. Replying someone
bad action with something good so there will be
grudge towards others, never to underestimate
others, never make a fool of someone and able to
control the emotion. The students in SD Bali Public
School are educated to be able to forgive one
another. In this occasion, the students are also
educated not to hurt others. Furthermore, the
harmony among students will be built.
3.2 The Effect of Investing Religious
Humanist Values
3.2.1 Increasing Sradha Bhakti
The effect of the inculcation of religious humanist
value was the increasing of students’ srada and
bhakti. Srada means belief as the foundation to
strengthen the religious, imagine when people do not
have any belief towards their religion, the essence of
the religion will be fragile, and thus is crucial to
maintain the purity of the religion. There are 5
believes in Hindu which are called Panca Sradha
which is consisted of: 1). Bellieve to the existence of
God (Ida Sang Hyang Widhi), 2) Believe on the
existence of atman (spiritual soul), 3) Believe on the
existence of karma, 4) Believe on the existence of
punarbawa (reborn), 5) Believe on the existence of
Moksa (never to reborn and be unity with the God).
The increasing of Sradha and bhakti is similar to
the increasing of believe and piety. The effect of
this increasing is that the students have applied their
religious values well, such as praying after and
before studying. By doing that, the students are not
only understanding those religious values but also
actualizing them in their daily lives.
3.2.2 The Growth of Tolerance Among
Students (Tat Twam ASi)
In one of Hindu’s literature called Sarasamuscaya,
sloka 74 (Kajeng, 1994), there is a line that
emphasize on the concept of etiquette in Hindu, it
have to be used as the guideline to actualize the
tolerance and the harmony in the society (tat twam
asi), beside that, the realization of Tri Kaya Parisuda
which is also called Karma Patha; it means three
good and holy attitudes as the effort to control
humans’ mind (manacika), speech wacika), and
actions (kayika).
The study of self-control which is related to
mind, speech, and actions are belong to the life signs
which have to be obeyed and controlled so that the
tolerance and harmony can be actualized in the daily
lives. The tolerance among students at the
Elementary school of Bali Public School is visible
from the atmosphere of kinship, togetherness,
mutual respect; in particular, appreciate different
opinions and the sense of mutual help.
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
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3.3 The Support of School Member in
the Inculcation of Religious
Humanist Values
The inculcation of religious humanist values at
school needs the support from the school members
such as; headmaster, teacher of Hinduism, other
teachers, school officers and school committees.
This is, in line with research conducted by Usman et
al. (2017), stating that in the application of humanist
education, it is necessary to have a policy. The
responsibilities of this policy, starting from the
government, the school, parents, and society. The
purpose of involving those school members are to
increase the quality of education, in this case it is
related to build the students’ character by investing
the religious humanist values. The supports of this
inculcation in SD Bali Public School Denpasar are:
3.3.1 The Headmaster
A headmaster as the policyholder yet the one who
take the responsibility at school has having the same
commitment in investing the religious humanist
values at school, so its process would be easier. The
awareness of all school members, not only religion
teachers, as the religious humanist values especially
Catur Paramita have to be applied at school.
The support of the headmaster in this inculcation
can be seen from his/her attitude such as there is an
effort to apply Catur Paramita which consists of
religious humanist values at school. Besides that, the
headmaster’s support also can be seen from the
loyalty, spirit, and daily interaction such as remind
the teachers to keep giving good models to the
students so the values can be received by the
students.
3.3.2 Teachers
The support from the teachers also has its own part
in the inculcation of religious humanist values at
school. As George (1982) points out, the roles of
teachers in humanist education are as mentors and to
find knowledge with students. Thus, the task of the
teacher is to lead the students toward independence.
The support from the teachers was different from
one teacher to another since their commitment also
different. Because of it, the headmaster should give
kind of understanding to them in relation to the
important of these values towards the student’s
character building.
Actualizing the religious humanist values at
school is not only the religion teachers’
responsibility but also all of teachers. However, the
religion teacher has big role in actualizing the values
trough applying Catur Paramita which contains the
lesson to make friends, have love affections, care,
and not to underestimate others. Because of that the
teacher of Hindu education, should be balance in
teaching, it means that they have not only emphasize
on the cognitive but also affective and psycomotoric
as well. Moreover, it is expected that the students
will have good understanding toward their religion
lesson and able to apply them in daily lives both at
school and home.
3.3.3 School Officers
The school officers’ support can be inform of
reminder to the students to keep obeying the
school’s rules. They also should be good models for
to students in applying Catur Paramita at school. For
instance, greet the students and smile to them.
3.3.4 The Committees (Students’ Parents)
Applying religious humanist values to the students
of SD Bali Public School, is not only become the
responsibility of the school but also the committees
which consist of the students’ parents. If the parents
are able to apply the values of Catur Paramita at
home, the students will feel the peacefulness at
home. Why so? It is because the parents can be
friends for the students (maitri), so the good
communication will be happened to them (sharing).
Through good communication, it is home the love
affection and care at home can be actualized. The
parents have to support and motivate their children
to invest the humanity values and also believe
(sradha). Furthermore, the parents should give their
children opportunity to understand, believe, and
actualize the values of their religion in their daily
lives.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the result of the study, it can be seen that:
1. the inculcation of religious humanist values
become something prominent in the learning process
of SD Bali Public School. The application of Catur
Paramita in the learning process includes: Maitri
(good in making friends), Karuna (love affection),
Mudita (having empathy), Upeksa (conceding). 2.
The effect of the application of Catur Paramita are:
the increasing of believe and piety, the growth of
tolerance among students (tat twam asi). To
The Inculcation of Religious Humanist Values to Build the Elementary School Students’ Character
587

actualize the inculcation of these values the support
from the headmaster, teachers, school officers and
students’ parents are needed.
The implications of this research include: the
cultivation of religious humanist values in
elementary school students needs to be done by
developing a positive character to the learners, so
that they will become a human who has sraddha and
devotion, and based on compassion, peace, love, and
tolerance, the cultivation of religious humanist
values is the responsibility of all parties, both the
school, family, and society.
The cultivation of religious humanist values
through the method which is based on the teachings
of Catur Paramita is an effective way to develop the
character of students. Therefore, it is suggested to
the principal as well as the teachers to apply this
teaching in the learning process so that students will
have a better character.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In finishing this study, there are many people who
give their positive comment and suggestions. The
writer wants to thank them: 1. the headmaster of
Bali Public School who permitted the writer to
conduct this study, 2. the teachers of religion
education and all school officers in SD
Bali Public School who give their opinion and
suggestion.
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