Project : Alterization
Chapter 3

Arriving at the class, as usual, I immediately took the front seat and sat on it. Not because I want to be an exemplary student who is always glimpsed by ustadz so that it makes me a class star. Rather, because I have minus eyes that cannot see the blackboard clearly even if only one row back. Meanwhile, my old glasses lens has not been adjusted to the size of my current minus eye. So, inevitably I have to sit in front in order to pay attention to the explanation given ustadz to the maximum. That's my motive why I always choose to sit in the front row.

Classes are not too crowded. One by one, the students who were my class began to arrive. Taking advantage of the time, I opened my notebook. A blue mechanical pencil, I clasped it tightly with my finger. And now my fingers started dancing on paper. I started writing. Continuing a story that I've been writing for a long time since that pandemic holiday. Unbelievably, twenty-five minutes had now passed. The first lesson bell rang. A sign that the teaching and learning activities will begin soon.

"Lumayan, three quarters of a page." I murmured inwardly.

Soon, there came ustadz who taught the first maple. While tidying up my books and writing equipment, I prepared the thematic book Tauhid which is the first maple on this day according to the schedule. Ustadz Jaelani Imran who is our own homeroom teacher who led this Tawhid lesson. The atmosphere of the classroom that was once rowdy, is now silent for a moment. Now he stood straight beside the blackboard, in front of us. A warm smile from his face immediately welcomed our enthusiasm.

After delivering a brief opening, he immediately began to explain the new chapter that we will learn this morning. The explanation is quite solid and short. Deciphering foreign vocabulary, explaining sentences that are complicated to understand, and mentioning postulates from other sources. There is nothing special about teaching him. Just like most ustadz when conveying material. However, it only lasted a while. Instantly, my first impression of him instantly turned one hundred and eighty degrees.

Somehow, he suddenly associated the Tawhid subject matter we learned with Spider-Man films, Hollywood films, political conspiracies, and other things that had never been thought of before. And miraculously, all of it is related to each other if thought with logic. Not infrequently also he gave us examples from the present life that are relevant to what we learned in Tawheed lesson. His insights are very broad. I was amazed at him.

"According to Rhenald Kasali in his book entitled "Sentra", humans can only focus on learning in twice the minutes of his age. As an example of your age is fifteen, then you can only focus on learning within thirty minutes. And that's the most productive time to make the performance of the brain work optimally." he said. And because of these words, he only taught us seriously in the first thirty minutes. Of course it is good news for those slackers who always do not pay attention to lessons.

His hours of study on that day ended without notice. It's really fun to hear insights and knowledge that we've never known before. Since then, the lesson ustadz Jaelani has taught us is the lesson we have always been waiting for.

At first I was less interested in all of these things. Most importantly for me, we only studied for thirty minutes or even less in the hours of lessons he was able to. Usually he uses the rest of his time to give us motivational stories, tell self-development theories, or even discuss conspiracies that I don't really understand. At a time like that, the rest of the time is there, instead I use it to continue the story I wrote. Alias, I didn't listen to him.

Sometimes he also invites us to argue about the earth being round or flat. Presenting their opinions when arguing with him is exciting. Moreover, seeing him who still persists in his opinion that the earth is flat, even though it has been repeatedly hit by various statements made by my classmates. Not wanting to lose, he also continued to fight by thoroughly peeling off every argument we raised to make us unable to dwell anymore.

At other times, if we do not do the flat or round earth debate, then the rest of the lesson hours will be used to convey motivation to us. Be it about time, sincerity of intention, spirit of knowledge, tips to achieve success, as well as about warning and reprimand for santri-santri who often commit violations. This time, I looked at him differently. All that motivation sounds boring. Really boring. Like hearing the babble of an old parrot who keeps trying to speak and advise. I'm sure he's also aware of our reaction to thinking his words are boring.

But he never gave up. He continues to convey the same motivations every day to make us change for the better. Tired and unrelenting. No matter how we respond to what he has said. One of the most frequently repeated themes is the motivation for reading books. And that's one of the things I hate the most.

"Books are bridges of science, books are windows to the world. When we read a book, we will be able to know what the contents of the heads of successful people out there. We can explore their minds. Who wouldn't want to know what Einstein, Edison, Tesla, Graham Bell, Steve Jobs, Wozniak were thinking, **. Habibie and other world leaders? By reading, we can also determine our passion. We will be made easy to walk the path to success with the books we read. Our future is determined by our current temperament, whether we want to read it or not. And there are many more benefits of reading, blah blah blah blah..."

His words about the motivation to read a book seem too pushy. It was as if he wanted to make us love to read books. The dozens of books he recommended us to read continued to spew out endlessly from his mouth. Every day he does the same thing to us whenever he has the opportunity. Untiring. A very tough literary warrior. So thought the figure of me who already understood the urgency of literacy in the future.