Selamat Saraswati. Dirgahayu Hardiknas.

2 Mei 2015 menjadi kurun bersejarah bagi saya. Bagaimana tidak, dua momen penting bergabung menjadi satu: Saraswati, hari besar umat Hindu, jatuhnya bersamaan dengan Hari Pendidikan Nasional.

Hari Saraswati adalah hari pemujaan terhadap Dewi Saraswati, dewi ilmu pengetahuan dan seni. Di hari itulah, Sabtu Umanis Watugunung, umat Hindu percaya bahwa ilmu pengetahuan turun ke dunia.

Sementara Hari Pendidikan Nasional diperingati bertepatan dengan saat lahirnya sang pelopor pendidikan di Indonesia, Ki Hadjar Dewantara. Ia adalah juga pendiri lembaga pendidikan Taman Siswa.

Ilmu pengetahuan, pendidikan, serta seni, menurut saya merupakan kunci paling penting dari pembentukan akal budi seseorang. Lewat pendidikan yang baik—di sekolah dan luar sekolah—serta ilmu pengetahuan yang memadai manusia akan bisa mengambil keputusan yang tepat dan lebih piawai menyiasati masalah. Selain tentu pandai mengasah akal, menjadikannya cerdas, dan terbentuk sebagai sosok yang berpikir panjang jauh ke depan (visioner).

Oleh karenanya, sekolah dan perpustakaan merupakan elemen amat adiluhung di dalam konteks ini.

Jika satu tempat ibadah dibangun maka satu perpustakaan pula mesti didirikan.

“Gemar membaca adalah gerakan pembebasan. Membiasakan menulis sama dengan merawat kemerdekaan.

Perpustakaan adalah rumah ibadah. Kedai wiski sungguh setara sekolah.”

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”
— Walter Cronkite

“When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.”
― Rita Mae Brown

“My two favourite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.”
― Peter Golkin

“I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
― Ray Bradbury

“Without the library, you have no civilization.”
― Ray Bradbury

“Interlibrary loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization.”
― Jo Walton, Among Others

“Libraries were full of ideas–perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”
― Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass

“A library is a place where you learn what teachers were afraid to teach you.”
― Alan M. Dershowitz

“If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.”
― Frank Zappa

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
― Nelson Mandela

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.”
― Victor Hugo

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
― Margaret Mead

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
― C.S. Lewis

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
― Aristotle

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
― Plutarch

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
― Malcolm X

“By seeking and blundering we learn.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe