The poem, Flowers Are Red by Harry Chapin, tells an ironic story of a child who was taught by his teacher that drawing a flower in a colorful way was wrong.

"Flowers are red, green leaves are green/There's no need to see flowers any other way, than the way they always have been seen," reads the poem, which ends with the boy being "programmed" in such a restrictive manner he could not operate in any other way.

The managing director of High/Scope Indonesia, which applies the concept of active learning to its some 1,800 students, says flowers need not always be red.

"I believe that active learning, instead of rote learning, will equip students better to survive in an ever-changing world of tomorrow," said Antarina.

The colors of the walls in the school's buildings -- red, yellow and blue -- enhance her point of view.

High/Scope, an international education system based in the U.S., was already established in Indonesia before Antarina decided to take over the business. The first High/Scope was located on Jl. Gereja Theresia in the posh Menteng area of Central Jakarta.

Antarina regarded the school as having "great potential", the answer of her sacred quest to realize the concept of ideal education.

"Our aim is to create well-rounded students. From an early age, students should be engaged in active learning in which they learn how to make sound decisions. Life is about making decisions."

Children as young as toddlers, she adds, also learn social and emotional development skills by interacting with other children.

High/Scope Indonesia has blossomed into 10 schools located in different areas since 1996, the time she took over the franchise.

Now it has branches in, among others, Kuningan and Bintaro in Jakarta as well as in Bandung, West Java, and Denpasar, Bali. It also has an entering class for high school, or 10th grade, at its building at Jl. T.B. Simatupang.

Born on June 8, 1962, Antarina studied accounting at the University of Indonesia. But desire to be independent was burning inside her, prompting her to find a scholarship to the U.S.

"At the time when I was studying in a university here, I had the comfort of my parents," said the mother of four sons, two of whom are attending High/Scope.

She then pursued her graduate degree at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, earning an MBA in marketing. Not quite satisfied, she pursued two more master's degrees from the University of Pittsburgh -- she got her second MBA in marketing and finance and a master's of science in management and information systems.

Education, she found out, correlates with human resources.

"One crucial thing for the development of Indonesia is human resources. I learned that by doing my job for 12 years since a feasibility study for the school in 1995."

When she started to take over High/Scope, the school system was still under the management of High/Scope Singapore.

Under her enterprise, High/Scope Indonesian has taken a "leap", from being under the authorization of the Singapore branch to having direct approval from the U.S. as a franchise holder for the Asia-Pacific region.

"It was because we could construct and manage a solid system," she explained.

Although the license is from a foreign country, the consultant for the school said Indonesia had to cultivate its own cultural values. Other countries that have tantamount education systems are the UK, South Africa, Canada, Korea, Mexico and the Netherlands.

Antarina believes that children studying under the active learning system are special, since the system allows them to accept differences and socialize with people from different backgrounds.

"When interacting with students from other schools, they still have respect, even empathy, for others. So differences shouldn't be an obstacle when they enter the workforce."

At one school special event, dubbed "business day", students learned how to trade stuff.

The school gave the students the capital to create something, such as snacks and food, and sell it to the parents or people who attended the event. The taste of the dishes might still be far from gourmet, but the seeds of entrepreneurship have been sown early.

On a hot day, elementary school children running up and down the school stairs while serving cold beverages is a normal sight.

The school also boasts Hiffest, or the High/Scope Film festival, in which middle school students have the opportunity to create short feature movies or documentaries of their own.

"Now is the era of entertainment, media and communication," says Antarina.

Going from A to B to C has been arduous. Antarina felt that the current curriculum set by the government was inadequate.

She said that High/Scope gives option for the pupils who want to take the national exam, which is a requirement for students to enter local schools and universities.

"I actually oppose the idea of the sluggish national final examination. Our students have to scale back to the academic style of assessment."

The difference between academic and active, according to High/Scope, is that the first is geared toward academic achievement through "drill and kill" method while the latter is set up toward human development through a student-centered teaching approach. They are didactic versus investigative.

The government, she said, already recognized the value of active learning approach and would like more local institutes to adopt the system. However, in reality, only the schools with enough capital could reach the objective.

She recalled that there was once a parents who decided to transfer their child -- a student enrolled at High/Scope -- to regular school under the premise that their "children can be more quite and learn discipline".

"Well, for us discipline is self-discipline, not being silent," she said.

Antarina reckoned that many parents who decided to enroll their children to High/Scope learn about the schools through word of mouth.

"The first thing they wanted to find out when they met us at our annual open house event was the school programs. We're flattered."

Despite her accomplishment, she still has three obsessions -- to build a research center, an art school and a science center.

She said that art, in its various form as a discipline, has been overlooked in this country choke full of talents while science centers are not engaging enough.

In a bid to get closer to her dreams, she attends and observes many schools outside the country for comparative studies.

Education spirit, after all, runs deep in her family.

The country's father of education, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, is a brother of her grandfather. There is a half bodied statue of Ki Hadjar at the school's facility in Cilandak, which reverberates his slogan "Ing ngarsa sung tuladha, ing madya mangun karsa, tut wuri handayani".

The Javanese proverb means that leaders should become example to their followers, give positive contribution to society and motivate others to succeed. In an instance, that wraps up Antarina's attitude toward life.

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