"Anybody can be an inspiration - It just requires an opportunity to teach others how to find success and give them confidence to reach their goals" - Anies Baswedan -
First time I've heard about this movement was a few months ago, when my college friends,
Gardini and Jane, told us that they’re going to teach in Elementary Schools.
“Not basically teaching, more like sharing what our profession is to the kids,”
they said. Wow, sounds exciting, I thought. I can’t hardly imagine how to tell
the first or second-graders, what does the Human Resources Department do? :D
Later I searched
more about the movement. I found out that Kelas Inspirasi (Inspiration Class) was originally initiated by Mr. Anies
Baswedan, a prominent educational figure and also the Rector of Paramadina
University. Firstly Mr. Anies and co. initiated Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia
Teaches), an inspiring program that sent aspiring young teachers (mostly are best
fresh graduates from reputable universities) to remote areas all around Indonesia to teach for about a year. But
since not everyone can have a lengthy time commitment as Indonesia Mengajar
requires, yet still want to contribute,
then the founders initiated a spin off, namely Kelas Inspirasi (KI, for short), that firstly held in April 2012.
The point of
KI is to build Indonesian children’s dreams, by sharing to the kids
the way to get there, and encouraging them to reach their goals. Regular folks
with varying expertise have to take a full day off, to share stories related to
their career and job to the state elementary students. Most of the schools
selected are state schools that located in big cities or urban area, that supposedly have easy
access to the information and technology, but perhaps unfortunately doesn't get
much attention from government related institution.
To be honest, I almost
failed to join KI this season. Although I have
followed their official twitter account for months, I didn't notice that KI will be held again
in September 2013 - simultaneously in Bekasi, Bogor, Tangerang – until the
night before the admission deadline.
Thankfully, a few weeks later I got an email confirmation that said I was chosen as one of the teacher in Group 1. Yaay!
The other
voluntary teacher in Group 1 were awesome professionals. There’s Mba Cahya, a
developmental engineer who works in Myanmar – she’s kind of developing excavator and other heavy equipment there. Then Ibu Evy, a senior tourism
consultant. And Bang Patar, a media communication specialist and the Festival
Director in Erasmus Huis. We've also got Rio, an IPB graduated consultant, that
volunteered as our photographer. Our groups facilitator was Meylin, an aspiring
architect that formerly volunteered at the previous KI season.
Road to the Hari
Inspirasi (Inspiration Day,
or the teaching day) were tough,
though. We only had 10 days left to the D-day, which was held on Wednesday,
September 11, 2013. Due to each of us were terribly busy with our own jobs, we couldn't go surveying the school together. Bang Patar and I even couldn't make to go
survey. Some of the equipment and preparation for the day necessarily could only be discussed in chat message. Luckily we could arrange an instant meeting on Monday
night for a quick coordination.
And then came the
day :D
I was nervous as
hell.
Early in the
morning we came to SDN Margahayu XV, in East Bekasi. The school shares building
and field yard with SDN Margahayu XXII, wherein the Group 2 was teaching. The
school wasn't really big but quite clean and tidy. It only has three class rooms that used alternately – morning and afternoon class, and one room that parted into teacher room,
headmaster’s room, and living room. There’s also a small library near the entry
gate.
 |
| SDN Margahayu XV & XXII, Bekasi |
Our school only has five teachers plus one Head Master, and the pupils number was not many, around average twenty students per class. Pak Arif, one of the teachers
said that people's interest to enter the schools tends to decrease from time to
time. Most of the students come from lower economical class, whose parents work
as labors, salesmen, etc.
 |
| The Team (left to right: Bang Patar, Bu Evy, Mba Cahya, me, Rio) with the teachers |
 |
| The second and third-graders :) |
 |
| Me, Mba Cahya, Bang Patar and Meylin with the third and second-graders |
Since the number
of students were not that much, we merged each of two class for the event. First-graders went with second, third with four, and fifth with six. So we only had half day
to teach.
Firstly I went to
Class 5 and Class 6.
Fortunately
before I came in (I was a bit late), Rio had already entered the class to fill
in the time, so the class was already conditioned. Big thanks to him.
I gave the
students some kind of star-shaped origami papers to the students, where they have
to write down the professions or the jobs they want. Then few students are asked to
present in front of the class, why do they want to be them. I also asked some
students to do a bit role-play and act like the professions they chose.
 |
| The sixth-graders and the origamis |
 |
| A role play between sixth-graders acted as designer and her customer |
The well-known
professions such as doctor, police, pilot are likely the most chosen. But some students from sixth grade answered wider options with more
specific reasons like, “I want to be a designer because I love to draw” or “I
want to be model because they wear pretty gowns”. Shockingly, one of the fifth-graders shouted “I want to be a pimp!” followed by immediate “Ssshh!” from his
pals. I pretended not to hear that word, but later I found out from Pak Arif, that there’s a fifth-grader whose mother is a
sex-commercial worker :(.
After they told
what kind of profession they want to do, I explained to them, what do the Human
Resource Practitioner do. I tried to make it in simplest words, such as, my job is recruiting new
employees, handling payrolls, giving warning letters, and firing people :D. To
make it more interesting, I made some
role plays – one of the students acted as HR and another acted as a job-seeker,
or one acted as HR while the other acted as a fired employee. A sixth-grader
once commented, “In sinetron, it’s the director who fired people,” aha :D
smart kids. Another sixth-grader asked, “My brother has applied to many offices
but no one accepted him...” Oh dear, that’s beyond my capacities to answer :(
Class 5 and 6
done. Next I came to Class 1 and 2. And the real challenge began.
Challenge number
1: these first and second-graders haven’t fully understand what the teachers
tell them. Moreover,
for unfamiliar matters like HR jobs. So I just asked them what they want to be
when they grow up, and help them write the answers down on the origamis because
some of them still cant write and spell properly. Then each of them are
asked to come in front of the class and explain, and I give the origamis as a
reward.
Most of the first-graders are still naive and sincere. The girls want to be Barbie, the boys
wanted to be Bima Satria Garuda and Optimus Prime :D
 |
| The first-graders - aim high to be Barbie & Bima Satria Garuda :)) |
Teaching first
and second-graders sure needs extra dose of patience, but for me, the
major challenge of the day was on the Class 3 and 4.
The third-graders
are mostly still act childish and some of them are still hard to focus just
like the second and the first-graders, while the fourth-graders tended to act ‘grown-ups-like’
and being attention seekers. Surprisingly from these classes, the girls are more noisy, and the boys
were easier to handle. Fortunately, after a few minutes, I found the magic line; “If
you keep being noisy, Kak Rio won’t take your pictures” aaand it worked! It seemed like they're really like being photographed :P
Apparently, the
third and fourth-graders are more update with the latest tv trends :D Some of
them said they want to be chefs (the Masterchef effects), the others want to be
presenter, actress, and join the bands. But some others answered they want to be
teachers. It’s nice to know that the kids adore their teachers :)
 |
| The third & fourth-graders strike a pose :D |
I realized that among my other fellow teachers, my presentations seems to be the least attractive.
The kids are more interested to Mba Cahya’s story about ‘building tractors’, or
to Bu Evi who showed amazing scenery pictures from her business trips around
Indonesia and other countries, or to Rio that stole the kids’ attentions with
his camera and tripod. On the other hand, I wasn't as charismatic as Patar
either, who successfully manage the class, even without any presentation tools. That’s why I was really flattered when at
the closing sessions, some of the sixth-graders boy greeted me and said, “Kak, I
want to work as HRD ”. At least, what I said are quite memorable to them :).
I remember when I
was in elementary school, I used to dream to be a journalist and a writer. Quite rare
dreams for an elementary school students. Why could I have such dreams is
none other than because of the exposure from my surroundings. My late dad
always brought newspapers and magazines home, and I grew up with books. I've inspired to make a hand-written ‘newspaper’ and ‘story books’, and later
created school magazine when in junior and senior high.
What KI give is
perhaps just an inspiration. KI haven’t be able yet to facilitate more regarding the kids’
dreams. But as a start, it’s already more than enough. These kids probably have never
knew before that there is a profession like tourism consultant. Or they probably had
never imagined that they can work abroad. They probably can
only have limited dreams based on what they can only see. But because of KI, they can
dream a bigger dream, and they know how to reach it.
For us, it might be only a day-off. But for the kids, this can be a day that inspires them for their lifetime :).
 |
| With Kelompok 2 after teaching - look at our tired-but-happy faces! |
*)Some of Photo Sources: Rio's Blog, Mba Cahya's tab, Bu Evy's camera
