Reflective Thinking Session at SMAN 60 Jakarta

Generasi Cerdas Indonesia (GCI), one of our partnerships, ran a Reflective Thinking session at Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri (SMAN) 60 Jakarta. GCI has a vision to create Indonesian young intelligent generations having noble morality and character. This vision is in line with IofC in building personal characters. Bahari Lubis, the school principal, warmly welcomed both the GCI and IofC Indonesia teams. He expressed his appreciation to the young and energetic team who facilitated the teachers and school staff as the participants.

This one hour-session was the follow up after the Positive Teachers Camp which was held in 2018. One of the participants from SMAN 60, who attended the camp, was impressed with the Quiet Time session. She then recommended to the school principal to invite our team to facilitate a Quiet Time session at their school. This program was continued with an internal meeting.

Irna Yugaswatie led the session introducing Quiet Time and asked us to evaluate ourselves, using the 4 moral standards: purity, honesty, unselfishness, and love. Having been divided into groups, we shared on our inner reflection with the quiet time.  Inputs were, Why I decided to be a teacher/school staff and Who my inspiring teacher was. One teacher shared, “I was inspired by my uncle who worked as a teacher. He lived peacefully with his family and for me, my uncle was my role model. As a teacher, I don’t only educate my students but also my family members.” Another teacher said, “I chose to be a teacher because of my former teachers.  I want to inspire my students as my teachers inspired me when I became their student.” A teacher shared that being a teacher doesn’t only fulfill her passion in education but she also has more quality times with her children after school. Some teachers acknowledged that having self-reflection is so essential that this activity should be continuously applied in our daily lives.

One facilitator shared, “I was moved with the teachers’ stories in my group. I found that this sharing session guided us to listen and to understand more about ourselves. It may also help us find answers within ourselves.” It was a short session but gave us positive vibes and new energy. In the end, we appreciated the collaboration and meaningful time.

Reported by Yofrina Octika Gultom