Schools go beyond romance to teach value of love

Schools go beyond romance to teach value of love

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For most Indonesian teenagers, celebrating Valentine's Day is one
of the main events of the year, with private parties or simple
dinners among friends or partners being their main choices to
mark the day.

However, in the past couple of years, some schools have
decided to entertain their students' idea to have a Valentine's
Day celebration at school and lend more meaning to the day than
just as a romantic day for those in love.

Trying to introduce the idea that Valentine's Day did not
always mean a romantic relationship between a boy and a girl,
some schools host events that focus more on love and affection in
general, or those that celebrate peer friendship.

"We are hosting an annual Valentine's Day ball with a main
goal for the students to mix together and celebrate being friends
with each other," a student council coordinator at a national
plus senior high school in South Jakarta, who requested that the
school's name be withheld, told The Jakarta Post.

She said students were not required to come in pairs for the
ball, because this would hamper the aim of holding the event, to
help students get to know each other better.

The student council is responsible for organizing the annual
event and to determine a specific theme each year. The students
come dressed according to the theme and the party lasts until 11
p.m.

Another reason for holding the party at school is because it
is easier to keep an eye on the student's activities.

"They could drink alcohol or take drugs if they celebrated
outside school, but with this event, we can supervise them," the
student council coordinator said.

The school also plans to place a huge collection bowl at the
entrance to the school hall where the ball will be held, so
students could donate money for Aceh and North Sumatra.

An extracurricular activities club at state high school SMA 68
in Jakarta is also planning a similar event. The Protestant
student group has hosted a kind of party each year for
Valentine's Day.

"We do not need to come as a couple to join the party, because
we are focusing more on the Protestant students so that they can
get to know each other," a first-year student at the school,
Genesius Kristianto, told the Post.

Other students at the school prefer to celebrate personally
with their girlfriends or boyfriends, or to not celebrate at all.

Genesius said the school tradition was to hold a music event
called Karasel every February.

"But I don't know whether it was intentionally made to be
every February to coincide with Valentine's Day or not," he said.

For most Indonesian students, Valentine's Day used to be a
personal and private occasion to spend time with friends, with no
school bodies, committees or teachers involved in the
celebration.

Recalling their high school memories, students of graduating
classes in the 1990s -- mostly from private schools in the
capital -- said they always had a huge ball for Valentine's Day
in five-star hotels. Some schools even hired major bands to play
during the party.

As these dances were always scheduled over the weekend,
regardless of when Feb. 14 fell, some female students wore pink
ribbons or anything pink during the week -- something that
usually angered their principal.

"I remember when the whole class was sent out into the hall
because our principal was angry about the pink ribbons we wore.
We were told to take them off," said Cecilia Marini, an alumnus
of Santa Ursula Catholic girls' high school.

She said when she was a student, a group of students always
organized parties outside school because they were prohibited
from celebrating the day as a commemoration of romantic love at
school.

"We were given flyers that explained the history of
Valentine's Day, that it was about Santo Valentino dedicated his
life to help the poor, and not about romantic love. No pink
accessories were allowed around Feb. 14," Cecilia recalled.

One day, however, then principal Sr. Francesco Marianti OSU
came up with an idea to make the day more meaningful as a day of
showing love for the local community.

The students were asked to bring in staple foods, used
textbooks and clothes they had outgrown on Feb. 14. They would
then spend the whole day making parcels of these goods and
distributing the gifts to the needy in the surrounding community.

The students were thus taught that love was also something to
give to their community and those in need, and that love did not
merely exist as the kind of love found between men and women.

"I still recall her explanation when we were told about the
activity, that love is for everybody -- for our parents, friends
and people around us. I think it was a good tradition, so we
could balance the money we spent for parties and for charity,"
Cecilia said.

Unfortunately, the tradition ended in 1995 with Francesco
Marianti's resignation as principal.

Even so, an entire generation of students benefited from the
activity, and will perhaps carry their principal's torch in
sharing their experience with friends, colleagues and their own
children.