Another Day, Another Flag Ceremony, and Another Lesson

It was a beautiful day outside. The birds were singing, and the school bells were ringing. A great morning for a flag ceremony. At this day, Monday, the 23rd of October 2023, a regular flag ceremony is held at 07.00 AM at Tarakanita Gading Serpong High School, and this time, the students of Class XI IPS 3 were on duty. Now, let’s see what message this flag ceremony has to offer.

The Ceremonial Coach today – who was also the Class Teacher of the students on duty, Ms. Leli, brought up a topic which was something very important that we always do every day: Communication. Not just any communication, but Effective Communication. “There are 5 main things you have to pay attention to start an effective communication, and I shortened it into one word: REACH.” (Ms. Leli)

What does the acronym REACH means, you may ask?

First, the letter R is short for Respect. This is the most important thing to start an effective communication, because it is important to, well, respect the person we’re talking to, whether they’re younger or older.

Then, the letter E means Empathy, which means we have to know the situation & condition the person we’re talking to, so that we don’t verbally hurt their feelings, even unintentionally. And if we don’t pay attention to this, or purposefully ignore it, that would make you a verbal bully.

Third, the letter A means Audible. This simply means that your voice must be clear and loud enough for people to hear. And the letter C is short for Clarity. Other than your voice, you must be able to say what you’re trying to say without going elsewhere.

Lastly, the letter H means Humble. We must also give a chance for other people to talk and not just, maybe making it all about us.

And then, the flag ceremony proceeded again, lasting approximately 45 minutes. The national song brought today was “Bangun Pemudi-Pemuda”. Hmm… probably because there’s Youth’s Oath Day / Sumpah Pemuda this Saturday. 

Anyways, this was an important message for young sprouts like us, since these days we kept saying things that were supposed to “belong in the Zoo”, and let’s now start to be more REACH when having a conversation. Have a nice day! (Iorwen Chen, X.2)