The Essence of Volunteering: How to Create a Million Teachers | Jonathan Natasaputra | TEDxITS

Personal Transformation and Jonathan's Story

• Life is a journey filled with various challenges and situations, and what really matters is how we respond to them, which is the beginning of personal transformation (51s).
• This transformation involves focusing inward, comparing ourselves to our past selves, and finding truth and fulfillment by contributing to others (1m10s).
• Jonathan Natasaputra, also known as Jo, shares his personal story of transformation, starting with his high school days when he would often skip classes and meetings to go to the internet cafe (2m2s).
• One day, he met his history teacher outside the internet cafe, and although he was caught, the teacher's reaction was calm, which made Jonathan feel a bit embarrassed but also relieved (2m42s).
• However, his life took a turn for the worse when his school found out about his frequent visits to the internet cafe, and he became known as the student who loved going to the internet cafe (3m1s).
• Everything changed when his physics professor gave him a quiz, and despite not studying, Jonathan scored 67, which was below the school's passing grade of 75 (3m32s).
• This experience motivated Jonathan to change his ways, and he started attending classes and actually learning, which caught the attention of his professor, who then became more invested in teaching him (4m52s).
• Jonathan's story highlights the importance of self-awareness, motivation, and the impact that others can have on our lives, leading to positive changes and personal growth (4m56s).

The Impact of a Professor's Teaching

• A professor's unorthodox teaching methods, which included making the student feel comfortable and presenting challenges in a fun way, helped to improve the student's grades and interest in physics, particularly in a subject the student initially struggled with, such as Fisika (5m52s).
• The professor's approach to teaching, which involved adapting to the student's needs and making learning enjoyable, had a profound impact on the student's life, inspiring the student to consider becoming a teacher themselves (6m43s).
• The student realized that the professor, who was not from a privileged background, was able to make a positive impact on their life, and this realization sparked the student's interest in exploring the world of education in Indonesia (7m28s).

Volunteering in Java and Educational Disparities

• The student was invited by friends to participate in volunteering, which involved teaching children in a village in Java, and despite initial reservations, the student decided to join (7m55s).
• During the volunteering experience, the student encountered children who were struggling with basic skills, such as writing numbers 1 to 10, and even their own names, which was a shocking realization (8m32s).
• The student met a child named Reza, who was unable to write his own name, and this encounter had a profound impact on the student, highlighting the need for better education and inspiring the student to make a difference (8m44s).
• The realization of the poor state of education in Indonesia came as a shock, with the country's education system being compared to a village in Java, and the thought of how much worse it could be in villages outside of Java (9m11s).
• Research was conducted online, and the discovered numbers were surprising, revealing the poor state of education in Indonesia, with many aspects that could be improved, including infrastructure, curriculum, and digitalization (9m26s).

Indonesia's Education System and PISA Assessment

• The focus is on two main aspects: students and teachers, with the starting point being the students, and one indicator used to assess the quality of education in a country is the PISA assessment (9m56s).
• The PISA assessment is a standardized test based on three matrices created by the OECD to assess the quality of education in all countries, and Indonesia's results show that the country is still lagging behind in mathematics, literacy, and science (10m9s).
• Indonesia's scores are 366 in mathematics, 359 in literacy, and 383 in science, which are below the international standards of 472, 476, and 485, respectively, indicating that Indonesia is 29% behind in mathematics, 33% behind in literacy, and 27% behind in science (10m29s).
• According to national standards, students who took the test are two grades below their expected grades, meaning a third-grade student's reading ability is only at the level of a first-grade student (11m14s).
• One of the causes of this problem is the issue with teachers, with two main criteria being quantity and quality, and Indonesia faces problems in both areas (11m38s).
• From the quantitative aspect, 25% of the approximately 6 million classes in Indonesia do not have teachers, and from the qualitative aspect, 65% of the 2.7 million teachers in Indonesia do not meet the international standards for becoming a teacher (11m56s).

Motivating Students with Incentives

• After realizing the problem, a decision was made to address the issue, and it was discovered that the boys in the village had a common interest in playing games, while the girls were more interested in collecting stationery (12m37s).
• Based on these two criteria, it was concluded that the boys and girls needed to be provided with incentives, such as mobile phones and stationery, to encourage them to learn (13m3s).
• In the next teaching session, preparations were made to provide these incentives, including bringing power banks and buying stationery, and the boys were challenged to complete a task within 30 minutes (13m16s).
• To motivate students, an experiment was conducted where each student was lent a phone for 10 minutes, and the fastest student to complete a task would receive a stationery gift, resulting in the students suddenly becoming focused and quiet (13m35s).
• The effectiveness of this method was later replicated with more students, but it was realized that not all students were motivated by stationery, as some preferred snacks and drawing (14m11s).
• To cater to different preferences, snacks and drawing materials were provided in the next session, which resulted in all students being happy to learn and motivated to do better (14m48s).

The Four Segments of Volunteering

• The volunteering experience was considered successful when two students who were initially difficult to teach expressed their inspiration to become teachers in the future (15m27s).
• The volunteering experience can be summarized into four main segments: identifying the problem, adapting to the students' needs, executing the plan, and multiplying what works (15m41s).
• The first segment involves identifying the problem, which in this context was the educational disadvantage of the children in the village (15m48s).
• The second segment involves adapting to the students' needs, which was done by providing stationery and snacks based on the students' preferences (16m19s).
• The third segment involves executing the plan, which requires proper strategy and execution, as a good plan that is not well-executed is useless (16m46s).
• The fourth segment involves multiplying what works, which means focusing on the methods that have proven to be effective and replicating them (17m29s).
• In this context, the effective method was providing incentives, such as stationery and snacks, which motivated the students to learn (17m41s).

The Essence of Volunteering and its Ripple Effect

• Volunteering can be as simple as making an effort to change the lives of those closest to you, and then multiplying that change to others, even if it's just by teaching or inspiring a few people (17m59s).
• The definition of volunteering doesn't have to be complex, such as traveling to a different place to build a health center or solve a problem in Africa, but can be as simple as what a professor did to inspire their student (18m24s).
• A professor identified the potential in their student, who was not doing well in school, and adapted their approach to make learning more challenging and fun, which motivated the student to learn and eventually inspired others (19m0s).
• The student, who was inspired by their professor, went on to teach and inspire others, including children in their village, and this impact was multiplied as those children were also inspired to learn (19m51s).
• The question is asked, how many lives have you impacted, and the answer may be more than you think, as the people you impact can go on to impact others, creating a ripple effect (20m9s).
• Volunteering can be compared to a multi-level marketing (MLM) system, where one person can impact 10 others, who can then impact 10 more, and so on, creating a large impact (20m42s).
• The true essence of volunteering is to change someone's life, and in doing so, multiply that change to others, even if you don't know them, by inspiring and making a positive impact on those closest to you (21m0s).
• The goal is to inspire others to volunteer and make a positive impact on the lives of those around them, creating a ripple effect of kindness and inspiration (21m21s).