Teachers can have a huge impact on their students’ lives but they often don’t get to see it. One Indonesian man was so thankful for what his teachers had done for them he decided to treat essentially all of them on an all-expenses paid vacation.
Fredy, who went to State High School (SMAN) 1 in Pekalongan, Central Java, graduated in 1993 but returned to his alma mater in July to announce that he would be inviting all of his former teachers on a trip to Europe.
“At first I thought this kid was just joking,” SMAN 1 Pekalongan principal Sulikin told Kompas on Tuesday.
But it wasn’t a joke. Fredy, who had found his fortune in the fiber optic cable industry, did indeed want to treat all of his teachers to the trip. But after the initial meeting, it was suggested that his teachers, many of whom are elderly and retired, travel somewhere closer instead.
So the destination was changed from Europe to Malaysia and Singapore. Fredy decided to invite along his elementary and junior high school teachers as well and in the end 65 of Fredy’s former educators joined the group trip, which departed Jakarta on September 19.
Fredy could not join his teachers on the trip but came to Soekarno-Hatta Airport along with his family to see them off where he gave them all hugs before their flight.
“Before departing, Fredy had a message to the travel agency (handling the group trip), ‘Don’t let my teachers have any complaints, give them your best service,’” Sulikin said.
All of the travel costs, ranging from transportation to hotels to daily allowances and even the costs of those who needed to get passports were all borne by Fredy. He even hired people to take some of the more elderly teachers around in wheelchairs.
The teachers returned on September 24 after five days of visiting tourist attractions in the two neighboring countries.
Principal Sulikin said that Fredy had vowed since high school to treat his teachers to travel abroad. The former student said he had suffered a severe accident in high school and that while he was in a coma, he dreamed about all of his elementary, junior and senior high school teachers that visited him in the hospital.
Sulikin said students like Fredy who remember what their teachers did for them were very rare these days. Hopefully his example will inspire others to show their teachers what they meant to them.
