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hat does a pilot, an editor-in-chief, a journalist, a fashion stylist and a marketer in the capital have in common when they take a break from their daily activities? They teach.

Recently, 200 middle-class Jakartans from various professions took one day off to visit elementary schools to share their experiences and plant the seeds of dreams in the minds of hundreds of students from low-income families.

They joined the first Kelas Inspirasi on April 25, a program that facilitates them to share with the students and explain what they do for a living.

Trade marketer FM Sidharta said that standing in front of a class full of first-graders and talking about things they probably had never heard of before was not an easy task.

“Teaching is not a new thing for me as I am often a speaker at workshops. But teaching first-graders was hard! Yet, also fun,” he said during Kelas Inspirasi’s evaluation session.

 “I’m a salesman, but when I asked the students what that is, no one answered,” said Sidharta, who taught at SD Selong 4 in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

When it came to the dreams-sharing session, Sidharta said that most of them had no other profession in mind but becoming a police officer, soccer player or public figure.

“That somehow scares me; that they were not brave enough to dream beyond that. Perhaps because they don’t know that there are other professions out there. I’m glad I could share something new with them.”

Besides teaching the first grade, Sidharta also had the chance to share information about his job with students in the fifth grade.

A similar view was put forward by Indah Dian Novita, a news producer at a local television station.

She discovered that most students were afraid of dreaming big because their surroundings failed to convince them that they could achieve more. “Many of them doubted that they could be somebody because they thought they were just nobodies, coming from poor families.” An architect, vocalist, chief financial officer, company director, psychologist and designer were some of the other professions covered by volunteers with the Kelas Inspirasi program. Together, they visited 25 elementary schools across Jakarta whose students mostly come from low-income families.

Kelas Inspirasi is a program run by Indonesia Mengajar that also organizes Pengajar Muda, a program that sends fresh graduates to teach in remote areas for a year.

“Many of Jakarta’s middle-class do not realize that in the midst of the high-rises and well-off neighborhoods, such schools exist,” said Anies Baswedan, the founder of Indonesia Mengajar.

Besides introducing a lot of new occupations that might inspire the students, the program also aims to help them reach their dreams by offering them direct contact with people experienced in those fields.

“Not just that, when they [the visitors] come to class, students also learn other things from them, like the way they talk and behave. I think this is a life-changing experience they won’t get from the regular curriculum,” he said.