Loving God, loving me, loving others, and loving the environment: a sustainability education for elementary school children

Faculty of Psychology Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok, Jawa Barat 16424, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: julia.suleeman@ui.ac.id

Abstract

This paper shows how sustainability education has been embedded as essential part of character development in one Christian school in Klaten, Jawa Tengah since the early 2000s. This has taken place as camps in the school area or live-in experiences in neighboring villages. Gradually, a more formal program as classroom lesson plans were deemed as important until one specific day was then devoted each week for this character development program. To serve this purpose, a general theme of love was chosen that was reflected in loving God, loving oneself, loving others, and loving the enviroment. From here, nine characters were chosen and used to be developed in each grade, from Grade 1 to Grade 6. These nine characters are loving God, compassion, responsibility, self-control, discipline, critical, positive, creative, and efficient. The barriers faced by the school staff and school boards in running this program were regarded as challenges to improve this important program. More importantly, parents are also supportive and acknowledging the advantages of having this program for the holistic development of their children.