Narrative Report

“Redirecting, Reconnecting, and Reinventing Oneself” a theme for the retreat

program hosted by the Dologon National Highschool for grade 12 senior high school
students. A retreat is a form of group excursion in which members take time to establish
bonds with one another, reflect on their purpose and objectives, and focus on one or
more defined goals, a period of withdrawal for prayer, meditation, study, or instruction
under the direction of a director. The program was held on the 9th day of April 2023,
Sunday, together with the school’s principal Dr. Rolisa T. Benedicto, Ph.D., grade 12
senior high school teachers, the students, and the speakers of the retreat program. The
retreat was separated in 4 topics with 4 leadership speakers guiding the students for the
retreat.

The first topic was Knowing Oneself with the lead speaker, ma’am Conception
Tabañag, a teacher of Dologon National Highschool. In her topic, ma’am Conception,
provides a story that makes you trust in yourself with words of wisdom. She indicated
that people’s remarks can have a major effect on other people’s life that it can weaken
you and drag you backwards and will generate a self-doubt. One of the themes she
opened is on personal development and gave the students with a phrase “Knowing
Yourself is the Beginning of All Wisdom” from Aristotle. According to her knowing oneself
is a requirement because once you know who you are, what you are, and what you are
capable of, you will develop as a person and will focus entirely on yourself and others
who supports you. On the second narrative that she introduced is about Parents
Sacrifice for a Children: A Mother’s Sacrifice, a story about a mother being loathed by
her own son and neglect her as her mother. The narrative led the road to the self-
concept issue, an abstract idea about oneself, which according to Carl Rogers that there
are 3 elements of the self-concept which are the ideal self, the real self, and self-esteem.
The speaker also explained in her portion about adolescence where the child grows and
mature that influences the variables that build self, self-worth, positive and negative self-
esteem, and high self-esteem. She also took the time to explain about self-efficacy
which according to her, self-efficacy does not refer to your ability but rather to your views
about what you can do with your abilities. She defined the concepts of self, the self as
the social actor, self as motivated agent, and self as autobiographical author. On the
whole, Ma’am Conception speaks aspirational and inspirational subjects towards the
pupils that will offer them the concept of what they can accomplish to their selves and
how vital it is to know oneself for their own development.
The Kagawad of Dologon Maramag Bukidnon, honorable Kagawad Abello, was
invited as a guest speaker for the retreat program. He had the discussion of me and
society, defining what is family and community. Family is the basic unit of society and
community is a collection of individuals living in the same place or having a particular
quality in common. According to him, family should have the six vital features, the
respect with one another, kindness, harmony, love, joy, and most important is peace with
everyone. Another topic he mentioned was about bullying and how bullying can happen
to anybody, anyplace and can be on many people. He defined that there are variety of
reason why some bully, one is because they feel powerless in their own life, someone
else is bullying them, they are seeking attention, and they lack of empathy or
understanding and from that issue, he taught the children that bullying has unique
punishment. He defined CAR (Children At Risk), these are the youngsters under 18
years old who is vulnerable to and at the danger of committing criminal acts because of
personal, familial and social situations. Another word he defined is CICL (Children In
Conflict with the Law), refers to a child who is alleged as, accused of, or adjudged as,
having committed an offense under Philippine laws. Kagawad Abello recognized each
statute for anti-bullying, RA10627 or the Anti-Bullying Act, RA 9344 or the Juvenile
Welfare Act, and RA 10630 or the Philippine Juvenile Justice. His address ended with a
really encouraging film about his triumphs and achievements and how he pushed hard to
become who he is today, how he assisted a lot of folks in his duty, and discussed how
intriguing the country of Singapore is. The student listeners where very impressed.

The third speaker was a pastor, pastor Leomer Aston. He introduces the issue on
the roles of the children towards their family and how one should cherish family and
have God in the center of their lives. Pastor taught the pupils that children must obey
their parents as stated from the bible, he explained that parents are shaped by God to
guide the child in everything that they do. Children should obey and follow what their
parents’ wishes and say, thus only do the nice things. He read biblical scriptures towards
the students and energized them with the words of God. Pastor also made the pupils
know that by obeying God, the Lord would do no damage to anyone but rather shield
them from evilness and lay them with rich blessings. He remarked that anyone can be
who they want, what they want, but it is different when you are under the guidance of the
Lord. Pastor resumed his sermon about family, children, and God that genuinely
influenced the pupils to obey the one who made them, their parents and the Lord.
Pastor’s lecture has closed with a prayer for everyone, including the pupils and the
instructors.
The fourth speaker of the said retreat program is no other than the school’s
principal Dr. Rolisa T. Benedicto, Ph.D. Like other guest speaker, the principal’s address
was motivational and highly engaging. The students had fun with the games that Dr.
Rolisa had developed herself and the inspirational messages that she offered us, the
spiritual retreat have done successful. One of the activities that was truly felt by the
students was where the students are given a piece of whitepaper glued on their back
and whoever wants to write on it can do. According to her, as she looks on the faces of
the kids there were sad and crying, there were cheerful, and there were the faces that
she cannot decipher. The activity was very emotional yet it is one of the best activities
have ever done because the students were allowed to express their emotions through
writing and they were given the time to reflect on their selves.