Campus Beauty Pageant

On my way home I passed by the college where I used to teach. It was the old municipal building turned into a school. So it looks like the usual "munisipyo with plaza" in any provincial municipality; which is why events in the school are usually open to the public (the municipal plaza serves as a gazebo-type school auditorium). An event has just ended, well, a pageant (Mr. & Ms. "School Name"). Hay, goodness! They are in college already!

Hay! I don't know if it has something to do with being a 'provincial school'. But the beauty pageant syndrome is very apparent in our area (maybe in other provinces). Both schools I attended (GS and HS) were somehow active in staging such activities (maybe lesser for the former). And at a young age, I was a victim as well (evidence below). This is the first time I'm actually posting a personal picture (but hey this is an old picture, haha! At oo, mas maganda ako nung bata ako, hahaha!).

There is such a tradition (culture?) of staging beauty pageants left and right in our area, thus in most schools in our place. In my high school, I think around 4 beauty pageants (Miss UN, Mr. & Ms. Intramurals, Mr. & Ms. "School Name", Mr. & Ms. JS) are held each school year. Aside from these in-school pageants, it is also common for the school to send representatives to inter-school beauty pageants (oo meron nun sa amin!).

Beauty pageants would fall under extra-curricular activities. There is definitely nothing wrong with extra-curricular activities. They are very much essential. These serve as other venues to hone the skills of the students. These can also assist in their interpersonal development. Through these activities, they can acquire values that may not be learned inside the classroom.

But there is something wrong when your school holds more than one beauty contest in a school year. What values do you actually get from a beauty contest? Ah, with my observations during high school, more than instilling good ideals to students, pageants have become sources of corrupt beliefs.

1. That you have to be "close" with ma'am so that she'll help you win in the pageant (oo, pati sa pageant na ganito may nandadaya);
   
2. That with money, you can buy a crown; and
   
3. That one way to be popular in school is to win a pageant.
   

Even if my high school holds other competitions (e.g. quiz bee, essay writing, speech, science congress: investigatory projects), it seems that the students (at least during my time) were more engaged in beauty pageants (students from other sections care less about these other contests; which makes me think that maybe it's not good to have a section hierarchy) and other cultural activities. While there is nothing wrong about holding cultural activities, in our school (maybe in our place), it's just much that they are losing their focus on other more relevant aspects to enhance.

When a friend was sharing about his high school experiences, I couldn't help to feel envious. Their exposures were concretely aimed at making them matured individuals.

Oh well. But at least, we had some good teachers naman. And I guess, academically we were trained pretty okay (marami namang pumasa sa UP and other state U and colleges).