Schools and the looking-good-on-the-outside culture

There are certain events in school which include the participation of parents; 'outside people'. PIBG (PTA) meeting and Hari Anugerah Cemerlang (Speech Day) are 2 such events. You have the Sports Day as well but not many parents will attend that....

This year, I am in charge of getting the stage ready for the PTA meeting... I usually don't get such duties as I am deemed the none-deco-type. Anyway, I'm struck by how much time and money we, at school are willing to waste to decorate a place for a meeting. We're suckers for the look-good-on-the-outside thingy.

Getting the place ready is one thing... but have it done like a bridal chamber with all the curtains and frills? And also the time wasted in getting the place ready... hanging up the backdrop, frills and what have you not is so typical of our look-good-on-the-outside culture now. We can spend the whole morning and sometimes a day or two before, doing up a place which will only be used for 3 hours... how many man hours gone down the drain?? We teachers are really jia-lat cos we are promoting such culture too.

Similarly, another favourite is curtain frills in the classrooms. These are the mini curtains which hang above the windows. And they cover the air vents. They hang there for a whole year, collecting dust, not washed till the year comes to the end. The curtains may look 'nice' but they block the movement or air too. We know hot air rises and architects bear that in mind when they design the classrooms. The upper part of the wall is built with 'air vents' so that there is good circulation of air. Now, block those vents up... and what have you? Almost 40 students in a stuffy classroom... and dusty curtains. Who knows what microbial creatures thrive there? And these curtains cost precious $. But then again, the people who think of these rather let the kids and teachers bear the discomfort.

And wrapping up the tables with papers and plastics. We might as well tell the manufacturers to make tables without finishings as no matter how nice they may be, they'll all be wrapped up like some presents. Until today, I've yet to hear a plausible reason for this wrapping thingy. Students waste money buying the plastic and paper. We are dressing up everything that can be dressed up.... to impress! It feels so wrong, somehow.

And this brings to mind the Sekolah Harapan (???Vision School) competition. When a school takes part in a Sekolah Harapan competition, one of the frenzies it would go into is that of the keceriaan (beautifying) part. There'll be this frenzy to update files.. which often contains pseudo paper work; many of which are reports for activities not carried out but put in to dress up the files and give an impression of substance. Hours are spent beautifying those files. They all look really nice and uniformed. Hence, sometimes non deserving schools win.

Then the students are put into another frenzy...gotong-royong frenzy to beautify the school; class, compound, library, just about any school area. I think that happened in one of the schools which won this award. Everything around the school starts wearing skirts. You have skirts for the canteen table, office tables, teachers' tables... basically anything that has legs, they'll put a skirt on. I supposed you could say this is one of the problems that stems from having too many lady teachers. LOL! The canteen skirts become a convenient wiping cloth. And school starts to look like a home... hence phrases such as Sekolahku, Rumahku.... everything sounds nice, looks nice... but still, things don't feel quite right.

So, there you have.... teachers and students in the same frenzy, working hand in hand to create an impression of something which is actually not there. Isn't this 'tipulogy' at work here? And we are producing a whole generation of 'tipu-ists'.... or it's just the look-good-on-the-outside culture at play here? They feel the same to me. *shrug shoulders* Apples with worms... they still look good on the outside, don't they? Take a bite and you will be filled with disgust!