This is a true story.
There’s this girl, a high school junior, whom I’ll call Anita. She was a candidate for Vice President in the student government and she won by a slim two-vote victory. She won. There was no doubt about that. There were no accusations of cheating or anything. As far as the students and the school administration were concerned, she won fair and square.
But Anita was unhappy. She was expecting to win by a landslide. She spent the campaign period reminding everyone that they shouldn’t vote based on popularity implying, of course, that she was the truly qualified candidate and that the only way that her opponent, a senior, could win was if students voted because he was more likeable. Her position, sadly, was untenable. The other candidate was actually more qualified than she was. Anita was an A student but without leadership qualities. Students — not just her classmates — shunned her because they considered her to be a selfish and self-centered person. In Anita’s view, her grades made her more qualified than her opponent who was just an average student. Where she got that twisted idea, I do not know. And she actually managed to make a number of students buy that reasoning — that was how she won. But that’s not really the point.
After the elections, after she had been declared the winner, she very angrily confronted her classmates. She called them traitors because she was so sure that not everyone in the class voted for her. In her mind, if everyone had, her winning margin would have been much, much wider. She was their classmate, after all, and the other candidate was a senior.
Now, that really stumped me. When she was campaigning, she asked everyone not to vote based on popularity yet she was angry afterward because she expected her classmates to vote for her for the simple reason that she was their classmate. And I wondered how it figured in her earlier position that it is the qualified candidate who deserves to win. After all the speeches, she turned out to be just another title hungry individual. Balimbing pa because the right reason for voting changed depending on what was favorable to her.
Gee, if I were her classmate, I’d have her impeached.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
bariotic 10.13.08 at 9:19 am
The girl is going to be in for a rude awakening when she rolls up her sleeves and embarks on this leadership role. Handling any organization where you are required to lead another person or group of people is not a simple task, leading is the most dynamic responsibility. One of the hardest challenge is to earn the trust of your team, and be able to govern using moral authority, not positional authority. Done right, this also makes it the most satisfying.
I can understand how a young person with “A grades” would have an immature view of what she was seeking for. We were young before, and we sometimes tend to see ourselves much better or worthy than we truly are because we have limited experience to learn from. I can already tell her tenure is not going to be a smooth sail, and hope she learns from all the friction she is going to face, and makes her an overall better person after.
Malyn 10.13.08 at 9:42 am
Classmate of your kid?
Connie Veneracion 10.13.08 at 10:13 am
bariotic, re “One of the hardest challenge is to earn the trust of your team, and be able to govern using moral authority, not positional authority.”
Oh, how well said. Dictators are so yesterday but I suppose it is a fashion that some people still cling to. For everyone’s sake, I hope that things work okay. At least, all the heartaches (hers and her classmates’) won’t go to waste.
Malyn…
kotsengkuba 10.13.08 at 9:23 pm
classroom impeachment ito?
i remember a senior running for president of student council (from another section) once campaigned in our class. ganito ang linya nya - “hindi porke’t galing sa star section e iboboto na.” i assumed she was referring to our classmate who is running for the same position. she got my vote before that.
my classmate end up winning but one time nilitanyahan ako ng ganito nung ayaw ko suportahan yung isang project nya - “alam ko naman hindi ako ang binoto mo e” to which i replied “oo naman”
tatlo kase silang running nun.
Connie Veneracion 10.14.08 at 7:16 am
I don’t know if impeachment is allowed in school elections hehehe If not impeachment, perhaps, just disqualification even after winning for lousy moral character? LOL
Re “hindi porke’t galing sa star section e iboboto na.†Parang si “Anita din” with her don’t vote for a candidate just because he is popular. Ang babata pa, hayop na magpatutsada, ano?
rhodora 10.14.08 at 2:05 pm
I wonder if Anita’s parents are aware of this. But you know some parents - kahit mali ang anak, kakampihan pa rin.
I recall one incident too when I was still teaching. The salutatorian accompanied by the parents, complained and claimed she was more qualified to be on top of the class than the valedictorian. But of course, the records couldn’t be altered - she was salutatorian and that’s what the records said she deserved. Well, she did not attend the graduation, as per the parents’ prodding. Twisted conviction.
Connie Veneracion 10.14.08 at 7:21 pm
rhodora, LOL I have a similar experience. When I was in grade 3, the second honoree’s parents complained that I shouldn’t get first honors because my grade in conduct was low. Their son should be number one according to them. Too bad for them the grade in conduct was not included in the computation of the final grade being a non-academic subject. So I got the top place. Boy were they mad.
red rocks 10.17.08 at 9:36 am
Give the kid a break. At her age she likely equates responsibility in schoolwork with responsibility as a member of their student council. Perhaps, having high standards for herself, she naively expected her peers to recognize that effort and hard work should be the basis for election, and not popularity in spite of mediocrity.
Granted she behaved immaturely, but remember she’s still a kid. I remember that it was pretty hard to accept that Erap was elected president when anyone with half a brain can see that he was no good for the country.
As for impeachment, when was being ungracious acceptable grounds for such a humiliating action? Again, let’s not forget that this is just a high school kid realizing that the world does not behave logically. She’ll grow out of it. Again, give her a break.
Connie Veneracion 10.17.08 at 5:25 pm
red socks, how sure are you that this kid will grow out of it? I know a lot of people in the 40s who are drug users because when they were teeners, their parents said it was just a phase and they would grow out of it. One of these people graduated magna cum laude from DLSU. And, yes, he set very high standards for himself acting like he was superior to everyone else because he was an A student. Some people acquire an “attitude” at an early age. Some overcome it; others don’t.
belle 10.21.08 at 7:45 pm
Give her a break? Seriously, she may be young, but she’s no 3rd grader.I’m willing to bet she gets her “attitude” from home. It’s probably what’s practiced by her parents, and I’m sure her parents were ra-ra-rahing her when she made sumbong. I was in high school a loooooong time ago, and I can still remember how I dealt with life. All my morals were intact and decision making was based on right or wrong. Perhaps i was mature for my age, but what I was then is pretty much what I am now. If that girl’s attitude is not curbed, she’s just gonna grow up to be another tyrant who thinks it’s her way or the highway!
Connie Veneracion 10.21.08 at 9:04 pm
Amen.