the truth about ateneo and ateneans--at least from how i see it

i know i'll get in trouble for this, but i feel that i have to be responsible enough to say it.

it's a known fact that a lot of high school kids are dreaming to get into the Ateneo. there's no denying i was one of them. sige, andun na ako, na Ateneo provides good education and other shit shit, but then i would like to think that, now being an Atenean for almost four years, it's really overrated. yeah, there are some good teachers who do their job superbly, but then, it's just like any other schools, i'm quite sure that each school has its share of good teachers. and just the same, we have teachers who are quite questionable too.

i wouldn't blame other people if they generalize ateneans as mayabang. it's true anyway. since day one (meaning orientation seminar pa lang), school administrators would tell you that you're the cream of the crop and all that crap. of course, during your stay, maybe 50 percent (if not greater) of all your teachers would keep reminding you of that. in fact, a lot of teachers would make unneccessary side comments such as studying in a polluted area in taft is not really a good idea, or if you study in one of our "friendly neighborhood's schools" (UP) you would therefore be trained to become radical and do nothing but join the kilusang mayo uno in their frequent protests against a new policy to be set out by the government, and other insults. classiscal conditioning theory would of course would say that, on way or the other, arrogance would be habituated in you. even if these "praises" were meant to remind the students that much is expected from us and to motivate us to strive hard and not to be complacent about a guaranteed good job upon graduation, we still can't help but feel flattered and take that praise by heart intensely. when one of my friends from UP told me that an atenean vehemently denied that teachers train us to be arrogant, i felt ashamed. well girl, whoever you are (and i'm guessing you're a diehard atenean freshman as of this writing), you might want to ask your upperclassmen friends if what i am saying here is true or not.

honestly, a lot of ateneans do not deserve the praises given to them by other people. ang hirap kasi with our society, dinodiyos nila ang ateneo at mga atensista. now, let me give you a scenario where people who think this way would change their mindset about ateneans. last sunday, along with my fellow ateneans, i watched the ADMU-FEU game in araneta. we sat in the upper A section and we had a lot of ateneo alumni seatmates and some were even three rows behind us. these guys are supposed to be the "highly educated men for others". when you hear their comments on the FEU guys, you'd be really disappointed. "hoy SANTOS (arwind) mukha kang alien! bumalik ka na sa outer space" or "tangina mong ref ka!" this was just an ADMU-FEU game, what more a ADMU-DLSU game. remember last season when mineral water bottles came out of nowhere? sir sev once told us that in our days, we are less intense an audience than students their time. he said that ateneans and lasallites would literally do fist fights before, during, and after the games. there were even times when the students would flatten the tires of the rival schools, crash their car windows, or scratch the cars. being an ateneo almnus himself, sir sev would often say in those instances, nakakahiya talaga ang mga atenista.

i have friends who feel strongly against about our bench culture. i can't deny that having such is not something that we should be proud of. it's another manifestation of our arrogance. i feel guilty about this because we also have our own, but then, i would have to say that we don't treat strangers harshly except when needed. the wooden bench outside the caf (although i did and do have good friends from there), they used to treat strangers (those who do not belong to the bench and sits there) badly. sometimes, they would make parinig something like "is this guy supposed to be here?!" or sometimes even tell it to you straight that "hey you don't belong here! (kulang na lang sabihin na rin nila "...so get your ass out of here") and iniirapan nila sila. good thing though they have tamed down a bit.

as i have observed, the ateneo student population has two dominant groups--the coño crowd and the "indie" group. the coño crowd usually are composed of the models, children from buena familias, residents of ayala alabang/dasmariñas/forbes park/ san lo and other affluent residential areas. they usually speak in english (and not to mention bad filipino speakers) due to their upbringing by their seconday schools-- poveda, assumption, la salle zobel, ateneo high, and southville to name a few. people's usual complaints about them would be that they are too mataray, mapangmata and even choosy (when it comes to friends, since you have to be within the same crowd for some of them to befriend you), and people accuse them that they know nothing but parties, fashion, and other pasosyalan stuffs. the "indie" group usually are com/ fine arts students who "excel" (or at least think that they do) in doing films/ videos, photography, art, and music. you can find a lot of them in sec buildings. a lot of them have or belong to indie bands, usually classified under the alternative genre. they are great great fans of NU 107.5 (quark must be happy for this). what turns me off about them is that they take their works too seriously and are very critical of "neophytes". i sometimes can't help but think of their passion as an overreaction and sometimes using it as a license for their arrogance. when they criticize other people's works, they really use words which when you hear, would make you lose your zeal in pursuing your craft. they really make it a point to tell the whole world that they are THE authority in art. NOT ALL of their works are worthy of praises anyway.

the institution is not spared from corruption too. the com department lacks modern equipments (cameras, television sets, LCD projectors, microphones, editing machines, mixers, etc.) because some of the school officials would rather spend the money on reconstructing buildings that are undamaged, and other useless expenses. in the caf, in spite of us paying so much on electricity, they charge for 50 pesos per hour when we connect the laptops to their sockets or when we charge our mobile phones. pays are relatively too low for a lot of teachers who deserve much more. there are, too, arrogant professors and deans--rudy ang of school of management is one of the best examples. *see past entry. etc. etc.

in spite all of this, i love my school nonetheless. however, my point is that my friend was right when she said that ateneo and ateneans are not worthy of being considered gods. and it's sad that things are blown out of proportion despite the "man for others" motto and philosophy and ethics classes. much is expected of ateneans but only few seem to realize the real meaning behind this.