PTSA Reflections 2024-2025
PTSA Reflections 2024-2025
Each year, the PTA Reflections program offers students a platform to express their unique perspectives and interpretation of a student-created theme. For the 2024-2025 school year, the theme is “Accepting Imperfection.” This theme serves as a powerful reminder that our flaws and mistakes are just as much a part of us as our strengths and are a natural and beautiful part of being human.
Perfection is most often subjective and created by societal or community standards and, increasingly, it has become especially important across our fast-paced, perfection-driven society. Despite everyone feeling the pressure to be perfect, “Accepting Imperfection,” which means embracing flaws rather than rejecting them, is a deeply personal journey for students—and adults.
Some students may feel pressure to be flawless, which can come from themselves, their families, or society, and will pursue perfection relentlessly. However, their pursuit will often end in disappointment because perfection, as many of us envision it, is unattainable. This can lead to stress, anxiety, and a sense of never being good enough.
In contrast, some students may view imperfections as part of the journey to excellence. To them, mistakes and flaws are seen as stepping stones, each one contributing to the development of skills, character, and resilience. In this way, imperfection becomes a powerful motivator.
Because “Accepting Imperfection” is a personal experience and concept, there are endless possibilities for artistic expression across the PTA Reflections arts categories:
- Dance Choreography: A dancer might choreograph a piece that highlights moments of imbalance or missteps, weaving these “mistakes” into the performance to show that they are expressions of humanity and growth.
- Music Composition: Musicians can explore imperfection by embracing the natural variability in performances. A piece doesn’t need to be flawless to be powerful; often, it’s the slight deviations and emotional nuances that make it memorable.
- Photography: Photographs can capture the beauty of candid, unposed moments or highlight unique flaws—wrinkles, scars, or everyday messiness—which can tell a more compelling story than a picture-perfect image.
- Literature: Writers can explore imperfection through storytelling about a character who finds strength in their flaws or through an acrostic poem that uses each line to celebrate a different, personal imperfection.
- Visual Arts: Drawings, paintings, and sculptures can elevate imperfections as the true standard of beauty, contrasting them with traditionally “perfect” elements to emphasize the value of the imperfect.
- Film Production: Filmmakers can capture and edit day-to-day footage to create a narrative that showcases the beauty of everyday life, using cinematic techniques to explore how the world would look if ordinary people, not Hollywood, defined perfection.
The deadline to enter will be Wednesday, January 8, 2025. Winners at the school level will be announced by early February. Greenville District winners will be announced in late February, and South Carolina PTA winners will be announced in early March. The winning artists in each category will receive a gift card and be recognized at Wade's Awards Night in late spring.
You can enter in as many categories and as many times as you wish.
- Each entry must be accompanied by a Student Entry Form that is completed online.
- Size restrictions for photography and visual arts apply.
- Time and size restrictions apply for dance and music entries.
- Word limits apply for literature.
- Rules for each art category are listed in the entry form.
- Make sure to view those rules prior to submitting the form