@steveTu I totally agree about having school uniform. It does prevent kids having the proverbial taken for not being able to afford the latest trainers, designer tops etc. The uniform does need to be simple and cheap. Plain tops of x colour and black/grey trousers. Separate school badge which can be sewn on, not items from the school's 'preferred supplier' at inflated prices.
When I started at Grammar school I remember my parents struggling to afford to pay for all the kit required, available from only 2 shops, and that was at a time when my Dad was in the RAF so on decent money.
My dad didn't go to a Grammar school because his parent couldn't afford it (he was one of seven children). He made sure that all three of his kids didn't have the same problem - although money was very, very tight in our family (and you don't realise as a kid eh?), but all three of us passed the eleven plus and went.
The school was quite strict, and had as I said, appearance rules (you had to wear a cap to and from school - getting caught by a prefect out of school without a cap was a detention) over the uniform and general demeanour and presentation. A group of kids did protest in the 3rd form about hair length and got the local paper to report it. Somehow I was in the photo (oddly as I never really had - or wanted - long hair. My hair was/is very wavy/frizzy and grows out from my head rather than down) - my dad was not tooooooo preased when he saw the photo and I had to get my (already short'ish) hair cut. Looking back, I personally think the rules were fine. If the rule had been to have long hair, I'm sure the protest would have been to cut it short. I still think that schools should try to stop fads,fashions and trends entering the school gates if those fads/fashions can lead to kids feeling left out because of something that's out of their control (ie their parents wealth).
Back when Moses was a lad (1970) our high school decided to have a crackdown on hair length and about a dozen of us were suspended from school. I am not sure they had any legal right to do so and as we were a bolshie lot we protested, getting into the national press and TV at the time. I was the only one wearing the school uniform so ended up as the front man. No hiding place then and my Dad cut my hair that night. So much for my 15 seconds of fame!
a friend of mine went to school with Annie Lennox. She was refused entry to school for not wearing her blazer . She went home, and returned in thigh length leather boots and her jacket and nothing else. She was met at the school gate by the headmaster " I'm wearing my jacket, can I come in now?"
I went to a school with a strict uniform code. The equality argument was nonsense. The rich kids had pristine uniform that fitted. The poor kids didn't.
I went to a school with a strict uniform code. The equality argument was nonsense. The rich kids had pristine uniform that fitted. The poor kids didn't.
I agree that could happen when expensive blazers etc were required. That why I say that the uniform needs to be simple e.g. a plain colour which can be sourced anywhere, with a sew on badge.
It's just as bad with no school uniform. None required in Belgium but lots of pressure to have the right label even in schools with a wide variety of pupils/backgrounds/incomes. Hard to explain to Possum that I refuse to pay to wear other people's brand advertising so no Abercrombie, Superdry and the rest that were "de rigueur".
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
No school uniform in France either, but one of my childrens' teachers said there was in practice - jeans and a jumper in winter, jeans or a skirt with a tee shirt in summer.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
If uniform/hair rules can be seen to be 'ist' (ie why should boys have short hair and girls long, some styles are 'ethnic'...etc?), should those rules be scrapped?
Is appearance anything to do with learning? Does appearance affect how people perform? Does a lack of uniformity lead to wealth prejudice?
Does that also lead into business attire (I had to wear suit or jacket and tie virtually all my working life in potentially client facing roles)?
Which rules are a fashion in their own right? IE a tie, a suit, a jacket were all at some point a fashion that become normalised. Can those 'fashionable' rules be scrapped without any detriment?
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She was refused entry to school for not wearing her blazer . She went home, and returned in thigh length leather boots and her jacket and nothing else.
She was met at the school gate by the headmaster
" I'm wearing my jacket, can I come in now?"
I agree that could happen when expensive blazers etc were required. That why I say that the uniform needs to be simple e.g. a plain colour which can be sourced anywhere, with a sew on badge.
Does that also lead into business attire (I had to wear suit or jacket and tie virtually all my working life in potentially client facing roles)?