This morning, Briony was telling me about the assortment of ways students break uniform rules at the school where she teaches: some boys wear hoodies (no hoods are allowed) and some refuse to change from PE clothes back into uniform. Some wear a strange looking mixture of shirt & tie with sports shorts.
If there is no legitimate excuse for the infringement, an afternoon detention is the consequence.
It got me remembering two of my childhood winters when I would have had a lot of detentions.
I think I was in year 4 (so aged 10) the year I decided to wear a beanie in class all day, every day. In my defence it was a blue beanie, not the same shade as the uniform but not screaming at it. I don't remember ever being asked to take it off.
I was in early high school when mum bought me a blue parka with red trim. It wasn't intended to be worn to school but (again) it blended with the uniform. I put it on one very cold day and was intending to take it off when I arrived at school but it was cosy and made a nice swishy noise, nobody asked me to take it off so I wore it all day and every day of the winter after that.
When Keaghan was in mid high school, the only colour he wore for several years was grey. I wondered why on earth he was so obsessed with such a boring colour but looking back, the apple fell pretty close to the tree.
My High School had no uniform. We were required to dress in school colours, blue, grey, maroon - which left the field wide open. For most of us, comfort was the decider. A few wore fashionable attire, but they didn't start a trend.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of an Australian school being so relaxed about uniform. My primary school also used maroon, blue and grey.
DeleteAs a teacher I expended far too much energy enforcing school uniform regulations. This was ironic really because I have always disliked school uniforms and never really saw the point of them. The energy I expended would have been better spent on lesson preparation.
ReplyDeleteUniform compliance is used (rightly or wrongly) as an indicator of every measure of a school.
DeleteHumanity is often superficial and dumb
We had no school uniforms, but I would not have minded having them. I was/never have been a clothes horse and it would have taken all the decision making out of the equation.
ReplyDeleteIf I hadn't worn a uniform, I would have developed one of my own for the same reason!
DeleteWe had no school uniform, and I am not sure how I would have felt about a uniform. My children were not required to wear a uniform. The only schools that we knew that had uniforms were Catholic schools. Then, when private Christian schools came along, they also had uniforms.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian schools are crazy about uniforms. In my view that just shows that they are run by conservatives who like controlling people
DeleteBoth my schools had uniforms which were very strictly enforced. I never rebelled against uniforms. I saved my rebelling to things that I thought really mattered.
ReplyDeleteGraham, my dad always says the greatest rebels look like everyone else
DeleteNo uniforms here but thee are some very minimal dress codes.
ReplyDeleteIn pre-schools we require children to wear sleeves and hats for sun protection and closed shoes for feet. That makes sense.
DeleteI didn't really like wearing a uniform at my high school - particularly as the colours were orange and bottle green. Yuk. But in some ways it protected me from the fashion bitches whose families were a lot better off then mine.
ReplyDeleteOrange and green is an unusual combination!
DeleteAt my school, people still found ways to express themselves and we knew who the Barbie Dolls were but you're right, uniform takes an edge off that whole competition
You were lucky to get away with those deviations. Rules about school uniforms are pretty strict here in Northern Ireland. Girls in particular don't deviate from the official outfit. Boys also adhere more or less to the uniform rules, though they like to have their shirt hanging out of their pants. Who knows what that's all about?
ReplyDeletehaving a shirt out is uniform, albeit untidy!
DeleteWhen I was in High School, because of laziness, I could not find the washed and ironed prescribed colour shirt and on a few occasions was caned for not being in uniform. And that was 65 years ago!
ReplyDeleteA caning is a big punishment for a relatively minor offence. It sounds very colonial
DeleteI find reading about uniforms (and altering them in some way) interesting because we never had uniforms, nor did our children, so it's all new to me. I'm not sure uniforms do anything positive for anybody but they never completely die out, do they? Supposedly they create a level playing field for families of unequal means, but do those families who can't afford them get any financial help?
ReplyDeleteThats a great question. When my kids were in school, anyone who received a family tax benefit also received a start of school year bonus to help with school expenses but I have a feeling that has been cut.
DeleteWelfare agencies will assist with uniforms and most schools have a second hand uniform pool.
Not many bother to pretend uniform is about equity, it's very much used to signal that a school has good discipline. Unfortunately, it's only symbolic as many schools focus on uniform rather than actually having consistent disciplinary actions
So ... rather political then (in the derogatory sense of the word). Interesting to hear about the options for poorer families though.
DeleteI had a navy blue school uniform and hated it. I'm sure one of the reasons I left school at 16 and went to college is so I didn't have to wear it anymore.
ReplyDeleteYes, I hear you. I wore navy to school and many times after school but these days I view it as a hard, corporate colour
DeleteWe had to wear uniform, no make-up and hair tied back too. And CERTAINLY no nail varnish. Anyone caught wearing it would be sent to the chemistry lab to have it removed at a cost of 1p a nail, if I remember right!
DeleteYes! we were sent to the science staffroom to have it removed using acetone. Mrs Keam, the head of science, was tall and thin and fearsome!
DeleteNo real uniforms worn unless there was a school trip somewhere - and the guidance in school was to wear blue, grey, black or white. I got told off a couple of times for a blouse that was mostly white but had multi-colour stripes across the shoulders - but I loved that blouse!
ReplyDeleteSx
You couldn't see the stripes so they didn't matter! I love that story
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