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School uniform

15:33 / 04.09.02

At the beggining of the school term a few weeks back i reterned to school to find allmost everybody wearing school uniform. This was quite a shock as normally our rector(headmaster) didnt do anything about it. However on talking to a friend i found out that the rector had sent out letters to every parent in the school regarding uniform and it becoming compulsery. So now i've been in school for about two weeks and i've been sent to his office 3 times and have been reprimanded many times by different teachers for not being in school uniform. I disagree with it as i think it's unnecessary and unpractical. Also i disagree because i think that teachers have started to take the attitude that they have ultimate power over you when in reality they should(!) only be able to repremand you for misbehaving. So i was wondering what everybody thought on the topic and if anybody had any advice or similar stories. Thanks loads Spec

15:42 / 04.09.02

...the question I want to ask you is how, if the letter from the rector went to everyone, your parents
a. didn't receive the letter, or if they did
b. didn't tell you about this.

I used to think school uniforms were a bad idea until I had to wear one every day during my last two years of secondary school. To be honest, I found welcome relief from the fashion rat-race I'd experienced in other schools. Not to mention relief from the constant jabbing I got from other, bigger kids for looking different. Damn bullies. I'll show them...mutter mutter grumble mutter *moves into background to continue work on H.G. Wells-style time machine*

15:50 / 04.09.02

At one of the schools I went to, the teachers would occasionally tug our trouser legs to make sure we were wearing uniform socks. Obviously this was to check they were exactly the right shade of grey and correct length because they'd soon notice bright red socks even without such close examination, don't you think? I can't see how the arguments for school uniforms apply in differentiating between two shades of grey.

On the other hand, while they insisted on boys wearing our long grey trousers and identical socks, the girls seemed to be allowed to wear skirts of varying length, in some cases consisting of a mere scrap of material. Maybe they considered this justified by the educational views thus provided to hetero boys...

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:10 / 04.09.02

During my time working in a girls school I wished the sixth form had to wear a uniform as what a lot of them would wear was showing off stuff which, even if I had been generally interested at the time, really would have been better hidden. And when it came to the Mufti day when the rest of the school got in on the act...

17:44 / 04.09.02

As long as you never pursue or allow the pressure of uniformity to govern what goes on inside your head, spec, you'll be fine. The external show is very secondary.

I wore my uniform without too much difficulty because it made life easier for my impecunious parents but I belong to another age. Inside my head, I was Ziggy Stardust with lavatory brush hair.

In my own time I enjoyed having everything dyed purple that much more. The epicureans had that bit right.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

17:47 / 04.09.02

I wish my highschool had uniforms. The dress code was rediculously complicated and changed every year, so you never knew just which rules you were breaking. The good thing about school uniforms is that the smaller they make the box, the easier it is to think outside it.

19:03 / 04.09.02

You aren't one of those people who go around saying, "My clothes allow me to express myself!", are you? My advice is to just suck it up and wear the uniform; it's not gonna kill you.

Foust is SO authentic

19:06 / 04.09.02

Silly children and their silly concerns. Who cares about what clothes you wear, for crying out loud?

ONLY NICE THINGS

19:17 / 04.09.02

Many potential employers. Many potential boy- or girl-friends, people in the street, some restaurateurs and, as it turns out, at least one head teacher.

Oh, I'm sorry. You were being rhetorical.

20:09 / 04.09.02

Firstly thanks for all the replies. Now, I consider school to be a place i goto to learn and my point is that i'm my own boss and the rector has no place telling me what to wear since it makes absolutely no difference to the education i recieve. I'm generally quite a good student but this i take seriously. And to Foust, the clothes you wear while i hate to admit it do make a difference (damn society) to the way people percieve us...first impressions and all that. I am generally frowned upon by the teachers in my school when some of them dont even wear anything like it (the younger teachers generally). This to me seems like an issue of treating people who lets face have been taught to either think for themselves or be complete sheep by the age of 12. Sorry if this is petty.

20:18 / 04.09.02

When I was at school I hated the idea of having a uniform but eventually saw the wisdom of it and ended up wishing it was more restrictive. All the other girls were always more in the know as to what was in fashion, I was uninterested but wanted a quiet life and it didn't help that I was always percieved as being one step behind. One girl was especially poor as both her parents were unemployed, and she was given a lot of problems because she was even more out of step than I was. So I think that uniforms are a necessary thing, it can give the more 'misfit' kids something to hide behind, or, rather, less to be bullied about. As long as they're affordable.

08:50 / 05.09.02

Obviously hated school uniform when I was there. But then it was pantaloons, a lace ruff and a satin jerkin, so you can see why.

But it is good for not making the differences between the haves and the have-nots even more marked, as others have said. Wait until weekend to wear your rah-rah skirt.

10:45 / 05.09.02

Actually the uniform at my school was the least of my problems, it was one less thing to think about in the moring or parents to spend money on at school. The fact that my school was all boys was much more oppressive.
If it worries you, one method is to wear badges on the lapels, until they ban that if they're very oppresive. Then you just have to get into arguments with teachers about everything else, do you have a common room for your year, you should do. Start a poster campaign, get an action committee together, organise

*patronising mode off*

17:33 / 05.09.02

Just remembered I was forced to wear short trousers until I went to High School at 12, all year long. Ignore everything I said before, school uniforms are torture.

You do see tube trains full of twenty year olds in school uniform heading for Brixton Academy on Friday nights. Guess nostalgia for the shitty inbetween years fogs one's judgment in later years.

& you're not being petty, s.o.d. When I was a Charge Nurse in an Acute Psychiatric Ward and desperate for a change of experience, a really good job came up in a new national brain injuries unit that I seriously considered and would have had a bloody good shot at. Until I saw the uniform I'd have to wear. Itchy nylon shirts and jogging bottoms with dress shoes. No chance.

So my gorgeous fashion victim deputy went for the job, got it, and left within six months to wear proper clothes, as an adviser to the Scottish Parliament.

I still think your sense of self will not develop as it should though if you focus too much on the superficial, important as it seems when you're young and bubbling with hormones.

05:53 / 06.09.02

Funny you should mention schooldisco.com etc ZoCher. I was thinking of starting a head shop topic about the whole phenomenon. Grown women dressing as school-girls to attract men? Something fundamentally icky there.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:38 / 06.09.02

Oh please do, I've talked to Plums about this before, but am fundamentally too lazy at the moment to start the thread myself...

Tryphena Absent

17:31 / 06.09.02

I got to wear this fantastic tartan skirt that billowed out if you turned fast. Everyone else used to roll the skirts up but I left mine below my knees because I didn't have to bother about sitting properly. I hated wearing school shirts though... ugly things.

00:44 / 07.09.02

(insert predictable fantasy about tartan skirts and schoolgirl uniforms here)

02:01 / 07.09.02

Ew, Rev. Jesse, ew.