Middle School Leggings Bans -- For Some Girls Only
Just when kids are trying out different styles and figuring out who and how to be, a teacher comes around to squash them like bugs -- especially certain girls.
Carrie Goldman writes at Chicago Now about a ban on leggings for girls in middle school -- but just certain girls -- the hot ones, the curvy ones, the heavy ones.
The principal of the school has been very responsive to the concerns and is working to discuss the situation with parents and teachers.But no one has addressed what I think is the biggest problem with the dress code: of the female students, only specific girls are being dress-coded, and the kids have noticed it.
Four Haven 7th graders were talking about the leggings ban with Juliet Bond, who asked if any girls in particular are targeted by teachers for violating the dress code.
"Yes," the girls all responded, "The girls that are developed are the ones that get dress-coded. "
Bond, a LCSW who teaches Gender Studies at Columbia College, tried to clarify, "Do you mean that the girls without boobs are not getting dress-coded?"
The girls all replied. "Yes. That's what is happening."
Just last week, a 7th grader with a curvy build came home upset about this. She had worn an outfit with a skirt and leggings, and in the morning, a teacher had said to her, "Cute outfit." But then her homeroom teacher pulled her aside at the end of the day and said, "You know, another girl could get away with that outfit, but you should not be wearing that. I'm going to dress code you." Juliet Bond and the child's mom were discussing the incident, not certain if the message to the child was 'you're too sexy' or 'you're too fat.'
The kids also report that the teachers have been discussing 'appropriate body types for leggings and yoga pants and inappropriate body types for yoga pants and leggings.'
What's with schools playing the mom like this? This is a job for actual moms and dads -- to tell their kid, "Over my dead body are you wearing that to school."
Once the kids are in school, unless they're running around half-naked and drawing everybody's eyes away from the blackboard, the teachers should just do what they're hired to do -- teach -- and not lecture on fashion choices.
A commenter on the site concurs:
Jerry Pipes · Tucson, Arizona
As a reformed teacher, principal and school superintendent, I continue to be amazed at the half-baked rules dreamed up nitwitted school administrators to install barriers against the joy and excitement of learning. When will they ever learn to focus on the important stuff?
via @AndreaKuszewski
That's reality. If you're developed and you're showing any skin you're a filthy, filthy whore. A skinny girl can wear two bandaids over her nipples and be fine.
That's just life.
NicoleK at March 22, 2014 12:55 AM
Okay, now, notice something:
When schools don't have one-size-fits-all policies, this sort of thing happens; when they do, somebody else gets squashed.
Radwaste at March 22, 2014 3:04 AM
When will they learn to focus on the important stuff?
What, and have people find out that they suck at that too?
Robert at March 22, 2014 5:25 AM
Why on earth would any girl---curvy and developed or skinny president of the IBTC---get flack over an outfit with both skirt and leggings? I can see how the line gets weird when girls try to wear leggings as pants, but under a skirt/dress, how would it matter? If the skirt is too short, then say that!
Meh. I'm in favor of uniforms. Khaki pants/skirts, solid color polos, done.
Jenny Had A Chance at March 22, 2014 6:12 AM
Uniforms suck even WORSE for the overdeveloped and overweight, as they never fit properly.
NicoleK at March 22, 2014 6:49 AM
Hogwarts had uniforms - but what I think was noteworthy was that the actions of an individual could bring credit or demerit to their House.
I know - it wasn't real. Neither is the idea of teaching responsibilities here.
Radwaste at March 22, 2014 6:58 AM
Robert nailed it:
When will they learn to focus on the important stuff?
What, and have people find out that they suck at that too?
Jim Simon at March 22, 2014 8:08 AM
Nicole, only if you have to buy the uniforms from one particular store. The way public schools do uniforms now (they just say "khakis and this color of polo, buy it wherever") works for kids of different builds. A polo shirt is a polo shirt is a polo shirt, pretty much, but if Old Navy's khakis make your butt look big, you try the kind at Target or Sears or Wal-Mart. I was one of the early bloomers and never had a problem with polo shirts.
I dunno. I have had kids at uniform schools and not (currently have some in uniform and some not) and found the uniform made the most sense, financially and discipline-wise.
Jenny Had A Chance at March 22, 2014 9:13 AM
Add dark pants to the uniform too. Navy or black pants won't kill anyone!
Jen at March 22, 2014 9:16 AM
All public schools should have uniforms. The dress code should advertize the nature of the institution. (smile)
The public schools are fulfilling the plans of John Dewey and the authoritarian state. This was the intent from the beginning.
John Dewey was a social planner and a still celebrated philosopher of the US public schools:
"Independent self-reliant people would be a counterproductive anachronism in the collective society of the future where people will be defined by their associations (1896)."
[ Restated: The groups you belong to will be much more important than what you know, in the socialist, planned world of the future. ]
"The children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society that is coming, where everyone would be interdependent (1899)."
[ Restated: We don't want independent thinkers. A few smart children will be needed to run the society, from the proper families and trained in the private schools. Any excess from the public schools will merely spoil social harmony by needlessly trying to change or oppose the scientific plans of the elite.]
Andrew_M_Garland at March 22, 2014 10:56 AM
Wonderful. Another thing for preteen girls to worry about. Does the principal notice my precociously large boobs? Do all my peers notice that I'm so flat I can wear a spandex catsuit? By all means, let's make middle school more awkward and humiliating.
Sosij at March 22, 2014 12:50 PM
I'm hugely in favor of school uniforms for two reasons. It stops school from being a fashion show and helps prevents teachers from making unconscious snap judgements of kids.
Andrew at March 25, 2014 12:56 PM
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