While waiting for my car alarm to be fixed, my hubby and I walked over to the Old Country Buffet for breakfast. While we were enjoying our meal, I people watched. When I yelled, “Ewww!”, my husband looked up, wondering if I had ingested something other than food. However, my loud comment did not stem from my food, it was from the view of a woman’s buttocks as she rose from her seat. Not just the crack, but the whole top of her butt! Why did I have to see that? Why wasn’t she wearing a belt? Yuck!
It brought to mind, how over the past few years, the words “Pull up your pants” (male and female), or “pull up your shirt” (females) have been spoken by me, repeatedly, to the students in my class. The sad part is, I teach 10 -12 year olds. My boys come to school without a belt, holding their pants up as they walk , and the girls, well, their blouses are low enough to show all. The male 5th grade teacher had a time last year with a little girl who dressed, and looked, like a woman. She wore makeup, and a tight, low-cut, blouse, practically every day. He finally got to the point where he kept T-shirts in the room, and made her wear them.
I’ve tried talking to parents, especially about my girls. Most of the time, they became defensive, sometimes even irate. They felt that I had no right to tell them how to dress their children. I had conversations with my girls, asking them to look at the way I dress. I told my boys the origin of wearing no belts, the sagging pants, but nothing seemed to work! I know they won’t go back to the way I dressed when I was a child, but seriously?
I drop my son at his high school every morning, I can not describe the sights I see every day! The boys’ boxer shorts, girls in booty shorts, or low-cut pants, midriff blouses, and what seems to be the staple, low-cut, tight blouses. I feel sorry for the male middle and high school teachers, especially when it’s warm. And no, I am not saying anything negative or implying that the male teachers are pervs. But who wants that in their face every day? My son’s school, like mine, does has a dress code, but it is rarely enforced.
We seem to have become a society of “hide nothing, show all”, whether we’re young or old. I recently read an a blog post about lingerie for little girls. SMH
Is it a problem in other countries?
Besides uniforms, what solutions does your school have for this problem?
DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER 
Comments on: "“Hide Nothing, Show All!” The Way Our Students Dress for School!" (2)
here in new zealand the kids all wear uniforms, and they are NOT customizable (i remember reading an article in 17 magazine once about personalising your uniform in the states. that’s a no no here). there is also a hair rule and a makeup rule. basically, girls all come to school in ponytails and clean faces, though mascara seems to prosper (i think because male staff cannot tell the difference!). boys are required to put their hair in a ponytail if it is long enough to hit the collar, and it must be pulled aside if it is over the eyes. everyone wears socks and school shoes. the kids like it, for the most part, because it keeps everyone equal; nz is a very egalitarian society. of course, they don’t like the uniformity (sorry) of it all. our biggest problem with uniforms is boys wanting their shirts untucked. girls on occasion hem their skirts too short, but get told to fix it. students who dye their hair unnatural colours get 24 hours to go back to their normal colour. no visible tattoos are allowed at most schools. basically, everyone is expected to look neat & tidy & the same. my only complaint about the uniforms is that they are quite expensive (it costs about $1000 to outfit a first-year high school student with just the basics) and you cannot buy alternatives. also, coming from southern california, i disagree with the strict “uniform only” rule in the winter! it’s bloody cold and the kids are in shorts & skirts! i dealt with this by putting my dd in merino underlayers and thick tights.
some might find this difficult to comprehend, but it does provide a safe environment for everyone and we don’t have a lot of the social problems that stem from poor choices in dressing. of course, the culture here for girls is completely different, which assists girls in not falling into the hollywood barbie trap. girls have equal access to sport and the lifestyle here is very outdoorsy, which isn’t conducive to skimpy outfits and sky high heels. another unique feature of nz schools is the equal, public access to single-sex education. most towns have a boys hs, a girls hs, and possibly a co-ed hs. in the area where i live, there are the boys school, the girls school, and 3 co-eds in the surrounding areas. there is a long waiting list for both single-sex schools if you don’t live in the catchment area (school district).
whenever i am in the states, and see how the students dress so far above their age (and, frankly, so sexually), i sigh in relief that i chose to raise my daughter here.
i wonder, is our disbelief/shock a sign of our age? lol. i remember pushing the boundaries at my own high school, but never would have worn anything skimpy like the girls wear today, or even high heels. we wore jeans and t-shirts mostly.
Thank you for sharing Kelly. I was really curious if this problem existed in other countries. And no, it’s not our age, they really push the limits.