“Hide Nothing, Show All!” The Way Our Students Dress for School!

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?

Advertisement

R.I.P. Dress Code!

When I saw her outside the office, I wanted to pick up the phone and call someone and say, “Good morning, Natalie will not be allowed in class this morning until someone brings her a change of clothes.”  She had on a waist-length shirt, leggings(they were tights), and calf-length boots.  I really believe she did not have on any underwear,  if she did, they were thongs.  Her “cheeks” were in full view of everyone.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t be sent home, she was a teacher. Yes, a teacher.  You could tell she was uncomfortable, because she kept trying to pull the shirt down over her butt.  I wonder what her thoughts were as she looked in her mirror that morning?   The next day, another teacher, maybe in competition, came in with the same outfit, only her shirt was a little longer.  A student teacher remarked, “She looks like she’s going to a bar.”  She did.  What happened to the dress code? W hen did it become “anything goes?”  My principal did discuss the dress code at the beginning of the year, but maybe these teachers are confused with the term, “dressing like a professional.”  We used to have casual Fridays, but when teachers came in with dirty sneakers and holy jeans, Jeans Day became a special occasion.  There is a male teacher in my school who always wears a shirt, dress pants,shoes, and  a tie.  He says he does it to inspire his students.  Other teachers have mocked him, he doesn’t care, I love that he does that. And no, we don’t always have to wear ties, or heels, or dresses, but dress in a matter that allows someone to look at you as the professional you are and show you the respect you deserve.

Yeah, yeah, I’ve read plenty of articles where teachers say it doesn’t matter how they dress, all that matters is how they teach. They say their dress doesn’t make them any less professional.  However, in the real world, people do judge you by the way you look. If you look sloppy, people think you’re sloppy, if you look like you’re dressed for the bar…