When board members enact a school uniform policy – as was just accomplished at my district – they turn every educator in the building into the fashion police. Individualized instruction, classroom management, content knowledge – all become secondary to the driving force of our schools: who isn’t conforming to the norm? When did this become our educational philosophy? We should be doing just the opposite. Schools should be engines of self-discovery and self-expression. In a world of stifling poverty and dangers from within and without, our schools should be places where kids can be themselves. We should be providing them safe places to learn who that is and what their relationship is to the rest of the world. Instead, we standardize the curriculum with test prep and Common Core. We standardize their assessments with days of fill-in-the-bubble state-mandated testing and pretesting and post-testing. To be fair, much of this is forced on us from the state and federal government. But now when your local school directors get an opportunity to make a rare decision about how to run their own community schools, they decide to standardize student dress!? They think having everyone look the same in drab colors and similar outfits is going to improve the situation!? No! It simply continues the trend of turning our children into prisoners and turning our teachers into their wardens. Read More: gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress/2014/09/13/standardized-dress-school-uniforms-and-conformity-as-social-norm/
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 13:46:36 +0000
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