Yesterday my daughter brought home a letter from her elementary school.
Here is an excerpt from the letter:
Quote:
To assist parent/guardians and students in making appropriate fashion and grooming decisions for school, the School Board has established the guidelines for the appearance and dress of students. An area of concern for (school's name) is the hairstyle of some of our students. Mohawk hair cuts, designs cut closely to the scalp, various bright colors students are choosing to dye their hair or the streaking of multiple colors are not acceptable for our school.
The Student Code of Conduct specifically states that students will:
Quote:
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Wear clothing and hairstyles which are not harmful, disruptive or hazardous to health or safety.
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These particular hairstyles do cause disruption on our campus and they take the focus off of teaching and learning. This trend does not represent our talented and outstanding students here at (school's name). Therefore, we are asking you to please guide your children to ensure appropriate decisions are made in regards to their hairstyles thus causing the least disruption on our campus.
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Now, even though I find the wording of the letter to be pretty condescending (suggesting that parents who allow their children to wear these hairstyles need 'guidance' then going on to state that children with these hairstyles do not 'represent' the school) I am not a crusader on this issue. Personally, I would never let my elementary school-age daughter dye his/her hair - I don't think it is age-appropriate. But is a child with brightly-colored hair distracting?
And the haircuts? There is a modest, modified mohawk haircut that has become a pretty common sight on pre-adolescent boys around town and I assume this is true of a lot of places. Designs cut closely to the scalp? I'm not even sure what that is.
Of course, I am not on campus all day, every day but I am there often enough for school events and not once have I seen a child with a hairstyle that I would consider to be "distracting."
And for that matter, how can a haircut be distracting? What kind of "disruption" do you suppose they are referring to? Kids teasing the kids with different haircuts? Children so mesmerized by a hairstyle that they cannot watch and listen to their teacher? What could be so serious and disrupting that the school feels they need to issue a mandate on the kinds of hairstyles that kids can wear? I'm more curious than anything.
Another point of interest:
The community I am living in has traditionally been made up of folks in the white, upper middle class SES. Over the 3 1/2 years I have been living here, the demographic has been steadily changing - there are a lot more minorities living here today than there were 4 years ago and many, many, many more than there were 15-20 years ago. I myself intentionally moved into this neighborhood when I came back to Orlando because it was one of the last highly 'rated' elementary schools in the Central Florida area and I've no doubt it's the same for many other parents who have moved into the area. When I moved here in 2005, this school had an 'A' rating by the federal government. A couple of months ago, my daughter brought home another letter from the school stating that it had received a 'C' rating for the first time ever.
Could this new focus on student hairstyles at my daughter's school have something to do with changes in the racial make-up of the school and its declining federal grade? And, if so, do you think it is a practical and effective way of confronting the school's problem with shifting demographics and declining student achievement?