Quote:
Originally Posted by cj2112
I grew up in So. Cal. The administration of the school in the early 80's decided that shorts were distracting, so they banned them. In September, in So. Cal. in a school w/ no air conditioning. We got that rule overturned, but it took a lawyer threatening a lawsuit.
My son attended the local middle school, he has a mohawk. They first asked me to cut it, I refused. His mowhawk, as long as it wasn't spiked, did not violate the dress code. He was continually harassed about his hair by the administration and teaching staff . I pointed out that what they were doing was harassment, that they were singling him out over his hair, while ignoring many other blatant dress code violations, and that the only reason his hair was a distraction was that they had decided to make it one. His grades (he left the school w/ a 1.6 GPA) and education suffered greatly because of the way the staff judged and treated him. Since pulling him out of that school, I have seen a tremendous improvement. His current GPA is 3.8, his curriculum is more challenging, he is enjoying school, and is self motivated to do his work.
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The whole school dress code issue has always been about and will always be about control. Administrators and teachers are human just like everyone else and can suffer from the hubris of authority. It's the idea that "how dare a student not listen to me, ME!" This notion that they are entitled to automatic respect because of their position often results in harrassment when a student has the audacity to stand up to them and tell them they will not respect ludicrous and meaningless rules. Of course, in the elementary and middle school levels, it's usually the parents like you who have to take the stand for their children.
In an earlier post, I mentioned that school dress codes were a superficial solution to deeper educational problems. It's symptomatic of an institution that operates more in the universe of controlling and manipulating students to maintain funding than in actually educating students. The style of one's hair or the color of one's clothing have absolutely no bearing on a person's ability to learn.
I would argue that if someone is distracted by a mohawk to the point they cannot study in school or the trauma of seeing baggy jeans follows them into the privacy of their own home where they are unable to study, then that person probably isn't prepared for the rigors of learning.