The internet is buzzing with discussions about high school dress codes. And someone always argues that learning is serious business. We are preparing our students for jobs. School is a students job and they should dress like it.
But is it? Is learning really serious business? All humans, no matter their learning style or culture and for that matter, all animals as well, learn best through play. It’s how we learn to walk, talk, eat and more, and frankly we do our children a disservice when we forget this. School should be fun. School should involve play.
And preparing students for jobs is a tiny fraction of what school is (or at least what it should be). We are preparing students for life! For being their best selves. And a part of that is discovering their identity. Why not use those choices as a learning opportunity? The reality is that we are judged by how we dress. But should we be? High school class rooms are the perfect place to start that conversation. What assumptions do you jump to when you see a teen dressed in a sexy or revealing manner. Or a teen with boxers showing. Why are you making those assumptions? What assumptions do you think adults might make? Should they be making them? Let’s talk about how the world is and how it should be.
And above all, let’s not sacrifice any child’s education – boys or girls. If you really have to enforce a dress code let’s do it without removing a child from class. Give detention or some other penalty that does not sacrifice a child’s education. If our boys are truly distracted by a girls clothing what are they going to do when they graduate? Or for that matter, when they go to the park or pool after school? Let’s teach both boys and girls how to conduct themselves!
