The trend has been moving TOWARDS more dress codes and more
authoritarian control in school. I really should write a book on
this issue. I first noticed how messed up school did things when
I was 8 yrs old in the 3rd grade, about the same time I noticed
the bullshit in TV commercials. It was like a bullshit sensor
came on. At 14, I wrote an angry dress code letter to the school
newspaper (and tried getting it published in our local paper)
because suddenly, I couldn't wear earrings because I was a boy.
This was back in 1986. In 1990, age 18, I started Y-RIGHTS
(youth rights) mailing list on the Internet. Sitting behind the
green terminals, typing furiously, gathering people. Got
thousands of members at its peak. Dress codes and Uniforms were
always hot issues and now, 25 years later, they're STILL hot
issues. What's changed is that more and more schools are
adopting uniforms to bypass this completely - the whole
"suspended for dress code" situations. I still don't know how to
feel about uniforms. Some of the arguments for them are
ridiculous - like 'perceived equality' [meangirls are meangirls
(which includes boys) and they can slam you for haircuts or
shoes or fingernails or anything. Gang violence? You can embed
secret codes in a myriad of ways and uniforms won't curb that.
Yet uniforms are beloved by principals, teachers, parents,
administrators... EVERYBODY... ...except the kids. Who have to
wear them. The general oppressiveness of the school system as it
currently is, I sometimes shake my head and just say, "School
always sucked. School does suck. School will always suck". I
hate giving in though. I'm hopeful that future schooling will
more and more be at home or in community centers online with
available mentors and less and less in these strange places
they're in now that are more like detention centers than
anything else. I mean you get used to it to some degree.
Prisoners get used to prison life too. But it still doesn't mean
we're doing things the right way.
