Last edited Thu Jun 7, 2012, 08:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Right now, he's probably thinking he was born 60-odd years too early...

it just meant I would have been getting rejected by better looking girls :grin:

because that would be much easier for school administrators to back down from. Self applying the term "slutty" works against them.

I met and worked with about 60 Stuyvesant students while I worked for the Red Cross and they were beefing up their resumes for the top colleges; getting real field experience in trauma and medicine and already planning 4 years ahead to getting into med school.

Mad props to your pops.

All kinds of smart kids go there.

Dad is very, very smart. And a power-Liberal, even in his 80s!

I assume you live in NYC, given your handle? My dad still lives in Greenwich Village, we defected to Boston.

I don't hear of any negative goings on because of it. Nothing that wouldn't happen if they adopted that dress code.

The boys get to wear pants in the winter and the girls have to wear plaid skirts. Yeah, that makes sense. Our only dress code in school was "wear clothes" and we wore what made sense for the weather. My wife just wore an old company-issued tank top for "splash day". She's one of the only ones who have been around long enough to remember when that was standard issue. Now they have to wear company-issued polo style shirts. I've always been a jeans and T-shirt sort of guy and that's what I wore to work pretty much everywhere and all the time even when I was at a customer site. Kids are going to check each other out, regardless of what they wear. The dress code should be "don't come naked". That might cause a wee bit of distraction.

I like your wording there.

Mine was pretty much the same way. (Late nineties, but I live down the street from the place now and can see the same policies are in effect.) We'd see the full gamut, from slacks and dress shirts to some spectacular eccentricity.

Some stuff would raise eyebrows now and then but there weren't any of the "disruptions" that dress-code advocates live in constant fear of. People'd occasionally try something a little too daring, but school environments being what they are there's as much pressure to tone some stuff down as there is to do the opposite.

It wasn't for fighting - they're useful! We used fists for fighting. I still carry a smaller one in my left pocket and a single-hand flip-open utility knife in the right. You just never know when you'll need a knife. Now kids can't even take nail clippers to school in a lot of places.

As for raising eyebrows, I wore a shirt in 9th grade that said "Oh Hell - It's Monday!" and the "Makin' Bacon" and "Fly United" shirts were popular as well.

Geeky/mechanically inclined/McGyvery crowd to put it lightly. These days I'd probably be extradited so I could be sent to Gitmo for those.

agree with the school's dress code. I believe you tend to act the way you are dressed. Why is it so important to show off middriffs, boobs, mucho skin, bras, etc.? You are supposedly going to school to learn not a pole dance gig. Just yesterday I saw a middle school gal walking home from school with her backpack and she was wearing the shortest shorts that left nothing to the imagination.

The problem with girls showing that much skin and leaving little to the imagination is that it's massively distracting. I'll never forget the time a student came in with a tight, low-cut tank on with her plaid shirt on to cover it per the dress code. All of the boys stopped talking when she walked in, stared at her as she walked across the room to her seat, and just didn't stop staring. I went over to her and suggested she button up her shirt, and when she started to argue that she was in dress code, I told her to ask herself if she wanted those boys looking at her like that. She looked over my shoulder and quickly started buttoning up. When she did, they all blinked and were able to pay attention again somewhat.

It's not that it sends the wrong message or identifies a girl as a slut; it's that we have a hard time teaching if boys are in tanks or tight shirts and girls have too much skin showing. High school classrooms are a miasma of hormones as it is.

It's inappropriate to require girls to dress a certain way so that it doesn't affect boys' behavior. That's the same thing as not allowing women in the military because the male soldiers would find it distracting.

Males are responsible for their own behavior, attention span, and focus. Others are not required to alter their dress or behavior to conform with a way that it doesn't interfere with a male's focus, from his perspective. Males need to learn to control themselves, regardless of how girls dress or behave.

Having said that, I agree with the dress code because young girls may tend to dress a certain way to get attention, and they are not old enough to handle that kind of attention that dressing sexy would bring. They are in a school setting and are there to learn. It's inappropriate to show too much skin in a school setting, for either sex. And if only the girls are doing it, that tells you that it's a getting-attention, sex thing. Showing skin can be appropriate once a girl grows up and she's in a social setting. But even then, there will be work dress codes that will require skin covered up. It's inappropriate for a business setting.

It's looking at it from the girl's point of view, what's best for her and the school and the setting. It's not looking at it from the boy's point of view..."you can't dress that way because Bob won't be able to focus in class." You might as well say, "You can't wear the color red, because Bob finds that color distracting."

Also, showing skin and bra straps has nothing to do with the weather. It's actually cooler to wear thin cotton that covers skin; it helps to absorb moisture from the skin, and protects the skin for direct sun, when you're outside.

Most young males haven't learned how to control themselves on that yet, and if it negatively impacts the classroom, I have a problem. Heck, I can't even wear shorter skirts to work without noticing an uptick in classroom management issues, and I'm old enough to be their mom.

so I didn't have the issue your wrote about.

I went to Catholic School and we had a 100 year old building, obviously with no AC. And we guys had to wear slacks, long-sleeve shirts, ties and blazers. At least the ladies got to wear skirts to cool off their legs a little.

I grew up in Louisiana....no a/c in schools then. It was hot when it got over 90. Here in TX, it's not considered hot until it gets over 90.

But having lived in hot locations my entire life, I've learned, and I've read as confirmation, that to keep cool, it's best to dress in natural cloth clothing (cotton, silk) because it breathes (the synthetic rayon is acceptable since it breathes), and to keep your skin covered (because the thin cotton helps absorb moisture from the skin, keeping you cooler).

So the kids' premise is false, to begin with...that exposing your midriff keeps you cooler. It doesn't. And showing bra straps has nothing to do with the heat.

The dress code seems reasonable and pretty mild, to me.

Young girls should also learn that if only girls are exposing their backs and midriff, it's a sex, maybe even sexist thing, having nothing to do with weather, and everything to do with trying to get attention in the wrong way. They can dress however they want, when they grow up and presumably can handle the kind of attention that intentionally dressing sexy will bring. But that's really inappropriate for minors to do in a school setting. It's a shame the school had to get involved and that parents didn't require the mild dress code.

If so seems some one (school district) may have been looking for publicity?