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At my school, boys have to have their hair above their collar. Can anybody help me out by thinking of reasons why that's not fair? Whenever I try to fight it, the adminstrators just say that they're keeping the student body looking neat.
thanks!
1. It's sexist.
2. It damages young people's self-esteem.
3. It's your body.
Now, what is all this about educators tending to be liberal? Or is it just the teachers that are liberals and the admins who are fascists?
As a side note, let me say as a teacher who has also been an administrator, that I find more of my colleagues in either camp to be conservative. There are those of us who are liberal, but my experience (only in the south) is that most teachers, like most of the community around us, are conservative. Perhaps more teachers are liberal than in the general population.
Aside from the aside (!) schools as institutions also are caught in a vicious cycle of control and coercion. I wish it weren't so. It sounds like the writer of this thread is in private school. They tend to be more restrictive,but as we've seen in the Texas publis school recently, public schools can be just as bad.
There is a public school system here in GA that has put a 15 year old in in-school-suspension two days after he transferred in from another school system in Maryland. (How's that for "welcome to our community"). His crime: facial piercings. He has ears, nose, one brow, and under his lip pierced. His picture as been in the Atlanta paper. He is really quite neat looking. He has very short-cropped hair. The only "problem" is that he has facial piercings (the school allows ear-piercing). So, accordig to school policy, the boy will sit in ISS until he removes the piercings.
As a teaching I go nuts over this. This young man is wasting away in isolation in a building that is supposed to be helping him get an education for his life! I could care less how much metal he has in his face. Not one of those piercings will interfere with his ability to learn or be a part of a learning community.
I will stop now. I just wanted to respond as one of the liberal educators to say that the difficulties young people face in our institutions are real, prolific and systemic. Nothing short of an altered way of thinking will help.
Robert
Sounds like the kid that was put all day in a room by himself in Texas for four months for the crime of deciding to keep his ponytail. His family finally on the advice of a shrink pulled him out of the school system, long before it wound its way through the courts.
One problem with going to court for students is that it seldom gets resolved until after the kid gets tired of the fight and leaves, or until he graduates. Another tack, which we frequently saw in the 1960s and 1970s and often got better and quicker results, but which we seldom seem to see now, is "refusal to comply". What if a kid refused to accept suspension? And went to his classes anyway? Or refused to show up for detentions?
If you get lots of support from other students, this can often get a policy changed. Kids can't vote in the city hall, but they can vote with their feet. Kids in unison can say, "If you make him leave, we will all leave too!"
Recent surveys have shown the most-hated moves by school administrations are those concerning dress and hair. It should not be too difficult to get support from others with such issues.
Bill
Right OK... if they are trying to keep the Student Body looking neat, then first question is what restriction do they place on Girls so that their hair looks neat?
Ask the Administrators if they think all the girls with Long Hair Look Untidy?
You can then point out any number of examples, Grab the fashion section from FHM you'll see half a dozen guys with longer than collar length hair. Ask them if they think they are untidy looking?
Take other examples from the world of TV and Media; Ashton Kutcher; Travis Fimmel; heck even delve into the coporate world take Jonathan Schwartz, President of Sun MicroSystems.
Do any of these guys look untidy?
If by any chance they lie and say they look untidy, then you might like to point out that these people are amongst the most sucessful and publicly sought after people in the country, so their hair policy is dated, irrelevant to today's society and potentially counter-productive to the future sucess of their students.
OK once you've destroyed arguement number one, wait for their next excuse, you'll probably see the bigotry and prejudice much more clearly as you get closer to the truth.
Sorted
There are some restrictions on discrimination in place in American public schools that could prevent this kind of problem.
Shorter styles are kept neat by frequent cuts, but that doesn't work with longer hair, hence the policy is based on an assumption of short hair, i.e. it hasn't made sense since the 1950s.
Unfortunately hair that is being grown out doesn't look particularly neat. I'm not sure why this matters, though. I thought you were there to be educated?
There are other ways to keep hair above the collar besides cutting it, although many of them are still thought of as feminine.
Is your school private? What country/locality is it in?
This is exactly the same in my school. I am taking the advice of other reponses here on the board and will soon be fighting against the Head.
I'm in a private school in the UK and will keep you posted. I am growing out my hair and it looks very neat and tidy, it is just above shoulder length and teacher requests and even the Head has said it's time for a cut... NO WAY...
Peace and Light,
Cinci xxx
Best of luck! Don't give in!
The rules say it has to be off the collar but it says nothing about high riding pony tails to keep it off the collar. If it says nothing they cannot legally ban it. We signed a form agreeing to school rules, nothing was said of pony tails, therefore, its not the rules... ;o)
I'm hoping I can play it from this angle...
Cinci xxx
Nil illigitimus carborundum!
