It’s fucking backward to force little girls into skirts.
They have their pros and cons. I wore a uniform to a public school (Australia) and it definitely meant that I had one less thing to worry about every day: being judged by what I wore. As an adolescent that meant a lot, and getting the freedom to wear whatever as an adult has meant that:
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I got to learn what’s appropriate before I got that freedom and
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I had the maturity to not care what others thought about how I dressed.
I went to a British school and it may have helped against being judged for what you wore but instead people just judge you on everything else like your haircut or the way you speak or the way you act etc. If people want to judge you they will snd what you’re wearing won’t stop that. Not to add people from poorer backgrounds will have broken/ripped/dirty uniform so it does not help at all.
School uniforms promote a more classless society. In retrospect I definitely would have favored them. Of course they should be unisex.
Only when the kids’ parents can afford the uniforms, which has historically been used to divide the poor from the middle and upper classes.
If uniforms are absolutely necessary make everyone where the same thing. Pants and shorts for all.
This is how the schools are here in Arizona. Uniforms, but pants and shorts for all the students. Girls can also wear skirts, but really its just shorts that look like skirts.
If you were curious, there’s a name for those: skorts! They were very popular when I was a kid.
Kilts for everyone
Clearly, the ability to be outside in appropriate clothing for activities isn’t being mandated. This is where a temperate climate enables ridiculous practices to persist.
All I can think about when I see this image is how in Ontario, the responsible provincial ministry requires all schools and ‘day nurseries’ (read day and after school care) to put the kids out in the yards twice a day unless the weather conditions are severe (Less than -20 or more than +30 Celsius.).
Parents are responsible to send their kids with suitable clothing for the cold. One rarely sees little girls in skirts in schools unless they are wearing tunic dresses over leggings.
In an earlier era, pre 1970s, when skirts were mandatory for girls, that meant switching to pants or snow pants from the skirts 3 times a day to go outside in winter (two breaks and leaving end of day).
What I think is absurd, at least around here, is that schools are allowed to require that students wear a specific uniform, but they’re not allowed to require that students have a coat
Forcing kids to bring coats is weird to me
Maybe it’s different elsewhere, but I was born into a relatively cold+wet climate and moved to San Diego in elementary school. I didn’t bring a coat because it made me hot, I was acclimated to colder weather, and I didn’t want to carry it around.
They refused to let me go outside for recess for weeks because I didn’t bring a coat and refused to wear one from the lost and found. Finally, one day, they sent me to the principal’s office and called my mom in for a chat to discuss my misbehaving.
My mom’s response was, “You called me in from work for THIS?! If he’s not cold, he’s not cold! He has warm clothing at home. He’s capable of deciding whether or not he would be more comfortable with a jacket on. Let him go outside and leave me alone”
See, that makes sense, but the problem here is when it’s cold, they don’t let the kids go outside at all because some of them may not have coats
