On Mar 29, 2007, at 1:37 AM, Penny Ladnier wrote:
My students have been asking some really good questions. These
questions I only know the answers from personal experience. I
lived in Mississippi at the time and do not know if we were really
far behind fashion or not. If you answer these questions, please
let me know your location and the app. year you remember these
fashions were worn to public elementary through high school:
1. Mini-skirts: Girl's skirt lengths were measured
2. Girls' pants: When were girls' allowed to wear pants to
school. Pants-suits, hiphuggers?
3. Boys' Hair: Allowed to wear long hair
4. Boy's mustaches: When allowed
Newton, Massachusetts, mid to late 1960s --
1. I never saw anyone actually measuring skirts, but I know there was
a rule. It may have been something like an inch or two above the knee.
2. Girls could not wear pants for any reason, any time. If it was
freezing cold, they could wear pants under their skirts for the walk
to school, but had to take them off when they got there. About the
only allowed form of leg-covering was tights (which I always hated).
And of course, tights were frequently "un-cool." My mom said she used
to see groups of girls going by on their way to the local junior high
school in the winters (snow on the streets, etc.) with short skirts
and bare legs that were bright red from the cold. She said she always
felt like rushing out and offering them blankets or something.
3. I never paid attention to the rules for boys, but I know some were
wearing hair that was considered "long" in those days -- though it
wouldn't be considered "long" now.
I was also much amused when midi skirts and "granny dresses" came
into fashion, and one of my classmates got into trouble for wearing a
skirt that was too LONG (a granny dress, in her case). How they
rationalized that I have NO idea! I suppose it fell into the category
of "too distracting".
---------------------------------
Interestingly, these are still battlegrounds in some places. The
school I work for is a Catholic private school for girls, and they
have always worn uniforms.
The current rule is that uniform skirts are supposed to be no more
than 3 inches above the knee, but of course in a group of fashion
conscious young women, who are also at the stage where they're
growing like weeds, this is difficult to maintain. Students have been
threatened with all sorts of dire punishments if they are caught
rolling their waistbands to make their skirts shorter, but in
general, enforcement is pretty slack, confined to announced days two
or three times a year. Few of the faculty are interested in doing
anything about it.
This may change next year, as the new principal-to-be is probably the
faculty member who's cared the most about the dress code. There are
rumors the rule may be changed to 2 inches above the knee rather than
3, and I expect more enforcement.
Until this year, pants have only been allowed by special exemption to
the few students we have whose families are Muslim (whose definition
of modest dress includes having legs covered). This year, by radical
innovation, students could wear pants during the winter, and some
did; but they had to be the official uniform pants, which are on the
expensive side. Requests by students for the option of wearing pants
are frequent, but always blocked by faculty who feel they are
"unprofessional looking" unless they are the tailored uniform pants.
Our students don't feel this is fair, especially since the other
Catholic high schools in town that include girls _do_ allow pants.
(For the one that requires uniforms, they must be a particular color
of Dockers.) The faculty who object claim that if pants were allowed,
it would be too difficult to define which pants were OK and which
were too tight, too low-slung, or too baggy and "gang-like."
It will be interesting to see what happens :)
____________________________________________________________
O Chris Laning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - Davis, California
+ http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com
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