Opinion Time!
I read an article on Boston.com that got me all twisty. So, get ready for…
Opinion Time with Diane
First, here’s your required reading: “New meaning to school colors” by Russell Contreras
Lucky for me, that article had a comment board associated with it. I’ve gotten mired up in a few of these in the past (most notably the one about all-female colleges – but that’s for another episode of OTwD). After wading through some people afraid that a uniform kills individuality (hey, take a look at what you’re wearing today… I bet half of you are at least wearing something less comfortable or less you than you’d normally choose so that you fit in at your job, be it required or just subtly enforced), I found myself posting, once again, on a tangential topic. Rather than rehash (or make you read the entire board – Boston.com boards can sometimes get scary), I’ll quote myself:
It’s not the uniforms that bug me. I wore uniforms when I was in high school (note, it was a parochial school, but still). The worst part of my uniform was that the skirt was a requirement, not an option. Also, the uniforms cost way more than $8-15.
But something does bug me. The split school in high school. I don’t know much about the way Lawrence schools are run, so please pardon any ignorance, but I fear that the kids will get themselves too targeted too early. What if (to give an example that may or may not be me…) someone was really good at math, science, and technology, but also loved to sing and perform. They would have to choose? And if they chose “wrong” would they get screwed out of college choices when they changed their mind a couple years later? I never even made that choice, to be honest. I double majored when I got to college. But would that option be lost to someone forced to choose a concentration so much earlier? And even more immediate, would they even be allowed or welcome to participate in after school activities that span both of their favorites? Would math team and drama club mutually exclude each other?
High school can be a kind of weird place socially already. What about the effects of “well, all my friends chose health and human services, so I’d better go along with them.” Or if you don’t choose what your friends choose, are you now an outcast of your group of friends when you show up in the “wrong” color shirt? And does it cause a rift between the kids and their parents when the parents think they’re doing what’s best for the kid by enroling them in business management and finance, when the kid really wants to be an art teacher when they grow up?
That kind of stuff bothers me.
But uniforms? Naw. So long as they’re not too expensive for the kids (and if they are that there’s a plan in place to help poorer kids buy them on a deep discount), I don’t have a problem with uniforms. They probably are better, or at least easier on the teachers and staff (who have a hard enough time as it is), than letting the kids wear what they want. From experience, I know it’s easier on the kid to wake up and just throw on another copy of that outfit you wore yesterday.
(And seriously, Lawrence. I can reassure you that your uniforms are far less obnoxious and ugly than the ones I had to wear…)
– me
Mm… Oxford button down white shirts with straight knee-length or longer navy blue polyester skirts, nylons every month but the first and last of the school year, a nasty polyester and completely non-warm button up navy (but not quite the same navy) sweater, and shoes with no more than 1 inch of heal in your choice of colors*.
* I hope you like brown, black, or navy closed toed and closed back shoes.
Not even to mention all those potential bio and med majors – do they take health and human services or math, science, and tech? They’ll need the background in both…
And extracurriculars get cut enough…imagine if you were in the wrong “school” to do them. Ew.
I can understand giving an option for kids to choose a concentration, if they know what they want to be already. But forcing them to choose? Unwise.
From what I can see, the system is more like the one in Great Britain where you are allowed to specialize in topics that interest you. The kids aren’t forced to the school, they chose (opt) for the one they wish. The system works in Britain ’cause *all* of the schools are following that same style and the universities know what to expect. For the schools here in the states, I do think it’s a bit more refreshing to see some specialties creep in. Perhaps it will make a high school degree more relevant, rather than having a bachelor’s degree be the new high school diploma of old.
But what if they aren’t ready to decide yet? Is there an undecided high school specialty?
I wonder what color that would be…
maybe each sleeve would be a different color, and there would be quadrants of colors on the front and back. Oh, and the collar would be a different color as well…
If the collar is white I believe that shirt was mass produced at some point in the ’80s.
If you aren’t ready, then, you’d better start thinking some serious thoughts.
That’s the mean version.
The other version is:
I’m fairly sure that they’ll be allowed to switch between schools. It’s not as if they’re in different buildings, just sub-categories in the main school building. I could be wrong on that, but, that’s at least what I got from the article.
My only reaction to your comment, Dave, is this:
What?
Joe:
All I know, is that if the 14 year old Diane had that much power over the future, I’d have a different life right now. Who knows, maybe I’d like that one too, but knowing what I know, I would sure hate to lose the life I have now that I like so much.
I guess what it all boils down to is…given the choices you had available to you, are you happy with the choices you made and the consequences thereof?
Unless we get a magic mirror (like the cool one they had in that Stargate ep) that will let you go into different parallel dimensions one is only stuck with what we know right now. As far as those high school kids are concerned, what they are doing *is* normal to them. After all, they have never gone to high school before. They will make their choices and, ultimately, that’s going to be the deciding factors for them.