Boys Protest In School Skirts

Discussion of fashion elements and looks that are traditionally considered somewhat "femme" but are presented in a masculine context. This is NOT about transvestism or crossdressing.
Freedomforall
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by Freedomforall »

Caultron wrote:
Freedomforall wrote:...If you have money and or looks then you are favored by teachers etc....

...it is obvious from my viewpoint that nothing has changed as indicated from all the press covering school shootings etc.
I'm not saying all schools are perfect, or even that any are perfect.

And it's impossible to fully satisfy the needs and desire of hundreds of different students, let alone their parents.

But looks or lack thereof leading to school shootings? Really?

It seems to me that most school shooters are disenfranchised mentally-troubled young adults who realize they're not going to be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg or whoever after all, and who then blame their school and take revenge. But I concede that I'm no expert on such things; I just read the news.
I don't think kids are born disenfranchised. Society and situations serve to mold and create mindset. Children have dream but not every child dreams of being Bill Gates. Most children are just seeking two simple things: Love and acceptance. I think these two ingredients are essential before a child starts dreaming of becomng Jobs, Gates, or Zuckerberg. If a child does not find acceptance or love then the disenfranchised feelings set it.

I read a book about unschooling. The principle of the book is that schools are broken becasue they force all children to learn at the same time. The theory is that we all have natural learning abilities and should be allowed to follow those as well as our interests. Have you ever tried to learn something and became very frustrated only to find that days later or months the same subject seemed so much easier? That is the principle of this book.
Last edited by Freedomforall on Fri Jun 29, 2018 4:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
weeladdie18
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by weeladdie18 »

It is perhaps interesting to note that feeling the way I do now I am retired; ..... if my mother had bought me a skirt to wear to school in a heatwave ,
I would just wear my skirt to school until the end of term.....as the skirt is nice and cool and six of my friends were wearing skirts.

It is worth noting that this was probably a mixed class and only half the boys were wearing school uniform skirts.....weeladdie
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by weeladdie18 »

This skirt wearing protest may be part of a political ball game between the female headmistress and the mothers of the boys involved.

The press report centred on the drama of schoolboys wearing skirts rather than the political issues in the management of the school.
School rules are written for the guidance of wise men and the adherence of fools. ............weeladdie
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

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Caultron wrote:So, Freedomforall and crfriend, how has it been since you were in elementary school?
I escaped grammar school in the mid '70s finally getting my parole from secondary school in '79. I also have a very good memory. I spent many of my early years getting bullied simply because i was different; I was very tall and spindly and not athletic in the least -- in other words, "an easy target". My dad tried to teach me to fight, to no real avail, and the various staffs were never of any use. The clear and undeniable signal was that I was being told in no uncertain terms, "Conform or suffer."

Later on, I developed a reputation as someone who would never start a fight and would try to de-escalate things, but if came down to brass tacks would finish one by any means necessary. And every time I did I was the one to get censured for it -- even in spite of irrefutable evidence that I didn't start it.
I'm not saying that today's schools are exactly proactive with regard to boys wearing skirts. And I guess you do need some sort of dress code, even though most tend to be needlessly restrictive. But I still bekieve that much of the negativity you perceive is ill-founded.
These sorts of things change with positively glacial speeds; the kids of my old next-door neighbour (who I remain friends with) went through much the same thing but without much of the overt violence since they fit in better than I did. My late ex- was a substitute teacher for a little bit, and the stories she told of that experience were enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

In general, though, it's the kids who will police themselves -- in a "Lord of the Flies" sort of manner -- and the adults look on passively to sort of keep a lid on it so it all goes as intended, the "winners" and "losers" having already been picked out. It's brutal and inhumane, of course, but it produces nice docile zombies who never question anything -- i.e. the sort who never ask the difficult questions or ever really go on to do great things. This is only one of the reasons why progress is carried out by the "abnormal"; the "normal" are incapable of it.
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

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Well, reading what I have I realise how different my schooling was. My primary school taught reading from the nursery class, which I attended since both parents worked. So by the time I entered primary school proper I could read quite well and write a bit. So I and several others were rather advanced for the first year. And that continued throughout primary school. My birthday was mid June so I was always the youngest in the class but as I was in the upper % intellectually I was also a year ahead. I went to Grammar school and because I had been blinded in my right eye just before attending I came under the wing of a rather larger boy and so was not bullied. School for me was a rather happy time. Grammar school was also quite liberal in that if we had an interest then we were encouraged to pursue. This is how we came to build, out of whatever parts we could scrounge, a numerical teaching computer [0] that I have described elsewhere and had our own home-made Scalextric type track among other projects. That has probably made me not streetwise and against violence. I had very few fights in school, didn't win all of them but at least tried to give as much as I got.
I believe in offering every assistance short of actual help but then mainly just want to be left to be myself in all my difference and uniqueness.
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by Freedomforall »

Dennis,

I read your story about your experience with school. I still have nightmares about my experience. It is amazing how different things can be. I awake from these nightmares and am often in a daze for hours. It was to say the least a living Hell for me.
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

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Dennis -- Quite naturally, as you might realistically expect, stuff that comes out of the USA has a rather violent edge on it. It's a sad part of what the place is -- and that we've never evolved beyond it. It is, as is said, what it is; one gets used to it, and one adapts to it and hopes he doesn't go insane. You were fortunate to have it vastly better.

FFA -- I don't have nightmares about the matter. It is, after all, quite safely in the rear-view mirror and rapidly receding. For me, the recollections of my schoolboy days are more along the "memory of a bad oyster" type -- highly unpleasant, but ultimately survivable if one has a strong-enough immune system.

But, I still don't see the adoption of skirts on guys coming from the schoolboy years.
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by Freedomforall »

Carl,

I often contemplate the history of our country. Our birth was entangled in much violence and deception.

I do wish I could ditch the dreams. They stopped for a period of years but returned. My concsious mind realizes I am safe now, so I am not sure why they still occur.
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by moonshadow »

The constant stories of school age boys who are wearing skirts just to protest not being allowed to wear short pants has worn thin on me a long time ago. If that's the only reason skirts are being utilized by boys then it seems like somewhat of a waste to me. The whole movement just seems crass. If a school system caves and allows boys to wear shorts just so the boys won't wear skirts, then the only thing that does in my view, is drive the wedge further that SKIRTS ARE NOT FOR MALES. PERIOD!

As far as my school age, I can't say that I was really bullied very much. I've picked a few spit balls out of my hair, and have had a few ugly things shouted my way, in addition to not being picked first for any gym sports (not that it mattered, I hated gym anyway), but all in all I never went home with a black eye or anything.

In school most people just ignored me all together. I didn't really have enemies, but I didn't have friends either. Then, as is now, I'm mostly just lonely. For some reason I've always "put people off", never enough to get the crap kicked out of me, but always enough so that virtually everyone always kept their distance.

This is NOT the result of the skirts, as this has been the way of things all of my life, childhood and present. In fact, I'd say the skirts are the result of this condition! After all, with no friends, I really had nothing to lose anyway!

Oh well.... anyway I suspect that if I had have thought about wearing a skirt when I was in high school, and I had supportive parents, I don't imagine the school would have given me too much grief over it. As for the other students, they probably just would have figured I was retarded or something and left me alone.
Freedomforall wrote:If you have money and or looks then you are favored by teachers etc.
Well, one thing for sure, we never had money. My dad and I were dirt poor. However I recall a few teachers who seemed to take me under their wing anyway. I would imagine it was mainly because I was such a loner. Mrs. Ellison (sixth grade) Mr. Shaffer (fifth grade), Mr. Morris (Drafting- vocational center), Mrs. Keister (9th grade biology)
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by oldsalt1 »

Freedom I don't want to stick my nose in your business. And remember I am an accountant not a doctor. Your brief descriptions are text book PTSD , you don't have to be a combat soldier to experience it. Its OK to get some help
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by beachlion »

I was always quite slender in my early days. But I was fast. When I saw injustice during elementary school like bullying, I jumped right in and started hammering the bull. After elementary school, it was all male schools and for some reason, no bullying at all. Maybe technicians don't need bullying. After 25 year, there was a reunion of my class of the elementary school. The first thing one of my female class mates asked was:"Are you still fighting that much?"
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by Freedomforall »

beachlion wrote:I was always quite slender in my early days. But I was fast. When I saw injustice during elementary school like bullying, I jumped right in and started hammering the bull. After elementary school, it was all male schools and for some reason, no bullying at all. Maybe technicians don't need bullying. After 25 year, there was a reunion of my class of the elementary school. The first thing one of my female class mates asked was:"Are you still fighting that much?"

That's awesome!
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by FranTastic444 »

weeladdie18 wrote:I have just had an old posting problem again.......The system has failed to submit my post . I am unable to retrieve my text to re submit..weeladdie18
Not experienced that problem on this site yet, but I've seen it on other forums that I frequent that use the same engine. I went through a period of writing posts off the website (using Word or Notepad or such like) and then pasting it into the forum.

If you prefer to type directly into the browser (as I sometimes do), just copy the text before you hit submit. Appreciate that this is easier to do on a desktop or laptop than on a tablet or phone.

I think the issue arises when you write a long post and the web page times out in the process (but my knowledge of these things is a little limited).

I was bullied throughout school. I could already read and write by the time I went to school and I was well behaved so the teachers by and large left me to my own devices whilst they concentrated on others that needed their time. Got the reputation for being a swot, which was all the bullies needed as an excuse to make my life hell. If I'd turned up in a skirt they really would have had a field day!

The school local to my place in the UK has made their dress code sex neutral, with the exception of describing a separate supplier / style for male and female trousers - Black trousers (Male type: Banner Flat Front, Female type: Trutex) or Academy tartan kilt skirt.

Regarding school shootings - easy access to firearms is a huge contributory factor as to why we don't get them in the UK. If you own a gun in the UK (only a small fraction of a percentage of the population do) you have to have to get a license and have a gun cabinet bolted to a wall with separate locked cabinets for guns and ammo. British yoof are making up for a lack of guns by using knives and fighting-breed dogs. Some inner-city schools in the UK have metal detectors at the entrance.

The Daily Maul is always going to pick up on stories like this - something to enrage the right-wing, blue rinse brigade wing of their base readership. My dislike of the Daily Maul and its associated website knows no bounds....
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

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Moon, at school I had a small circle of friends that I never seemed to fall out of like with. I think that the whole system at that time was called progressive. We even had a blacksmith's forge for metalwork, imagine that. Never thought at the time how unusual that was. I shudder now to think of pieces of red/white hot metal in the hands of early teenagers. Maybe it's because as Grammar School pupils we were supposedly the cream of the ( male ) population and as such were allowed a lot more latitude. The corresponding for the girls was the High School. I was never very good at sports either and opted for long distance running [0] which route, rather fortunately took us past the girl's High School! Spent many hours watching the girls play netball or other sports in their short, pleated skirts. It has a paralysing effect on the male body that takes time to wear off.

Well Moon, we may be separated by distance but I feel for ya and you have a soul-mate over here. Take care, buddy, and don't get too despondent. :D

[0] This stood me in good stead as I used to do a lot of running early morning or late evening. Until I met MOH and somehow, other athletic pursuits were more important. :wink:
I believe in offering every assistance short of actual help but then mainly just want to be left to be myself in all my difference and uniqueness.
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Re: Boys Protest In School Skirts

Post by weeladdie18 »

Regarding my problem of loosing a post after activating " SUBMIT ".....my windows 8.1 has now upgraded itself this morning.
There is a theory that windows is not powerful enough to run these forums.....we will now see if this post submits correctly.

Note that this is only a short post. ..Perhaps the problem is with long undrafted posts..........weeladdie
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