skirtcafe.org

"A school has said boys who find trousers too hot in the summer months should instead wear a skirt as part of a ‘gender-neutral’ uniform policy.
Chiltern Edge Secondary School in Oxfordshire has banned boys from wearing shorts and insists those who don’t want to wear trousers must don a skirt.
Leaders at the school in Sonning Common introduced a ‘more formal’ uniform policy at the beginning of the academic year that stipulated that the only leg wear permitted was trousers or skirts."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z5HRJktYJa

This is basically a case of the school deciding girls can have a genuine choice, but boys have Hobson's choice because they know that the boys aren't going to turn up in skirts. They know one or two may do that, as a protest or just for a lark, and they'll let it go and say they are fine with that, but only because they know that things settle down after a day or two and the boys will just continue wearing trousers.

It is unfair that the boys can't wear shorts, but the parents have a perfect answer. Parents should challenge the head teacher by saying: "OK My son says he will wear a skirt. However, I have only ever seen suppliers offering school skirts made specifically for girls. Where exactly do we go to purchase boys' school skirts?"

The comments below the article are the usual "high" standard!

How bizarre.

Why not just let kids choose shorts or skirts (for both sexes)?

Or why not just do like American kids do and let them wear whatever they want? What's with you all's obsession with school uniforms anyway?

moonshadow wrote:How bizarre. Why not just let kids choose shorts or skirts (for both sexes)? Or why not just do like American kids do and let them wear whatever they want? What's with you all's obsession with school uniforms anyway?

To answer your questions:

1. This is not as it first seems. The school in question has a preoccupation with formality and smartness, and believes girls don't look smart in shorts and the head knows that, if she allowed them to, they would inevitably push the boundaries and the "shorts" would become like hot pants. It dare not, though, allow only boys to wear shorts for fear of inspiring a claim against the school for gender discrimination. The head knows perfectly well that boys aren't going to wear skirts; maybe one or two may do so for a lark or as a "protest", but they aren't going to make a habit of it. Consequently, she can deny the boys the right to wear shorts (and thus prevent girls from wearing shorts) by banning all shorts on the pretext that boys can wear skirts - which she knows is never going to happen - and thus she is respecting gender equality while, in reality, committing blatant gender discrimination against boys.

2. School uniform is extremely popular with the public in the UK and it does have significant advantages, some of which have been verified by research. An example of this relates to behaviour, which improves both on and off the premises. Parents often like school uniforms because they can be very cheap to buy, unlike designer clothes, and there are no arguments about what the kid wears to school. The problem with school uniform is that each school has to enforce it, and that leads to pushing the boundaries, as I mentioned, or misunderstanding the rules - all leading to children being disciplined, parents complaining about heavy-handedness by teachers and so forth.

I was right. I expected The Powers That Be to manipulate dress codes...to pre-empt the Transgender thing.

Grok wrote:I was right. I expected The Powers That Be to manipulate dress codes...to pre-empt the Transgender thing.

Be thankful. Without the Equality Act and the duty for schools to protect transgender students from discrimination then boys would not even have the option to wear skirts. It's early days, but there will be some that do it. My friend's son sometimes wears a dress to nursery school. Before all the gender neutral/ trans focus then he would not have been able to do that.

Thanks for the info stu!

As far as my thoughts on the matter- it really doesn't matter what I think in this regard, for two main reasons:

1) It is not my country (nation)

2) Even if it were, I still have no children in school and do not plan to change that.

But I can understand the practicality of uniforms. I recall being in school myself and once in a while it would come up. Normally a lack of funding kept the notion from advancing.

Can't say that I agree that a pair of shorts makes a young lady look less educated. We normally say you can't judge a book by it's cover. Some of the greatest minds in history were quite homely in appearance. But that's ya'lls red wagon. We've got bigger fish to fry at the moment as far as American schools go....

Incidentally, growing up I always pictured British schools as being places made of stone, dark, damp and cold, where Nuns slap rulers across hands, and detention is a dungeon. A dragon was probably in the mix somewhere. In America we don't have dragons, but we do get visited from extra terrestrials quite a bit!

moonshadow wrote:Incidentally, growing up I always pictured British schools as being places made of stone, dark, damp and cold, where Nuns slap rulers across hands

More likely to find that in Ireland where 90% of primary schools are Catholic. Less than 10% of schools are Catholic in the UK. We still have quite a few Victorian school buildings, which are not necessarily the warmest, and have quite a presence for anyone passing through the educational system.

moonshadow wrote:Thanks for the info stu!

As far as my thoughts on the matter- it really doesn't matter what I think in this regard, for two main reasons:

1) It is not my country (nation)

2) Even if it were, I still have no children in school and do not plan to change that.

But I can understand the practicality of uniforms. I recall being in school myself and once in a while it would come up. Normally a lack of funding kept the notion from advancing.

Can't say that I agree that a pair of shorts makes a young lady look less educated. We normally say you can't judge a book by it's cover. Some of the greatest minds in history were quite homely in appearance. But that's ya'lls red wagon. We've got bigger fish to fry at the moment as far as American schools go....

Incidentally, growing up I always pictured British schools as being places made of stone, dark, damp and cold, where Nuns slap rulers across hands, and detention is a dungeon. A dragon was probably in the mix somewhere. In America we don't have dragons, but we do get visited from extra terrestrials quite a bit!

We're quite sure that each US elementary school is nothing likeThe Wonder Years or High Schools like the film 187 The problem with UK education has been a gradual decline, Academy schools are when regular State schools are either in moral / discplinary / educational / financial peril that a private company or consortium will take it over and run it... there are still many good Private Schools (Preparatory / Grammar / Boarding) in the UK... probably not enough in the budget for nuns, lol and as for discipline, there's no cane anymore, and teachers can even be addressed on First Name terms

Interesting story in the paper, with the usual "disgust", but more split down the middle as 50 / 50 where the younger generation is not so bothered, and the older set may despair where education is going in general, by adding in confusion in the uniform policy where there was none before. I think we will have to see if any boys take up wearing a skirt instead of shorts, but I think the teachers know full well kids won't for fear of ridicule by peers and this may keeps the kids in their lane... though I would love to see boys take up the option and turn up to school skirted (some may do so in protest anyway ), but then they can deal with the day to day issues of the right colour tights to wear with your skirt (and having to buy so many pairs if they ladder), shaving legs etc and stopping the lads rolling up their knee length skirts into mini skirts, or rolling into school in a cheap bodycon skirt which is not suitable and having to be sent home...

We will see what the incoming Academy does when they take over this school in the next term (September)... but already there have been protests with skirted bus and train drivers, but aside from "Mark as in Mark" who used to post here, I've yet to see such smart skirts on men at work Though on Tumblr and Pinterest I saw one very smartly dressed guy But guys in general may not like all the efforts that goes with skirts like coordinating your shoes with your bag, checking for ladders in your tights, do you need to wax your legs, or wear sneakers to travel to work in, and hope the cleaner hasn't taken or moved your court shoes you left under your desk?

As a product of the swinging sixties I remember protesting against a school edict on the length of hair by deliberately growing mine long along with several others in the school. We used to wear flowered shirts along with out Grammar School uniform [0] in protest too. Knowing my character I would wear a skirt in such a situation as a protest against the no shorts rule. But then, that's the way I am - certainly unconventional and not afraid to put myself out there when need shows.

[0] The normal colour shirt was pale blue or white and the tie was dark blue with diagonal silver-blue stripes.

Sinned wrote:As a product of the swinging sixties I remember protesting against a school edict on the length of hair by deliberately growing mine long along with several others in the school. We used to wear flowered shirts along with out Grammar School uniform [0] in protest too. Knowing my character I would wear a skirt in such a situation as a protest against the no shorts rule. But then, that's the way I am - certainly unconventional and not afraid to put myself out there when need shows.

[0] The normal colour shirt was pale blue or white and the tie was dark blue with diagonal silver-blue stripes.

I would have taken the same stance as Sinned and would wear a skirt to school just to make the point, now older and wiser I have the same issue with my employer. We have to wear a uniform not that dis-similar to a school uniform. We were allowed to remove our ties at the whim of a company director who would, in the summer months, check the weather forecast and decide based on the expected temp for that day! Thank god he has retired and we can now remove ties for the summer months altogether, however shorts can only be worn as per the daily weather check previously used for ties.

I have a cunning plan for this summer, enter the navy blue kilt. Watch this space for developments.....

Well, not quite. Here's a story of a boy in Mid Wales who wore a skirt after being told he couldn't wear shorts, only to get into more trouble.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-44530772

trainspotter48 wrote:Well, not quite. Here's a story of a boy in Mid Wales who wore a skirt after being told he couldn't wear shorts, only to get into more trouble.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-44530772

No equality there eh?

How unfortunate...

moonshadow wrote:No equality there eh?

Of course not, and if you're looking to find it in that setting you're going to be looking for a very long time indeed.

Recall that one of the functions of school is to beat the individuality out of the students so they'll become nice docile citizens. We can't be going on too much about this individuality rubbish, now can we? That's how Rome was undone.

How unfortunate...

Not so much unfortunate as entirely -- and boringly -- predictable.

crfriend wrote:Of course not, and if you're looking to find it in that setting you're going to be looking for a very long time indeed.

Indeed. I wonder what would happen if the kid just said "nah... I'm going to continue wearing these skirts"?

I mean... it's not like they can fire him... Here stateside even juvenile convicts of serious crimes get an education, I can't believe they'd take that away from him over a piece of fabric. If that's the case, then you all's system have some screws loose over there.