This has been a controversial topic lately.
There has been a lot of talk, and even more blog posts, written about how school dress codes are sexist and exist to make females feel persecuted.
As a self proclaimed feminist, and now someone who works for a school, I have formed an educated opinion.
No.
Keep in mind this is my opinion. A lot of people would disagree, but this is how I see it:
School dress codes exist because students are not only learning reading, math, science, etc., but are learning proper social behaviors. You should not wear a short skirt and crop top to a meeting, you should not wear a tank top and hot pink shorts in an interview.
Believe it or not, I sat in an interview when I worked at the ice cream shoppe, and the girl wore tiny hot pink shorts and a tank top. The interview did not go well, for reasons that went beyond her outfit choice. But that first impression did not help at all.
And now that I am a teacher, we take classes on classroom management and things of that nature. Our school follows a program I love called Positive Behavior Systems. We reward more than we punish, and keep in mind some of the things students do that are wrong, they do because they do not know differently. Keeping in mind that I work in a low income, inner city school, this has worked well. The back bone of this entire program can be summed up in one statement: Replace bad behavior with good behavior. That is to say, if a student does something like getting up in the middle of class and walking around, rather than just yelling "Hey, sit down!" (like you really want to), you say "So-and-so, have a seat. I'll give you time at the end of class to get up." This way, the student knows what they are supposed to be doing instead. You cannot just tell someone they are wrong, and then make them guess what the correct behavior is.
Picked out my outfit for that important interview tomorrow!
So we have dress codes to show students how to dress professionally. Don't wear a tank top to a job interview. Don't go to work in a crop top. Replace the behavior. We cannot just expect students entering the workforce to know how to act. Some of these students are first generation high school graduates, maybe their parents did not ever get the opportunity to tell them how to dress for work or an interview. Maybe they have been moved from foster home to foster home so many times they never had anyone that could explain it to them.
We cannot call it "common sense" if it is not common knowledge.
Don't jump off that bridge, you'll hurt yourself- that's common sense. Falling hurts, falling from even higher up hurts more.
The workplace is a place for professional attire- not common sense. Where would your average teenager learn that? Not cosmo. Not TV.
So maybe instead of blaming the system for "shaming" our students, we should explain to them what it means to dress appropriately.
No, your adorable American Eagle shorts are not going to be long enough for school dress code.
Yes, it is Florida, and about 1000000 degrees outside.
But go downtown and look at all of those woman. Are they wearing adorable American Eagle shorts? Or are they wearing dress clothes, blazers, pants, etc?
No, they will probably not be found in a designer store. But is that sexist of the school dress code, or the designers? Why are the girls shorts so much shorter than the boys? Why was it always significantly harder for me to buy clothes that were dress code, but most everything in the store was something my brother could wear to school.
So stop blaming the school, or accusing teachers of sexualizing females. Honestly, teachers would rather just ignore your clothes and spend our periods starting lessons on time and making sure you were learning everything you need to.
And of all of the students I have had to send to the front office, boys are top of the list with their tank tops with no sides and shirts with drunk woman in bikinis.
Teachers bother with dress code (because we have to, but also) to make sure you are becoming functioning members of society.
And that will always be our end game, and the reason we took this job in the first place.
