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Should certain rules be adhered to?

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anotheoldgit | 15:01 Fri 17th Jun 2011 | News
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Should cultural and ethnic backgrounds be taken into account when deciding uniform and hair style policies in British schools?

Or should we now say, come to school looking how you like and wearing what you like?
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Once again, it is the lack of clarity of 'exclusions' and the application of laws which has caused this problem.

The school should have gone to the trouble of specifically itemising what it will and won't allow.....and that should have applied to both sexes, equally.
If it sought to exclude 'cornrows' it shouldn't have allowed girls to wear them, either.

But it didn't, and now we have the usual suspects thumping their big tubs, bemoaning the drip-drip-drip of PC gone maaaad......and its insidious effect on our nation.
When I was at school there were boys sent home because they had had short spikey punky haircuts, which was then the fashion. The fact that their new haircut was much more practical and safer than the long hair they previously wore, was not taken into consideration. The school had banned it for no reason other than they didn't like it. If they had have applied a bit of common sense, there would have been no reason to needlessly make rebels for no good reason, and the same applies to the boy in the OP.
"Uniforms at schools are designed to put every pupil on a level footing, so they are essential to prevent the "I have better designer wear than you" syndrome, or in this case "I'm better than you, because of my cultural hairstyle".

I'm not convinced, and this really depends where you look. In an urban-based school where kids are far more likely to see each other outside of school anyway, they won't do anything to stop such attitudes. In a rural setting (such as my old school) where pupils are less likely to see each other outside of school hours, I admit this might have more credence. But it still looks a pretty thin excuse to me.

"Or are you against all types of uniforms? "

Of course not. The difference with the police (not all of whom wear uniforms) and military etc. is that these are all positions that you make a conscious choice to go into - and are thus have far more reason to take pride in a uniform. Kids do not choose to go to school - while they'll be aware they weren't always in school, your average schoolchild will be unable to remember not being in it. They're simply herded into these institutions for as long they're sentient and then badgered and barked at for not conforming to rules which are fairly arbitrary and which they have no real reason to have any faith in.

baz: When I said 'within reason', I was precluding something like a t-shirt with expletives all over it or something. And I admit the argument I was making was much wider than this particular case.
"Uniforms at schools are designed to put every pupil on a level footing,"

Except it doesn't work, does it? Vicious playground hierarchies continue to exist, to make students feel insecure, sometimes victimise them and frequently alienate them. And on top of that and everything else schoolkids have to deal with, you want to keep shouting at them when their shirt isn't tucked in or if their hair is 'wrong' or whatever.
Entitely agree with Kromo

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