Should he be allowed to go to school with this hairstyle?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....lishment-mohican.html

/// I would feel ridiculous without it, it makes me an individual. All my mates like it and some want it too.' ///

Yes a ridiculous individual it would seem.

[joggerjayne]

I think this principle should apply to places like Sandhurst.

It's a pity, when you see people's photos from Sandhurst, that they all look the same.

Our best military leaders didn't become great by being "the same as everyone else".

Where are the Napoleons? the Wellingtons? the Montgomerys? the Boadiceas?

Individual characters, all of them.

It's time that Sandhurst "passing out" photos started to feature a few more mohicans, and a bit more jewellery.

[brenda]

Should he be allowed to go to school? Hair up he looks a total plonker so no,hair down he would look a freak but yes.
I always thought it was a parents' duty to protect their child, so why are they allowing an 11year old to be at risk from older youths in the area.Penketh when I worked there had, and still has some very rough areas.Allowing a young child to be on the streets with his Mohican is asking for trouble-- he will get beaten up or worse.It will happen especially as he has had his 5 minutes of fame.
I blame the parents entirely for this situation, neither of whom would appear to have a living brain cell between them.

[joggerjayne]

"I'm sure if we see this kid in thirty years time ..he'll be a big knob in the City"

Well, his parents have given him a head start in the "looking a bit of a knob" stakes!

[emmie]

JJ, they won't get far, and if Nelson, Wellington hadn't towed the line to some extent they wouldn't have acheived what they did. I doubt their early careers were as free thinking, acting as later on, when they had the clout to do their own thing.

[NOX]

"obedient little sheep wandering around bleating after their masters"

Isn't that thing called "work"? And sadly in the work place we all have to conform.

No actually Boo it isn't ANYTHING to do with work, and frankly people shouldn't have to conform to certain hairstyles in the work place imho (unless you're talking food hygeine situations)- I employ people and it's NEVER on the basis of what they look like I assure you, and I'm rarely disappointed.
The sheep reference was about indoctrinating children to always accept rules ( even when they are wrong), to learn that to be different is something to be avoided and to pass judgement on people who are.
The phrase ' only obeying orders' springs to mind. You might want that for your kids, I certianly don't want it for mine, so I removed mine from people's influence I considered unsuitable to teach them.
The more people question authority the better it is. As Krom said earlier the very cornerstone of our existance as thinking creatures and of democracy itself relies on people challenging that which they consider to be wrong- it's NOTHING to do with the work place.

[joggerjayne]

em10 ...

Yes, that was my point.

Perhaps I didn't express it clearly enough.

My point was that regimented places like Snadhurst tend to inspire free thought, and individuality ... not to repress it.

I wasn't really suggesting that Sandhurst recruits should have mohican haircuts, LOL.

[shaneystar2]

Well said Nox
People shouldn't be judged on their appearance .
Which is what I have been trying to say but you put it across better than I do :)

[emmie]

can you imagine what charles would have said to harry and wills if they had come home with a mohican haircut, and perhaps some tats for good measure...

[lcg]

no. he looks like a prat, the hair is not cut in the middle anyway and if he goes through life looking like that, he'll end up like his feckless parents. ridiculous! x

[ummmm]

NOX - I understand your sentiment. My boys HAVE to conform to the rules of the school. Doesn't mean they can't dress up as fairies and dance in front of the mirror, when they get home.

It's all about time and place...

[fliptheswitch]

LOL. I like how he says "I'll look ridiculous without it". Er.....

[joggerjayne]

"democracy itself relies on people challenging that which they consider to be wrong"

No it doesn't.

Democracy relies on EVERYBODY accepting the decision of the MAJORITY.

[NOX]

Democracy=mob rule- that's true enough but at least in a democracy you generally get the chance to quesiton the institution- in a totalitarian state which is the other option you tend to get shot.

[Kromovaracun]

@JJ: Your argument about Sandhurst doesn't add up. The kind of individuality that you're talking about is a very specific type, and I don't think it's at all healthy to be insinuating that our schools ought to be a bit more like military academies.

And I stand by my 'horrific' comment earlier. I'm highly sceptical about how many kids (versus adults) actually care about 'school pride'. I think it's a highly redundant notion. My horror comes from the fact that your system actively excludes "the weird kid with the dopey haircut" on the grounds that he doesn't look impressive enough for other schools. He's a person too.

[craft1948]

I think he should be allowed to go to school with his hair like that......he'll soon find out what the older boys thnk about it (head down toilet springs to mind)

[Kromovaracun]

"Democracy relies on EVERYBODY accepting the decision of the MAJORITY."

You clearly haven't heard of John Stewart Mill (one of the most important philosophers of the C19 and in the history of democracy), who openly agonised about the 'tyranny of the majority' and was explicitly concerned with how the interests of majority and minority can be reconciled, rather than one trumping the other. Democracy is an awful lot more complicated than 'majority rules' - and our democracy in particular is a direct product of people questioning who could have what rights and really interrogating the status quo. Again, I have to say I'm absolutely aghast at your thinking on this subject.

[emmie]

a good example, a run down inner city school, worse reputation in London, unruly kids and so forth. The new headmaster has completely turned it round, how, by bringing back discipline, no corporal punishment, but instant detention, all the children have to wear uniforms, and when a teacher enters the room the children all stand.
Teachers are addressed as sir or miss, and any teacher who isn't up to scratch, is shown the door. Result 10 out of 10, many pupils getting top grades, and going onto university. The queues to get into this academy are long. Be as individual as you like once you step off the education merry go round, but whilst there, better off fitting in.

[joggerjayne]

Kromo ...

Now that I'm a grown up (a bit more grown up than I'd like, actually), I love people who look a bit radical.

I love the tattoed people, the pierced people, the cross dressers, the arty types, the shaven headed girls, the eccentrics ... it's part of what makes where I chooses to live the best town in England.

But, when I was at school ...

If you looked across the sports pitch at the visiting team, you were looking for the weak link ... the odd one out ... the one who might not be part of a unit.

Kids will always be the same. You can't force kids to be fair, or open minded. If you do, you are suppressing the very individuality that you are trying to encourage.

[joggerjayne]

Not THE John Stuart Mill of ...

"John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill"

... as the Australian philosophers song went, LOL.

Well, I confess that I haven't read much of Mill since I studied jurisprudence. He's not among my bedside favourites.

[Kromovaracun]

Yes, I'm well aware of how awfully children treat people who are different - because I was the one who was (and what you're describing, while very real I agree, is not individuality - it's group mentality). I'm just sceptical that adults should be treating children in the same way.

"If you looked across the sports pitch at the visiting team, you were looking for the weak link ... the odd one out ... the one who might not be part of a unit. "

This is an entirely different argument from the one you were outlining earlier about school pride. Again, I don't dispute that's how kids behave. I just fail to see how that particularly isolated circumstance of sports competition (and looking impressive for another bunch of schoolkids) should then come to dominate our whole policy of education and what we expect of kids.