How kids can be stylin’ and still learn something in Modesto City Schools | Opinion
Nothing exemplifies a generation gap quite like what young people wear, and older people wish they wouldn’t.
Young people yearn to be free, to find themselves and to express themselves. Older people would rather drop the drama and focus on securing the kids’ futures.
Hoodies, crop tops and sagging pants can set on fire the dialog between the young and not-so-young anymore.
The two attitudes intersect at school, where youth outnumber adults but adults have more power. So adults normally set the dress codes under which young people chafe.
Fortunately, the powers that be in Modesto City Schools were smart enough to see the wisdom of including young people in a recent makeover of the district’s school dress code.
Using the same internet platform students use to obtain school assignments, nearly 6,000 older students responded to surveys asking for attitudes about hats on campus and in classrooms, tops showing tummies, and gaps revealing underwear. That’s nearly half of all students in grades 7 through 12.
In addition, 1,600 teachers and other staff and nearly 700 parents answered the same questions. In all, more than 8,300 people responded — a truly admirable achievement further enhanced with workshops at Modesto and Grace Davis high schools and a revision committee that thoughtfully considered dress codes in neighboring districts plus state law in coming up with a new proposal.
Collaborative products like this often don’t give any side everything it wants. But meeting somewhere in the middle usually is an acceptable outcome.
Such is the case with the common-sense, reasonable dress code proposal heading for a vote in Monday’s board meeting, May 15. It’s expected to start at 6 p.m. at 425 Locust St., and will be streamed on the district’s YouTube page.
Students, parents and teachers should consider spending Monday evening participating in democracy by giving school board members — in person — something to think about before their final vote on this important and controversial topic.
Specifically, students should explain to some reluctant board members why bare midriffs are not inherently evil. They should bear witness that styles and fashion influence what is available for them to purchase in clothing stores, which are not immoral for selling what people buy.
On April 17, when the draft policy was unveiled, committee leaders appropriately took pains to avoid comments sexualizing wearers of clothing. But one school board member just couldn’t help herself and suggested that young women bear responsibility to help young men pay attention in class.
Students on Monday may need to remind some school board members that educators have a duty to teach students accountability, not how to project their weakness onto others. Society must not remove from boys responsibility for their thoughts and actions.
Students on Monday may need to help school board members understand that hats do not always a gang member make, and that hoodies can provide shade without being shady. Sometimes a head covering is worn for religious reasons; other times, it simply eases the shame associated with a bad hair day. And the double-standard — some teachers wear hats — cannot stand.
This isn’t `anything goes’
Adults, most of your views are already known and have been voiced by the school board. But feel free to remind students that American freedom does not give them a pass to do and wear whatever they want.
Anything indicating gang association is out of the question, for good reason. T-shirts with hate speech, violence and illegal activity are not permitted. Neither is clothing showing undergarments.
Kids can wear what they want, or what their families decide is acceptable, for the 18 hours or so a day that they’re not in school, and on weekends and holidays and summer break. Wearing something appropriate for six hours on a school day is reasonable, and good practice for going to work as adults.
The school board should expect a good turnout Monday for a dress code proposal carefully crafted to make sense for today’s people, old and young alike.
