Interesting piece in the NYTimes Style section: Can a Boy Wear a Dress to School? A balanced look, I think, at the difficulty schools have in weighing safety, school environment and dress codes against students’ rights to express themselves through dress.
Our middle school is considering uniforms next year, which I think is just awful. It may make it easier for the administrators to police dress, but middle schoolers are at the age where they are starting to ramp up the “who am I?” identity experimentation. It is absolute eye candy to watch them come in to school when I work the Ambassador Desk. All so very different from one another, and most of that expressed in rather unique ways through their dress, hair and jewelry. They’ll change it next week when they try on a new identity, but that’s their job at 13 and 14.
The story makes me realize that this acceptance I see here at my kids’ school is happening all over the country. Change is a-comin’. Kyle is lamenting Maine’s vote on Tuesday, and reading this makes me wish I could wave a wand and make things the way they ought to be. I know it’s not soon enough, and I know it should be right now. And I completely agree that civil and human rights cannot be left to the majority.
But the younger the voter, the more likely to say, “That’s just Jack,” as the Times story concludes. The only friend of Warren’s who has ever argued with me that there is “anything wrong with that” turned out to kidding me, and gay himself. Out at 14. And his friends are just fine with that. These kids have only four years until they can vote. Their older friends are ready to tip the balance as bigoted old dudes exit the scene.
And in case you’ve been wondering, here’s an update on our fame-seeking Jonathan, who chose the home of Dent Myers and mandatory gun ownership as an audience for his fashion revue.
