Anally retentive school admin confiscates student's coats

[Peter]

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2010/january/4/pupils_sent_home.aspx

I remember one time when the geniuses at my school suddenly decided that brown boots were unacceptable, and started sending anyone with brown boots to the school office each morning to be marked on a list, including myself, since my entire assortment of footware at the time consisted of a pair of brown boots and a pair of trainers.  They quietly dropped the issue after a while, probably once they realised that nobody gave a shit about their brown-boot-list and that parents weren't going to buy their kids new footware to please the school officials, but it's nice to see that there are still petty-minded bureaucrats out there who're fixated on enforcing homogeneity among their students.

[Callaway]

I think school uniforms are stupid anyway, but apparently these particular school uniform coats aren't warm enough for winter wear.

[Scrapheap]

This retard got things 180 deg backwards.

"...but the pupils are more worried about their appearance than their education."

No, it's the school admin that's more worried about the pupils appearance than education.

[Gluey]

Brown boots? what was that all about? some gang related thing? 

[Peter]

Brown boots? what was that all about? some gang related thing? 

It was just the school officials getting upset over people not following the uniform code to the letter.  The uniform was for black shoes or boots, but the school had never had a problem with people wearing brown boots up until that point.  I wore brown boots simply because that's the colour that good quality leather hiking boots tended to be.

[Christopher McCandless]

The idea is to stop kids looking like chavs or getting bullied for not wearing Nike clothing. Personally I agree with uniform, as long as its practical and can be bought from Asda, or from the school for ASDA prices.

[SleepyDragon]

The idea is to stop kids looking like chavs or getting bullied for not wearing Nike clothing. Personally I agree with uniform, as long as its practical and can be bought from Asda, or from the school for ASDA prices.

I had to Google Asda to know what you were talking about, and having done so, I agree with all the points you have made.

Public schools in Australia which have a uniform policy (not all of them do) maintain that it's good for school pride and that it promotes equality among all students. Ideally, uniform would be cheap, reasonably flattering to the appearance, easily-maintained, and available in seasonally-appropriate styles. It would be adopted only after extensive consultation with stakeholders (parents, Parents' and Citizens' Committees, etc.); and plenty of advance warning would be given on the school's expectations, enforcement, and changes. A used-clothing pool might make it easier for families on limited incomes to comply with requirements.

The school in the Kent Online article appears to have fallen down on most if not all of those points, going by the comments made.

ETA: Many of the comments, both from parents and students, contained atrocious spelling and grammar errors.

[Christopher McCandless]

The idea is to stop kids looking like chavs or getting bullied for not wearing Nike clothing. Personally I agree with uniform, as long as its practical and can be bought from Asda, or from the school for ASDA prices.

I had to Google Asda to know what you were talking about, and having done so, I agree with all the points you have made.

Public schools in Australia which have a uniform policy (not all of them do) maintain that it's good for school pride and that it promotes equality among all students. Ideally, uniform would be cheap, reasonably flattering to the appearance, easily-maintained, and available in seasonally-appropriate styles. It would be adopted only after extensive consultation with stakeholders (parents, Parents' and Citizens' Committees, etc.); and plenty of advance warning would be given on the school's expectations, enforcement, and changes. A used-clothing pool might make it easier for families on limited incomes to comply with requirements.

In all honestly though, the story sounds pretty sensationalist and its only a small minority of parents who are kicking off, the others are presumably happy that they have been informed. It is not the schools fault that the parents don't bother/ can't read the letters sent home.

The school in the Kent Online article appears to have fallen down on most if not all of those points, going by the comments made.

ETA: Many of the comments, both from parents and students, contained atrocious spelling and grammar errors.

Kind of why we need more discipline in schools, rather than less.

[Parts]

No uniforms almost anywhere here except private schools.   This is stupid your boots didn't match their coaave anything else to don'ts don't match don't they h

[Scrapheap]

I hate the idea of enforcing conformity on kids and teaching them to obey pointless rules of petty tyrants. School uniform rules accomplish nothing other that to brainwash kids into mindless obedience.

[Frolic_Fun]

Uniforms help identify students, so I don't mind them. Saves from washing other clothes too.

My school wasn't strict with them though. I wore runners when everyone was supposed to wear boots, had no problems.

[Scrapheap]

Uniforms help identify students, so I don't mind them.

Does that make it easier to identify who to molest?? 

[Frolic_Fun]

I'll let you try first, since you seem eager.

[Scrapheap]

I'll let you try first, since you seem eager.

Sure, as long as it's somewhere else besides England. Too many security cameras there. It's like 1984 came true or something... 

[SleepyDragon]

I hate the idea of enforcing conformity on kids and teaching them to obey pointless rules of petty tyrants. School uniform rules accomplish nothing other that to brainwash kids into mindless obedience.

Mindless obedience, are you fuckin' kidding me? One of the first things kids do with uniform is to work out exactly how far they can bend the rules, without getting into trouble for it. You can always pick the rugged individualists and the iconoclasts; it's all in the small details.

Most schools, except for maybe the denominational schools like the Catholics or the Church of England, are fairly mellow about the whole thing. The exception is if the uniform supervisor is having a shit day and decides to make an example of some random kid for not having their socks pulled up high enough or some stupid thing like that. But that's all part of the "fun" of going to school — most times the attention you cop from teachers is well-deserved, and other times it isn't.