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School Rules

wobs

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wobs
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We're at the stage where we are looking at high schools for second born.

Talking to other parents has revealed some interesting insights into modern schools, in terms of rules:
  • One school insists that kids carry their planner in their right hand when walking through school
  • School uniform - have to wear tie (an outdated concept for most of real world), among other strict rules for uniform (cost being an obvious downside). I mean really strict rules.
  • One way corridors (unless you're 6th Form), so you have to go round the whole building to get to a next class nearby, even when its quiet.

This isn't a modern phenomenon:
When I was at school in the 80s, we had a teachers path, that ran between the two main buildings. We had to walk on the road.

Is there any benefit to the kids for these stupid rules? I recall finding uniform uncomfortable, and a distraction as a result. Polo shirts seem the way forward, but many schools don't seem to go for them.

What stupid rules did you have at school?
 
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wobs said:
We're at the stage where we are looking at high schools for second born.

Talking to other parents has revealed some interesting insights into modern schools, in terms of rules:

One school insists that kids carry their planner in their right hand when walking through school
Click to expand...


What is a planner?
 
The tie sounds really dumb but probably harmless.

One way corridors seem kinda logical to handle high traffic, but likely really silly a lot of the time in practice.

Having to carry a planner, and specifically in your right hand, sounds like crazy cult stuff.
 
The only crazy school rules I can remember, from High School, is that the girls' uniforms were policed heavily.

In particular, measuring the distance from the knee to the hemline of the dress, while the girl was kneeling, and a rule that all buttons had to be buttoned at all times.

We only had to wear uniform during first year (and at formal occasions which were very rare), but the girls fought tooth and nail against those rules.

(Remember this is a hot climate, having to wear a dress buttoned to the neck one a 104°F (40°C) day, in classrooms with no air conditioning, seemed like deliberate torture.)

I can remember an English class where it was so hot, we couldn't do anything at all. The teacher said: "It's too hot to try and work. Read a book if you like, or sleep at your desks."

All the windows were open, and the single, ceiling mounted fan was moving the air, but that was it.

More than half the class, took the opportunity to sleep.

(In those conditions, we were barely getting any sleep at night, because our homes were no better.)

The hemlines were more a fashion thing though.
 
Rule in high school that the teachers shut and lock their doors the second the bell rings after passing period. No admittance, you have to go to the assistance principal of discipline's office... yes we had a dedicated principal for that. And at the very least miss that entire class. However, they also had the rule the teacher shall release the students, you cannot just leave when the bell rings, so you may not have the entire 5 minute passing period to get to your next class. There was also a rule of no running in the halls, and this was a large school with 4 or main 5 buildings and 3500 kids. Now just imagine the number of tardy's they had to deal with, all day long every day. This is one, but hardly the only, example of why in another thread I said Texas schools put education a distant fourth behind discipline, conformity, and football in importance. I had to actually start to beg my math teacher to let me leave in 10th grade as the bell rang or I'd never make it to art class 3 buildings away, in under 5 minutes.
 
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I went to High School in the USA in the 1960s. The biggest "rules" issues were girls' skirts and boys' hair. The former must not be too short; or the latter too long.
Except, of course, when I was in Grade 9 a couple of guys were sent home for shaving their heads; and about a year later a couple of girls were sent home for wearing "granny dresses"; i.e. too long.
Pants/trousers for female students was of course simply unthinkable.
But when my state was celebrating it's "territorial centennial", the boys were allowed to grow beards. I wasn't of an age to do so.
 
I teach in the Netherlands and in my school the whole uniform thing does not exist, but recently there was suddenly a rule implemented that hats and hoodies in the school are no longer allowed.
I have no clue why, and personally don't agree, but...

The thing causing the most disagreement among colleagues at the moment however is how to deal with cellphones. One the one end of the spectrum are those that see them as deadening the youth and who wish to banish them from school completely, regardless of the student's age, one the other end are those like me who feel that what they do in their breaks is their own choice and in class it's our job to teach them how to handle technology responsibly, while also integrating cell phones into lessons (ie, if they are gaming/texting you tell them to put it away, if they refuse confiscate the phone for the lesson, but if they want to use it to look up information that's fine).
 
Catholic high school: fixed uniform skirts and blouses for girls, boys could choose colors for dress pants, shirts, ties, and v neck sweaters. However, I was found in violation for wearing black pants, shirt and v neck with a white tie. Priests have no sense of humor.
 
Thermal said:
Catholic high school: fixed uniform skirts and blouses for girls, boys could choose colors for dress pants, shirts, ties, and v neck sweaters. However, I was found in violation for wearing black pants, shirt and v neck with a white tie. Priests have no sense of humor.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you looked very fetching. Hence the violation. Priests may have no sense of humour, but they -- many of them, some you'd never suspect -- have a well-developed sense of tumour.
 
We had slightly weird uniform rules - had to wear a black jacket, a grey herringboney tweedy jacket, or a shiny purple and black striped jacket; shirt had to be white, grey, or blue; trousers black; shoes black. I had the crazy jacket for my first year as it was a hand me down from a friend a couple of years older, but managed to persuade my mother to let me have the grey like everyone else for the next 4 years. In the sixth form, we could wear whatever colour jacket and shirt we liked, so I got some very stylish second hand stuff. I also couldn’t afford school shoes after buying 5 jackets so wore converse basketball shoes with black gaffer tape over the fluoro green star, and got punished fairly regularly when the tape came off.

Only one guy ever wore the black suit combo, and he wore it for the whole 7 years.

Other odd rules were that we weren’t allowed to walk on some of the grass, but were allowed on other bits; prefects were allowed a moustache, though few did in my time there; the head boy was allowed to tether a goat at the school, though none did in my time there; the head boy was also allowed to smoke a pipe, though etc.

Not a rule, but rigorously enforced: there were two teachers who took on themselves to make sure the kids showered properly after sport. One of them, the boarding house master, vanished between years 3 and 4 because he got caught sexually assaulting a kid in our year. I don’t think he ever went to court though. The other one died 10 years or so after we finished school; a couple of years after we left, we heard he had been badly beaten and hospitalised by a former victim.
 
Mojo said:
What is a planner?
Click to expand...

I've heard the term. I believe a planner is a three-ring binder for looseleaf notebook paper; often the binder has document pockets in the inside front and back covers and a vinyl pouch that has reinforced holes for the binding rings; it can hold pencils, pens, and other impedimenta. Often the school provides a planning sheet (class times, classroom numbers, perhaps teachers' names). One well-known American brand a few decades ago was the Trapper-Keeper.
 
I went to a new school, a school that was still being built when I left 5 years later, it had opened the year earlier so there was only one year above us. Which meant for the first few years we had a high teacher to pupil ratio which led to lots of teachers to enforce "discipline". School uniform was extremely strict and controlled, you could only buy the main components - blazers, ties, trousers, and shirts from two approved shops so they were expensive.

Any deviation from the uniform was a detention.

Didn't stop kids from trying to push it - tying ties was one form of pushback - either creating a thick knot with hardly any trailing part or the opposite, a very small knot with the narrow part at the front and you tucked the thick part into your shirt. Top button had to be fastened. No piercings, if girls had their ears pierced they couldn't wear anything in them when in uniform. No tights, the girl's socks had to come up to just below the knee. However, it was progressive (for the late 70s) so girls could wear trousers.
 
Spektator said:
I've heard the term. I believe a planner is a three-ring binder for looseleaf notebook paper; often the binder has document pockets in the inside front and back covers and a vinyl pouch that has reinforced holes for the binding rings; it can hold pencils, pens, and other impedimenta. Often the school provides a planning sheet (class times, classroom numbers, perhaps teachers' names). One well-known American brand a few decades ago was the Trapper-Keeper.
Click to expand...

Not sure what the planners are, but could be this.
 
Darat said:
<snip> School uniform was extremely strict and controlled, you could only buy the main components - blazers, ties, trousers, and shirts from two approved shops so they were expensive. <snip>
Click to expand...

Likewise. Added to the blazer, hat, pleated skirt, blouse and tie, with optional summer dress, there was also a netball and hockey skirt to buy as well as the polo-style top. Boys, their version. We had to wear stockings or tights or knee-length white socks. I recall my shoes being lace-ups but got trendier as the years went by.

I always thought the shop which supplied the uniform exclusively would be rolling in the money having been granted that privilege so imagine my surprise when I worked in Insolvency Practice years later to note that my particular supplier of its particular address had gone into liquidation. (I can't remember if it was compulsory or voluntary.)

It could simply be fashions changed, from expecting clothes to last a long time, we now expect them to be more or less disposable and cheap, cotton and polyester instead of wool. Less fiddly, no silk ties and fancy badges.

I recall when I first started I loved all the rules. I loved everything about it, the homework, the exams, it was great.
 
Cat Not Included said:
The tie sounds really dumb but probably harmless.

One way corridors seem kinda logical to handle high traffic, but likely really silly a lot of the time in practice.

Having to carry a planner, and specifically in your right hand, sounds like crazy cult stuff.
Click to expand...

This seems reasonable. I honestly think uniforms are a good idea as long as its simple and cheap. Poorer kids don't have to worry about that being obvious if everyone is dressed the same. There's no fashion competition and what not. Ties seem silly at this point though.

The planner thing does seem quite odd, I've never heard of such a thing.
 
Spektator said:
I've heard the term. I believe a planner is a three-ring binder for looseleaf notebook paper; often the binder has document pockets in the inside front and back covers and a vinyl pouch that has reinforced holes for the binding rings; it can hold pencils, pens, and other impedimenta. Often the school provides a planning sheet (class times, classroom numbers, perhaps teachers' names). One well-known American brand a few decades ago was the Trapper-Keeper.
Click to expand...

I would call that a 3-ring binder. I would take a "planner" for a student to mean a book with calendar pages to note assignments, etc. Synonyms would be day planner, date book, appointment book, personal organizer, etc. I think these are sometimes called "diaries" in British English, if I've interpreted the lingo in Brit tv shows correctly.
 
Hmm...

This has reminded me. Our school uniform included hats.

Straw Boaters for the guys, and a wider brimmed, round topped hat for the girls.

I don't think I ever saw anyone wear one of the school hats.

But I still have the school crest from my blazer pocket.

(The rest of the blazer was eaten by mice while it was stored in my father's garage.)
 
These must all be private schools. I find it hard to believe that a public school could make up stupid rules like these and get away with it.

And I would be surprised if some of the rules that a private school imposes haven't been challenged in court on the basis that they are discriminatory.
 
Yeah, my public school had basically a guideline that said we should wear a yellow top and brown trousers or skirts, but it was not rigidly enforced.

BTW "public" school meaning government school, not the weird way that term is used in the UK.
 
We had a school uniform, but only for the sports activities.
These were provided by the school and were, as far as I can remember, the same for boys and girls (Netherlands by the way).

There were rumors of a school in the neighborhood having some kind of traffic light system in the stairway part of the building. But that was because it was a rather old building with quite a lot of students present. Never been in that school though, so might very well have been just a rumor, back in the day.

For the rest, there were the normal rules. No running in the corridors and no entering the classrooms ahead of the teacher (although that last rule was more or less ignored, as the teachers quite liked the classroom and students being ready for them, so they could start sooner with the lessons.)
There was one teacher who insisted on standing in the classroom doorway, and upon entering you had to give him a hand, while greeting him with 'Good day, mr Werner'. If you forgot, you had to go back to the corridor, go to the back of the queue and 'try' again.
But he was the sole exception in this regard.
 
psionl0 said:
These must all be private schools. I find it hard to believe that a public school could make up stupid rules like these and get away with it.

And I would be surprised if some of the rules that a private school imposes haven't been challenged in court on the basis that they are discriminatory.
Click to expand...

It applies equally to public and state schools in the UK.
 
Spektator said:
I've heard the term. I believe a planner is a three-ring binder for looseleaf notebook paper; often the binder has document pockets in the inside front and back covers and a vinyl pouch that has reinforced holes for the binding rings; it can hold pencils, pens, and other impedimenta. Often the school provides a planning sheet (class times, classroom numbers, perhaps teachers' names). One well-known American brand a few decades ago was the Trapper-Keeper.
Click to expand...

Ah. So it's a Day-Timer®! I was greatly amused to see these still exist; vide: https://www.daytimer.com/en-ca/
 
wobs said:
Guessing its in speech marks, as you don't agree with the answer?
Click to expand...

arthwollipot said:
I don't think it's a valid reason for stupid rules, no.
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Damn right.

We are citizens not subjectsb laws are in place for our collective benefit. There should be no more than necessary for that, and as school is supposed to a preparation for society, its rules should reflect that philosophy.

I would not want my kids to have learned mindless obedience.
 
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