Speaking of Pants

I am fast approaching my limit on pant styles on kids at school today. The boys wear them too tight or too loose and low so I can see their bright colored boxers (or athletic shorts) over the top and the girls wear them tight and low so I can either see their midriff or even better the top of their thong. This is all against dress code, but often, to save time, teachers say, "Pull your pants up," "Pull your shirt down," "Put a sweatshirt/jacket/over shirt on." Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to teach I would just be writing referrals. Even then, my students just roll their eyes and as soon as they think I can't see them re-adjust to their preference.

Today I lost it. I told my kids that I had a right to feel comfortable in my own classroom and that if I wore clothes like that I would be fired and if they did again I would write them up and include sexual harassment as part of the charge. Further I went on to explain to them that while all jobs that were legal, and helped you make a living were as far as I was concerned, good jobs, that they should make a list of what most people considered good jobs and what people considered less favorable jobs and then spend some time looking at how people in those jobs dressed. They may find that the people who had their fashion sense were less likely to be found in the jobs they preferred to have. What did that say about the image they projected for themselves.

Lastly I told them that the only people I knew of who liked that style consistently on others were police officers because if people with pants that won't stay up try to run from a crime they often find the pants trip them up making it easier for the police to catch them.

Maybe I'm unreasonable. Maybe I have no fashion sense. Obviously there are differences with styles over time. My mother thought me wearing bangs shillacked up past my forehead was stupid and in hind-sight I agree. Nor do I wear that anymore. None of my teachers or the professionals I saw at the time wore that style either, so maybe these kids will grow out of it too... Hopefully. (The pant thing and frankly, the hoody thing that often goes with it...)

My mother allowed me to wear the stupid bangs, and I thought she was a decent mom in hindsight (and as a teacher) but I find myself frustrated that parents today let their kids leave the house dressed as they are (or in some cases as undressed). I worry that this makes me a hypocrite. I also know that the stupid bangs did not expose my underwear or any other more intimate part of my anatomy, otherwise my father would have stopped me (maybe even murdered me). So maybe there is a difference.

Sometimes I worry that maybe the problem is there are too few Dad's at home to say "My daughter will not display her underwear to her entire class!" and "I will not allow my daughter to date someone that displays his underwear and can barely keep his pants on publicly," or better still, "No son of mine will dress like that." Maybe parents in general don't care.

Or maybe they are hoping that their children will see the same thing I did when I left high school that the fad stuff only makes sense in high school where nothing else does.