My spouse (and personal shopper) was recently looking through my closet, assessing my wardrobe for the coming school year. I love her for this, for if I trusted my own sartorial sense I would surely look the slob. So each year we trek off to the mall, an almost viscerally painful experience for me, and we purchase new clothes for the year, to be supplemented later by a couple of holiday additions. I’m free to purchase clothing on my own that can’t be readily seen, such as underwear and socks, both of which I consider to come in two colors: white and not-white.
As you might guess, I don’t pay much attention to fashion, but I have listened in on a enough lunch-time conversations among faculty and staff to know that there is a certain shared angst about what to wear to school each day, the rising costs and decreasing quality of what we purchase, tips for where to find good deals, and even offers of clothing loans and swaps. My gaze then falls upon our school’s maintenance staff, each wearing an olive colored shirt with jeans to ask my self “what-if?”
Our school has a long tradition of a uniform for students—a tradition not likely to fall by the wayside. While some students may try to push the boundaries of the uniform form time-to-time, I think deep down they like the notion of having less choice at the start of the school day. Public schools are adopting uniforms as a way of instilling pride among students, while lessening the economic burden on cash-strapped parents to keep up with the latest fads in clothing, thereby equalizing the school fashion runway for all students.
So why not extend these benefits to faculty and staff? Think of the gains:
- Less time figuring out what to wear in the morning, resulting in less stress.
- Group purchasing power can bring down the cost of school clothing; certainly an economic boon in “these tough economic times.”
- Uniforms could be sourced from organic, fair trade sources helping us fulfill our school’s mission statement regarding sustainability and justice.
- Students would spend less time talking about faculty and staff clothing, and more time on, well, Facebook where they can talk about what they’re going to wear outside of school. (This one needs some work, granted.)
Maybe such a dream is a “guy” thing, but I think not. I think it’s a “green” thing. Better for the pocket-book, better for the environment. Fashion can still flourish among the uniformed through accessories (or in my case underwear and socks.) I’m already designing the Tech Department’s shirt in my head. I wonder if I could add a Dilbert embroidery to denim?
Hey, there’s a serious idea in here!
I want to dress like Snape (or maybe Professor McGonagall!)
I’ve been an administrator at two different schools now that require uniforms for their students. At each school a small number of faculty wanted to push for uniforms for the staff as well. In both instances it was the female members of the staff that were up in arms about how awful this would be. At both schools the men wear shirts and ties not as a requirement but just part of the tradition of each school. The shakeout on this issue has always intrigued me and I’m not sure if the same response would take place at any school.
Thank you for your comments, Roy. I find it interesting that at each school there was a group who were interested in the idea. I suppose there’s nothing to say that a small group of faculty could do this on their own, but I can also see where it could become an “us” versus “them” issue, which is not what we need. And surely there are more important items than what we wear to school to occupy the precious little time that faculty have to discuss substantive issues of common interest. Nevertheless, I stand by my belief that there’s a germ of an idea in here that may be worth pursuing.
steve
Nicely written, so have you any other information on that, if yes, then please send it to me, I am hungry to read your next post. Thanks