[lbo-talk] school uniforms (was: Ehrenreich responds to BDL)

[joand315]

> --- joand315 <joand315 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>>Miles Jackson wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On Fri, 22 Aug 2003, mike larkin wrote:
>>
>>>>Dress codes that accomomodate individuality are
>>
>>one
>>
>>>>thing, and a fine way to curb all that sexy
>>
>>11-year
>>
>>>>old Lolita stuff.  But uniforms? If you're a
>>
>>Maoist!
>>
>>
>>>Go to a mall and look at the clusters of 13 year
>>
>>olds and
>>
>>>what they're wearing.  Can you say with a straight
>>
>>face
>>
>>>they're expressing their unique individuality? 
>>
>>Bullshit.
>>
>>>As Wojtek emphasizes, it's a
>>
>>corporate-garment-industry
>>
>>>mandated uniform enforced by incessant ads and
>>
>>peer
>>
>>>pressure.
>>>
>>>School uniforms stifle "individuality" no more (or
>>
>>less)
>>
>>>than current corporate standards for teen clothing
>>
>>do.  (Buying
>>
>>>corporate brands to "fit in" is not the unique
>>
>>expression
>>
>>>of a person's individuality!)
>>
>>I have to agree here that school uniforms don't
>>stifle "individuality". 
>>  When I went to Catholic school, we found a way to
>>make them ours. 
>>There is enough latitude in sock type, skirt length,
>>blouse type, to 
>>make your personal stamp.
>>
>>I know that in Chicago people began thinking about
>>"school uniforms" for 
>>public schoool kids, after inner city kids were
>>being shot for the 
>>jackets or shoes they wearing.  Also, parents were
>>lobbying for their 
>>kids to have "school uniforms" for this same reason
>>and also because 
>>they thought it would save them money.  One thing
>>that "school uniforms" 
>>  do is help to eliminate classism in school.  Kids
>>have to find some 
>>other way to group themselves or ostracize one
>>another besides the 
>>clothes that they, the kids, wear to school.

mike larkin wrote:


> This is why I'm not a socialist. After all the
> condemnations of capitalist oppression, it always
> seems to end up with kids marching around in identical
> uniforms and other such atrocities. No wonder
> everybody in East Germany headed for the shopping
> malls when the gates were opened, instead of sitting
> around listening to homilies about "third way"
> socialism.
> 
> Thank heavens for the anarchists. They're the only
> reason the left has any vitality these days. 

I hardly think that the parents begging school boards to institute
school uniforms are socialists or that the school board enacting such a
policy is an atrocity.  Making those kids march, now that would be
unforgivable!
-joan


>>>Miles
>>>
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