New Jen's Horde


Sunday, July 03, 2005

Teacher Dress Codes

 
Judging by some of what is described here, and what I remember from what I was in school (slutty Mrs. M., or stoner Mr. I. I'm looking at you) I'm surprised this wasn't taken care of long ago.

Honestly, dressing casually isn't that big of a deal, even many large corporations don't require suits and ties any more. But, if you have a well-reasoned argument as to why it's beneficial to the students for a teacher to dress like a prostitute or a drug dealer, I'd like to hear it.

Comments:
As long as nothing is hanging out, I don't mind teachers wearing rubber flipflops and board shorts to work...Imean, i personally live in my flipflops and board shorts...;)
 
I agree, but some of these teachers are dressing very revealingly or wearing what is obviously drug-related clothing. That's the behavior that I'm not seeing any realistic justification for.
 
What kind of justification do you want?
 
I don't think there is any, that's why I'm asking. It seems like it would be common sense not to dress this way.
 
I think the qality of education is a hell of a lot more important than worrying about what people look or dress like.
 
The teacher is an authority figure. If one dresses in a way that will distract or diminish the respect from a student, then the learning process suffers. Kids are easily distracted to begin with and when you have male or female teachers dressed inappropriately, no one is going to learn anything. Argue about right to wear whatever all you want, but education is going down the toilet, do we really want something else to contribute to it? You would think it is common sense to dress appropriate to the profession but apparently not.
 
Apparently the "qality" of education at your institution was lacking, ariadnek.

Thaoist, you have made many good points.

As I said before, I don't think casual dress is a problem, since most corporations don't even require business attire any more. But, when the teachers are dressing in a manner that is not allowable under the student's dress codes, there's a problem.

Anyway, I still haven't seen any well-reasoned argument how dressing inappropriately ADDS to the classroom. And, isn't that what teachers are there for?

Remember, they are in front of students on average 180 days out of the year, that leaves 185 days they can dress however they like! :-)
 
To take the slight Devil's Advocate approach, I would imagine the main reason teachers are allowed to dress that way is to "bridge the gulf" between teacher and student. Supposedly it gives them the ability to "get down" and "get funky" with their "rad selves".

Sorta like the cool philosophy or mythology professor you had in college that dressed in jeans and sneakers. He never wore a tie but dressed more like you so you could identify with him more.

Which I can understand to an extent, but kids fashions have devolved beyond that, so if you have a reasonably attractive teacher, the kids are going to be paying more attention to the thong sticking out the back of her low-cut shorts or her belly-button ring than the lesson...
 
I'm all with being able to identify with them, but if you can't tell if you should call him Mr. Smith or ask him if he has any "good shit" then I think a line has been crossed. ;-)

Interstellar, I think that's the point I'm trying to make.
 
I have to agree with you Jen. Waaaayyy back there was one teacher who dressed like a slutt at my High School. All of the students thought that she was dressing inappropriately. We were required to have our skirts at least as long as our fingertips, but hers were shorter. There were rumors that she would wear these skirts and then put her feet up on her desk, but I doubt that ever happened.
One of my boyfriends had her for english class and I kept teasing him to NEVER ASK HER for Extra Credit.
The rest of my teachers always dressed "teacherly", even on spirit days when they were allowed to wear jeans.
 
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