Randi Kreiss

One size doesn't fit all in school attire

Posted

The Lawrence School District has mandated uniforms for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, an idea that just doesn’t fit right.

Back in the day, we didn’t have school uniforms at Number Three School in Cedarhurst, Lawrence Junior High School, on Broadway, or Lawrence High School, on Reilly Road. We didn’t have them because we didn’t need them. Parents made sure their kids went to school appropriately dressed. There was such a thing as school clothes, which were different from play clothes.

In 1963, Lawrence High School teachers would drop ping-pong balls down the pants of the boys to make sure they weren’t too tight. No one would think of wearing “dungarees” to school. And girls had to kneel on the floor to prove the hem of their skirts touched the ground. There was no cleavage in sight. I can just imagine a teacher trying to drop a ping-pong ball down a boy’s pants today. I see litigation ahead . . .

But the point is, we kids pretty much dressed OK, and the infractions were small. It was common sense. There might have been a minor incident when some of the boys wore “Lawrence Drinking Team” sweatshirts to school (I believe they got suspended), but the punishment fit the crime. The suspension became part of the cachet of the class of ’64.

Do uniforms address the issue of economic inequality? I remember well that some of my girlfriends could afford Pappagallo shoes and Villager clothes. My parents either couldn’t or wouldn’t buy them for me, and so what? It was an introduction to the fact of life that some people have more money and more stuff. I would not have wanted to wear a uniform to neutralize the “inequality” issue.

Twenty-five years later, when my 16-year-old son chose to wear a T-shirt to school that said “I win” on the front and “You lose” on the back, I wouldn’t allow it. And we talked about it and the message it sent, and really, the shirt was only mildly offensive compared with what kids wear today.

Page 1 / 3