When I think back to my secondary school days, the one thing I remember is how many times I was shouted at by teachers for the most ridiculous things like having nail varnish on or having my hair a certain colour of red that simply wasn't "acceptable"...
I thought it was absurd then and I think that it still is now. What made me think of this is the other day, my younger sister said that she had her ring (a simply Pandora birthstone ring, nothing huge or distracting) taken off of her during her lesson because it was going to be "reducing her concentration during learning", I'm sorry...
what? I don't understand how a small thing like that is going to cause any distraction unless she was throwing it across the room or eating it!
Should teachers have this power?
It infuriates me how teachers would rather spend their time commenting on small things like that than the main issues that need to be addressed within the school environment and believe me, there's a lot. Firstly, the lack of mental health awareness and support within most secondary schools is something that is seriously quite worrying as there could be so many students that are struggling and in need of help but the teachers are more worried about a ring or the colour you want to dye your hair.
Now, I understand that schools need rules however some of these rules are just ridiculous.
All that they are doing is making everyone clones; a product of the lack of freedom and identity. Scary, right? School is draining enough without having every part of your personality ripped out too.
Now that I'm in sixth form and am able to wear what I want and pretty much do what I want, I've noticed that I'm a lot happier. Evidently, to get to this point, there needs to be a certain sense of maturity and I'm not saying that secondary school should be the same as sixth form because then there would be no control whatsoever and considering the vulnerable stage at which these teenagers are at, it's important to give them some sort of guidance. However, that does not mean that the Education system has to control everything about the person and how they want to look.
When I was in year 10, I remember feeling pretty insecure about my appearance but I had a cute little nose ring which I would wear that would make me feel like I looked better and therefore I felt better.
Oh, God forbid I wore this tiny ring in my nose... straight away, I was ordered to take it out or I would be in "isolation" or whatever they call it these days. Please just explain to me how this is bothering you at all? Also, by constantly picking up on how students decide to dress or act, you are making them dislike you incredibly and therefore hindering their chances of success because they will feel unwilling to learn.
What I'm trying to say here that out of all of the things that teachers could be focusing on that needs addressing within the school environment, the appearance(within reason) of the students should not be the main thing. Maybe you should have a look at the new specifications and work out how to get the students through that because that's going to be an interesting few years... No coursework option, really?