Response to “Tuck in That Shirt!” (Emily Hunter)
“Tuck in That Shirt” by Edward Morris examined the interplay between race, gender, and class within the urban school system. The concept of the dress code at Matthews Middle School reminds me somewhat of my own highschool experience. I attended a boarding school with a strict dress code policy. Students were not allowed to wear jeans, shirts were required to have a collar and sleeves in addition to being tucked in, and skirts needed to be at the knee or below. Just like Matthews Middle School, Choate claimed the dress code “ensured a safe learning environment and promoted a climate of effective discipline that does not distract from the educational process.” While the economic status of the students at Choate is much different than the students observed at Matthews Middle School, I feel similar trends can be applied. For example, one of my good male friends came from an upper-class, white family. Every day, he refused to tuck in his shirt or at most he did the half tuck (tucking the front in and letting the back hang out). The teachers rarely called him out on his lack of conformity to the dress code. If the teachers did ask him to tuck in the shirt, he would, but would undo the tuck within a few minutes, and the teachers never asked him a second time to fix his shirt. Thinking back I did notice that the minority students and/or scholarships students were regulated more closely when it came to dress code, always being asked to tuck in shirts or to go change into a more acceptable skirt. I even remember once in English I wore a skirt that was much shorter than my friends (who was African American), but she was asked to go back to her room to change and I was not. I did not think much of it until now, but it is likely the interplay of race, class, and gender were present even in my own highschool experience, and I did not notice them because I was fulfilling every role the authority wanted me to fill: white, reserved female, who dressed in clothing deemed appropriate for academic and social success.
This paper also forced me to analyze the concept that when people are told who to be and how much they can accomplish, they eventually embody these characteristics. Morris draws attention to this by explaining that by continually expecting children to be poor students, threatening, or lacking in motivation, the authority teaches these students to think of themselves in the same way. During my middle school years, I experienced the same type of stereotyping by teachers. From a young age, I was deemed an outsider in my classes because I was soft spoken, didn’t wear Abercrombie, and wasn’t allowed to watch most television shows. By the time I hit middle school I felt isolated and began to identify with the “deviant students” in my predominantly all white middle school. I began wearing studded belts, painting my nails black, and bought clothes from Hot Topic rather than from Hollister. I noticed that as I changed my outward appearance the teachers began to reprimand me for my actions more so than they had done before. Whereas previously I was allowed to get up to get a drink of water or to use the restroom, I was now called out for leaving my seat without asking permission. My grades began to decrease on papers and teachers even told my parents they needed to accept I never was going to be the brightest. At this point, I had given up on studying and dedicated myself fully to athletics. Clearly the teachers were never going to take me seriously, so why bother trying? I had fully embodied the laziness and lack of enthusiasm in academics that the teachers had forced upon me. The academic limitations I experienced in middle school motivated me to apply to boarding school and thus I learned to have faith in myself as a student again. Of course, now I must ask myself, did Choate change me or was it that I dressed “appropriately” for authority’s ideal of a good student and thus once again was treated as an enthusiastic learner? It scares me that academic authorities have the power to reproduce stereotypes and ultimately alter the self-esteem of the students. I fully agree with Morris’s closing argument in which he states, “Schools and society should seek to value, rather than reform, marginalized forms of style and appearance”. Once differences are celebrated, all students will have a more equal playing field to reach his or her highest academic potential.
I agree with Emily's disturbance at the idea that adults in schools have the power to reinforce stereotypes and alter the self-esteem and therefore the academic and social performance of their students. I wonder if we looked at uniforms not as stifling creativity or disallowing self-expression, but rather as an equalizer, if opinions would shift. After all on page 27 of the article, a situation is described where the school officials deemed a girl’s clothes “gang-like” and wrote her off as a social deviant. When in reality the girl was simply trying to conform to the expectations of her neighbourhood. When a school has uniforms the differences between students are minimized. This difference minimization is often why people argue against uniforms. Yet if the differences in economic and social classes were not readily apparent, I would argue that such homogeneous dress allows the educators to stave off their prejudices against some students. It is sad that educators have biases against their own students, but educators are people raised in mainstream society just like everyone else, so it should be expected that they would carry the same bias, and discriminatory practices as the rest of society.
ReplyDeleteI think that Emily makes a valid argument about a teacher’s perception and how influential a teacher’s perception is on a student’s educational career. Unlike Emily I did not attend a private upper class school, there was no dress code at my school expect for a no hats rule. However this did not stop teachers from controlling or commenting on what each student wore. I remember my freshman year of high school and witnessing numerous girls having to sit out of gym class for not having the appropriate clothing. The appropriateness of their shorts and shirts was completely up to the teacher’s individual discretion. The fact that the students were mostly Jamaican escaped me until I reread the article. Why did the teacher feel that their shorts were more inappropriate than one of my peers who only wore booty shorts and tank tops? I assume that the students failed the class because participation is essential in gym class. This success of hindered because of the one teachers perception of them and possibly their racial identity. Emily closes with martin’s argument that “Schools and society should seek to value, rather than reform, marginalized forms of style and appearance”. Without a uniform my school did except different styles but this did not stop any reforming of appearance. I think that the acceptance style differences are just the start. Without eliminating all racial prejudices the field will never be leveled and the problems the Matthews Middle School Students faced will remain.
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