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New Hampshire Teachers Call Flip-Flop, Tank Top Ban ‘Condescending’
Townhall.com ^ | December 2, 2012 | Kyle Olson

Posted on 12/02/2012 7:39:18 AM PST by Kaslin

Just how far has the culture in government schools devolved?

School district efforts to professionalize staff is now considered an affront to teachers.

At least that’s the attitude emanating from teachers in the Hampton, New Hampshire SAU 90 school district.

The school board is considering an update to its dress-code policy for teachers, and, according to Seacoastonline.com, “several teachers are insulted such a policy exists, telling them blue jeans, sneakers, flip-flops and tank tops are off limits.”

Superintendent Kathleen Murphy said staff members feel the proposed policy is “derogatory and condescending.”

It’s derogatory to ask professionals to dress a little more professionally that the young children in their charge?

Thank goodness several school board members are rejecting this protest as an affront to their authority. Citizens elect the board to run the schools and make the rules. Nobody elected the union to run anything.

“’Who backs up management?” board member Ginny Bridle-Russell asked. “What happens if they go to a teacher and say, ‘I don't feel that dress is appropriate, it's too short,’ and the teacher (responds by saying), ‘Says who?’”

Board Chairwoman Charlotte Ring said dress codes must be standardized in districts like Hampton that have more than one school.

“I wouldn't mind going without a policy if we had one building principal and one school,” Ring said. “But we have three schools and three building principals, and what may be acceptable in one school might not be in another.”

The fact that any school board has to navigate a controversy over the employee dress code illustrates the alarming amount of power teachers unions have grabbed over time.

The unions use that same power to block changes that really matter to students, like new evaluations that increase teacher accountability and improve instruction.

The proposed dress policy in Hampton is on hold for now and the superintendent is planning to report back to the school board in January with more information, according to the news report.

In the meantime, teachers will continue to be free to dress like they’re on the seashore instead of a classroom.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: New Hampshire
KEYWORDS: dresscode; teachers; teachersunions
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To: freedumb2003

hold up a picture of a whore and if they look similar, you’ve got the answer.

flip lops are for home and vacation, not work. made e sick seeing them on supposed professionals, almost all women.


21 posted on 12/02/2012 10:19:27 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
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To: struggle

“Down here in the non-union teaching states, our STUDENTS are not allowed to wear tank-tops.”

Yep. Sometimes we have to call a parent to bring a change of clothes. It will usually be one who shows up wearing...a tank-top and Daisy Dukes... and usually one 15 years older than her 15 year old daughter....


22 posted on 12/02/2012 10:23:08 AM PST by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: Secret Agent Man
flip lops are for home and vacation, not work. made e sick seeing them on supposed professionals, almost all women.

In the late 90's, I worked with women in Vermont who went thru the day barefoot (no hose or socks) while working at a large insurance company. Ick.

23 posted on 12/02/2012 10:28:50 AM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: yldstrk

>>>>I was livid when our first grade teacher dressed like a sexpot, wearing shorts, low cut tees and sandals. It was sickening. Another teacher dressed very well, hose, heels, blazer had put make up on and done her hair with hair spray. She had a better behaved class too.<<<<

I did an experiment with my freshman and sophomore English classes a few years ago on this very subject.

For some classes, I dressed casually - jeans, open shirt. For the other classes, I wore better clothes and a tie. The decorum of the students matched the formality of the clothing.

I always wear a tie to work - although I’m also wearing running shoes for my own comfort, since I’m on my feet most of the day. The other male teachers have seen this, and now most of the men also wear ties and formal clothing to work. By good fortune, we don’t have provacative female teachers on our staff - they’re a pretty formal bunch, and the kids in those classes act accordingly, too.

Given a choice, I’d put all the students in school uniforms, but that’s not going to fly. On the other hand, children are designed to press the boundaries, and a few will be mischievious even when the teacher has a suit and tie and they’re wearing uniforms.

And let my apologize for my colleagues in New Hampshire, who have confused the word “condescending” with the phrase “arrogant twits.”


24 posted on 12/02/2012 10:29:49 AM PST by redpoll
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To: NHResident
I have pal who was on the Farmington Board when the teachers wanted a big raise. He asked what the drop out rate was, 23% he was told. They wanted a raise for Failure.
25 posted on 12/02/2012 10:47:41 AM PST by Little Bill (A)
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To: Kaslin

How we have fallen. when I was in tnird grade, 1969 or so, we had a huge debate whether to allow girls to wear pants to school. it was shocking. We won. Open the door..and all winds blow in.


26 posted on 12/02/2012 10:49:33 AM PST by Hildy (hen the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." - Socrates)
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To: Kaslin

How we have fallen. when I was in tnird grade, 1969 or so, we had a huge debate whether to allow girls to wear pants to school. it was shocking. We won. Open the door..and all winds blow in.


27 posted on 12/02/2012 10:49:47 AM PST by Hildy (hen the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." - Socrates)
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To: Kaslin

I think the members of the New Hampshire teachers’ union should be required to wear flip flops and tank tops in January and February!


28 posted on 12/02/2012 11:46:15 AM PST by Paleo Conservative (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get you.)
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To: Hildy
We were only allowed to wear pants under our dresses at recess in northern Ohio in 1969.

I'm now a teacher...a parent of one of my students stopped me in the hallway and told me she wished more people dressed the way I do. (very conservatively)

Image really does matter in public schools.

29 posted on 12/02/2012 11:53:03 AM PST by chalkfarmer
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To: Kaslin

The times have changed but the public schools have only gotten a new hairdo. When I was a kid in school, they were populated almost exclusively by crazy old bags who had left planet Earth a long tome before. From the “science” teacher who made us open doors with kleenex so “the germs wouldn’t jump off onto our hands,” to the one that made us wallpaper doll houses so we would know the “proper” colors for each of the compass headings, to the one that told us if we were forced to breathe pure oxygen at the hospital our lungs would catch fire, to the ones that refused to let us read anything printed after 1880, to the principal that forced me to take Latin, to the math teacher who terrorized us with surprise tests, just the threat of which made us have diarrhea before class, to the must-attend Christmas parties, to the gym teachers that used gym to torture those of us who were not athletic (always ending in cold-water showers until your legs nearly gave out and you sucked your genitals up into your neck), to ... well, you get the picture. We survived public school, that’s all. If you didn’t have smart, caring parents, you were pretty much screwed. I see no meaningful change since then, just movement to different types of child abuse and torture. And in all these years, teachers’ unions are to blame.


30 posted on 12/02/2012 12:05:39 PM PST by pabianice (washington, dc ..)
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To: CrazyIvan
Sorry, CrazyIvan, but while reading the comments to this post on "Tank Tops", I was thinking "Tube Tops".

When I got to your comment, I thought, "CrazyIvan is a little weird if he wore (TubeTops) Tank Tops in High School.

Tank Top - Maybe CrazyIvan

Tube Top - NOT CrazyIvan


31 posted on 12/02/2012 12:20:38 PM PST by BwanaNdege (Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: Kanzan
Bingo! In fact, the WHOLE education system has changed to the point that school is no longer revered, it is just another place to hang out. This is so in our district, at least. I recognized this change some time ago, and have been working ever since to instill respect for the school, for the classroom, the hallways, and for all of the teachers, aides, secretaries, custodians, and yes, even the principals. And this is at the elementary school level!

The school has diminished itself as a place to value, and to revere. But I see this as the administrators' fault. They have encouraged school to be a "fun" place, when really, it should be respected. There is no sense of decorum. The principal encourages 4th and 5th graders to lounge around on the floor, doing classwork, reading, and in "morning meeting". I have thwarted that all along, and now that my class count has ballooned to 35 (4th graders) I had an excuse to remove the carpet from my classroom. :)

32 posted on 12/02/2012 1:17:15 PM PST by FrdmLvr (culture, language, borders)
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To: chrisser
I taught shop for a few years, and I never wore a tie. IMNSHO, wearing a tie around powerful rotating machinery is beyond stupid, and borders on lunacy. Same goes for long hair, that's not well covered or pinned up. No loose clothing, jewelery, hair, or anything else that might get tangled in the machinery. Period. (Obviously, these rules wouldn't apply to drafting classes.)

If the school dress codes required shop teachers to wear a tie, then wear a clip on, or a bow tie. (It would still be a stupid rule.)

In my classes, safety was always the number one priority. What good are skills, if you're too mangled up to use them?
33 posted on 12/02/2012 1:29:17 PM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: Hildy

My very staid mother started a movement to allow girls to wear slacks to school at about the same time. The dress code allowed only skirts or dresses for girls – even when the temperature was below zero with a stiff wind. Waiting at the bus stop was painful.


34 posted on 12/02/2012 1:53:00 PM PST by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
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To: Kaslin; Morgana

tank tops are off limits?

How will they entice young boys with their bouncing boobs and nipple peircings?

How dare you statists restrict their right to go topless in class! Why they should be allowed to breastfeed those kids!

///extreme sarcasm


35 posted on 12/02/2012 1:55:59 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: pabianice

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2964954/posts

Publik skool horror story in my town


36 posted on 12/02/2012 2:05:43 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: Kaslin

You can still wear sneakers and look presentable...they are called “umpire shoes”. They come in black.

Heck, I wore them in the military. Reg only said clean, black and no emblems. Perfect shoe.


37 posted on 12/02/2012 2:35:53 PM PST by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: Kaslin

I remember a couple teachers from high school. Both wore tight sweaters. If tank tops existed I wished they wore them. If I was lucky enough to have sex I wouldn’t have thought I was a “victim” but the luckiest boy in school.


38 posted on 12/02/2012 2:45:14 PM PST by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
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To: R. Scott

because teaching boys that having sex with kids is such a great plan... what could possibly go wrong with boys becoming men with the idea that kids are fair game??


39 posted on 12/02/2012 2:50:33 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

Machinists and other heavy machine operators used to wear dress pants dress shirts and ties all the time up until the ‘50s.

Of course, they also always wore machinist aprons to protect their clothes and to prevent any loose clothing from getting into the machinery.


40 posted on 12/02/2012 2:54:53 PM PST by RatSlayer
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