It is difficult for male teachers to enforce the dress code for female students. Our dress code for girls is essentially "don't dress like a slut," so telling a girl that she is out of dress code is basically telling her that she is a whore. Female teachers seem to have no problem doing this, but it makes most of the men uncomfortable. The Administration has not made things any easier by choosing the dollar bill as the means for determining whether a girl is out of dress code. I can't remember exactly what the bills are supposed to measure - it might be the distance between the top of the pants/skirt and the bottom of the shirt, i.e. midriff - but one of the effects of this policy is to recreate the ambience of the strip club, as middle-aged men thrust dollar bills at much younger girls who are not going to sleep with them. That, of course, is where the similarities end; here, the girls generally end up putting more clothes on.
Not all of my male colleagues are uncomfortable with this system. One of the math teachers (mustache, comb-over) seems to relish it. He checks midriffs with a $100 bill, claiming it "impresses the ladies," and he's probably caught more girls out of dress code than the rest of the faculty combined. I think he's trying to keep us from discovering that he's gay, but it's still kind of disturbing.
Friday, September 08, 2006
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2 comments:
Mr. Mustache is disturbing! He sounds like a creepy fellow.
We have a pretty good unofficial system in our building. Male teachers express their concerns about female student dress to female teachers. Female teachers take it from there. To insist that male teachers handle such delicate situations makes them too vulnerable to a potential witch (or warlock) hunt, as it were.
It's important for teachers to look out for each other in types of situations, especially since one accusation could have grave consequences. It's the kind of situation where assumed guilt is the predominant public mentality.
In the NYC public schools the midsection can't be shown and the skirt must be lower than the girl's thumb as she puts her hands by her side. Of course no male teacher would would ask the girl to do this but the female teachers do.
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