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Most schools are dominated by repressed people that value rules above humanity or reason. they are typically completely insecure and have to have order so they will never have to make a decision. They try their damnedest to make all their students the same.
Fortunately some of us escaped the indoctrination.
FWIW - I was working as a machinist after I returned from 'Nam. I started to grow a beard. My employer told me that their "dress code" prohibited beards. I told them my honor prevented me from following some arbitrary dress code or the fools that tried to enforce it. So I quit a job that paid the equivalent of $35 an hour in today's terms. Those people did not realize that close combat burns the trivia out of a person and I was one of survivors of service on the Mekong River.
Yes GregW, you are certainly entitled to quit any job for any reason.
You didn't try to force them to disregard their rules.
Applying your actions to this story the boy should have said "My honor prevents me from cutting my hair or having any respect for the fools that try to enforce any dress code. I am withrawing and enrolling in a new school".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcenal352
I once worked in a machine shop, and while some folks sported beards, they had to be trimmed to an extent. It was more of a safety issue: possibility of getting beard stuck in an OD Grinder, for example... Yikes!!!
That's EXACTLY right. Then when it DOES happen the company gets sued because they DID allow the beard.
Most schools are dominated by repressed people that value rules above humanity or reason. they are typically completely insecure and have to have order so they will never have to make a decision. They try their damnedest to make all their students the same.
Fortunately some of us escaped the indoctrination.
FWIW - I was working as a machinist after I returned from 'Nam. I started to grow a beard. My employer told me that their "dress code" prohibited beards. I told them my honor prevented me from following some arbitrary dress code or the fools that tried to enforce it. So I quit a job that paid the equivalent of $35 an hour in today's terms. Those people did not realize that close combat burns the trivia out of a person and I was one of survivors of service on the Mekong River.
Greg; as a line foreman at Canadian Arsenal Ltd in the early sixties; I once had to carry a young lady to the aid station after she was basically scalped by a four station drill press. Seeing that piece of scalp the size of a small fist hanging off the spindle is still something I see in my minds eye. That young girl had been admonished a few times over her not containing all her locks in her hairnet.
As a machinist you would be more than familiar while operating a lathe with the occasional cluster/bundle of swarf being caught up from the saddle and spun like a whirling guillotine to catch anything and everything including your beard with no mercy shown. I once saw an oil can being used to dribble cutting oil onto a tool bit get caught by some of that and the spout imbedded itself in the wall on the other side of the shop.
Picking which rules to object to is just as important as not being a lemming-like sheeple.
This young man has to attach a priority to what he and his parents might value as a superior education against his attachment for his longer hair. Unless there is some religious connotations to maintaining his long hair I'd suggest drawing a battle line a little higher on the moral imperative list until he get's his diploma and can occasion making adult choices and taking full responsibility for them.
I know what long hair, long beards and long sleeves can do to a person around moving machinery. I learned that when I was 8 or 9 years old. My beard was barely more then a trimmed four day scrub. I had short hair as well and always wore short sleeves and safety glasses when operating machine tools. I also wore a leather apron and heavy gloves when at the forge or welding. Thank you for your concern about safety.
This was in 1967 and I was getting ready to go to college as well as joining the protest against the Vietnam War. I had nearly been killed a lot of times the winter before and seen a lot of potential and existing friends maimed and killed in a very long year. I was not about to take any silly guff from some damned draft dodger about having a beard. We now call my attitude PTSD but back then I just called it a very low set trigger and a very big over response. Yeah, I was angry and still am angry about our country's insistence on killing people over money. I might get over it before I die but I am not certain I want to.
"It’s not fair if you just make rules and then enforce them at the last moment,” the seventh grader said. “And then if you don’t follow them, you get kicked out."
Well, kiddo, that's the way it works sometimes. Maybe no one noticed before because it took this much time for your hair to get this long so no one said anything. Maybe they did see it but were just lax in mentioning it then realized "Oh no, we can't allow him to graduate from our school looking like that."
The point is, the rule was there before your parents enrolled you in this school and they knew and you knew so you were taking a chance every day you were in violation of it.
Yeah, it kind of stinks they told you just a month before graduation if this is the first time anyone ever said anything about it but it's their school, their rules and you are basically stuck with either cutting your hair or not graduating.
You have learned a valuable lesson about life most kids don't learn from school: it's not fair.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmyp25
An Arlington family says they are being forced to withdraw their seventh grader from his school because they say his hair is too long and violates the dress code. The family says he had been in the same school since he was in fourth grade and it was never a problem until recently.
"They've had a very, very long time to be in compliance with this policy,” said Neman International Academy Superintendent Dr. Sheba George.
Whats next? They going to started suspending kids that don't brush their teeth.?
I know what long hair, long beards and long sleeves can do to a person around moving machinery. I learned that when I was 8 or 9 years old. My beard was barely more then a trimmed four day scrub. I had short hair as well and always wore short sleeves and safety glasses when operating machine tools. I also wore a leather apron and heavy gloves when at the forge or welding. Thank you for your concern about safety.
This was in 1967 and I was getting ready to go to college as well as joining the protest against the Vietnam War. I had nearly been killed a lot of times the winter before and seen a lot of potential and existing friends maimed and killed in a very long year. I was not about to take any silly guff from some damned draft dodger about having a beard. We now call my attitude PTSD but back then I just called it a very low set trigger and a very big over response. Yeah, I was angry and still am angry about our country's insistence on killing people over money. I might get over it before I die but I am not certain I want to.
Greg; your objectivity was gained through the crucible of fire and as such has a firm foundation. This young man however is not anywhere near your threshold of experience to enable him to have such a firm and unmoving grasp of his emotions.
You are not claiming victimhood as he is with his stand.
The building of character takes many forms. His will be a work in progress for many years yet. Yours was accelerated beyond description. You're entitled to your stand while he is merely flexing his "tweeny" wings.
Your clarifications are appreciated Greg.
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