This is a pretty blatant imposition upon people, isn’t it? Did you see ‘newsletter 28’ ? It had this in it, right on the front page:
Clear Declaration Everyone's Not In It
What does this mean? It means not every child gets to school in a uniform. So the school intends to put them in one, the way they put my child in one, second hand, unasked, unexplained where it was from, the condition, cleanliness of it.
But WHY doesn’t every child come to the school in a uniform?
Common sense suggests two reasons right off:
1. The parents don’t want to send the child in uniform.
2. The parents can’t afford to send the child in uniform.
In NEITHER of these cases should a uniform be imposed on the child.
And let us be clear here, let there be no ambiguity whatsoever, what this whole thing is about is compulsion, imposing a condition, demanding compliance, making threats of punishment for non-compliance.
Think of the possible pain and embarrassment for parents who cannot afford uniforms. What academic, what educational, what spiritual, what psychological benefit is gained by imposing this upon them?
And where is the propriety of it? I have seen nothing to indicate there is any propriety in it.
Such children now are singled out every single day for special attention as needy children who can’t afford uniforms and need to go to the office and borrow one.
Thank god the little kids like mine just don’t understand these things and it all passes over their heads, or beneath their notice is perhaps a better way of saying it.
And for those who can afford but chose not to – what about them? Why are they being treated this way? Who claims the right to subject their children to this treatment when they arrive at the school? Who decided to build this kind of school?
There it is. A clear declaration in bold yellow of what is going on at that school.
And the principal calls this ‘fantastic’ ! ‘Fantastic’ is the word he uses. He uses it also in the first paragraph of his newsletter when referring to a parade – it, too, was ‘fantastic’.
You know what ‘fantastic’ means, don’t you? It means ‘of fantasy’. Not real. Not true.
Our kids typically use the word to describe anything at all – they’re kids, they know little, we send them to school to learn how to speak.. .. We think they’re going to learn how to use the language… we think.
But maybe the word is right, after all, with reference to the uniform thing. Yes. Maybe it is very apt. ‘Fantastic’, ‘of fantasy’, ‘not real’, ‘not true’. Yes. Apt. The whole thing is exactly that – fantasy.
Fantasy benefits. Fantasy justifications.
In an establishment of learning.
Jesus wept.