From the Memory Box 

Issue No 28

The issue of compulsory school uniform and that of hair length and colour, draws perennial attention in the media, often as a consequence of a student and their family expressing outrage over a particular school’s dress code rules and its implementation. Such was the case recently. 

In a sense it reminds me of another often discussed old chestnut of an issue – homework. From my experience, devotees on either side of the argument for each, are steadfast in their opinions. This, often irrespective of whatever research reveals regarding the value of compulsory uniforms, hair length and styles and that of compulsory homework.

Frustratingly, as we see so often, complex issues are reduced into simplified binary terms – such as the currently ill-described, ‘Reading Wars’. Principals, in their role as school leader, cannot help but get caught up in such fruitless binary debates. That has certainly happened to me over time with respect to all three issues mentioned above.

Dress code for Berwick Lodge P.S. was a burning issue way back before we even opened. As I recall, our foundation school council had little or no problem in working together on the design and colours of the uniform. The snag came with the question as to whether it should be compulsory or not. After much debate, and little consensus, a compromise was reached - that the school uniform should not be made mandatory, but that students should be encouraged to wear it. In doing so, a relatively inexpensive set of school uniform items was secured for purchase. Interestingly, most of our students have, since the school opened in 1990, worn the school uniform. In doing so, we have avoided messy moments whereby the wearing of the school uniform has become a disciplinary issue and taken our eyes off our core business – that of teaching and learning. 

On the matter of hair colour and length, there was a time when one of our school captains turned up to school with her hair coloured a fluorescent orange. That provoked some outrage among adults in our school community. Essentially, they were deeply concerned that having a school captain with her hair coloured in such an eye-catching way, would somehow be bad for our school image and could influence other children to follow suit. I was less focused on the influence of the school captain via her hair colour than other aspects of her role as a student leader. The result being that she could colour her hair however she pleased. Hardly any of the other children followed suit and her role as a student leader was never again questioned.

Homework presented us with a similar dilemma – an initially binary debate. I have found that homework splits opinion almost evenly between advocates and doubters. It was an issue that, after surveying our parent community, left us with the prospect of alienating almost half our parents were we to introduce compulsory homework. Similarly, were we to abandon homework entirely. We settled on a compromise – homework would be set for children, with parents having the option of withdrawing their children from having to do homework should they so wish. Interestingly, I can’t recall a single instance of a parent requesting that option.

The ’Reading Wars’. Here we are again with a multi-layered issue, one so badly named that it invokes images of winners and losers, incompatible with the evidence at large. Principals are again caught in the crossfire of an argument that has been reduced to an inappropriate binary debate. The issue of how children learn to read in English is nuanced by many factors, the observation that our language has so many exceptions to the consistency of phonics is but one.

So, it is also - with leadership.