[LMB] OT: workplace uniforms (was Re: OT: Elena/Baz marriage)

[Katrina Allis]

On 18/12/2007, Meg Justus <mmegaera at nwlink.com> wrote:
>
>
> There's something to be said for being at the tail end of the baby boom.
> The Sixties were an odd time to be going through elementary school, esp.
> with three much older sisters going through the "real" Sixties.


Or later.  :)

In New Zealand, almost all of the high schools have uniforms; I can think of
four or five in the country that wouldn't have compulsory uniform (although
the last year is often back into mufti).

Many intermediates and quite a few primary schools also have uniforms.  I
went to a private primary school and was then in various uniforms from when
I was about eight until about seventeen.  My primary school introduced
uniforms in 1990, but I believe they're a bit more common now.

What's really interesting here is how formal the uniforms are.  From what
I've observed, the further north you go, the more casual the  uniforms are,
the further south you go, they're increasingly formal.  Up north, it's polo
shirts and skirts/trousers/short or long shorts.  Down here it's (generally)
a taran skirt/kilt or trousers, shirt and blazer with school crest.

In winter, I could get away with wearing black trousers, shoes, white skivvy
and school jacket (without the crest and could almost pass for being
supportive of the local rugby team).  In summer there were box pleated grey
skirts and polo shirts, again with said jacket.  The uniform could be made
more formal, but only the student council or the hostel girls tended to wear
that, if at all.  So long as the colours matched, my school wasn't too
concerned about style.

The uniforms I wore for most of high school were a great improvement on the
blue & white striped dresses that I had in the first year.  They were
incredibly ugly and felt like cardboard.  You could, however, until they
were phased out, buy the fabric and make up your own dress.

Earrings had to be studs, you could wear one necklace of religious or
cultural significance to you, no bracelets/makeup.  In practice, if you were
discreet you could wear almost any jewellery and I only know of a couple of
girls who were hauled to wash (rather heavy) makeup off.  Of course, one of
them once decided to skip class by staying in the seventh form common room,
which was rather near the classroom she was supposed to be in.  Our teacher
went and collected her.

Oh, and apart from the last couple of days, I've been walking around the
office with bare feet lately in the afternoons, because it's just been too
hot.

Katrina

-- 
I have CDO.  It's like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, only in alphabetical
order as it should be.

Prayer, he suspected as he hoisted himself up and turned for the door, was
putting one foot in front of the other.  Moving all the same.
Lois McMaster Bujold, _Curse of Chalion_