I think it depends on which end youâre coming at it from.
This is when you find out that Pantone has people on the school board and instead of seeds and cookie dough, the kids are sent out with swatch books to sell to incoming parents.
The actual issue that needs to be addressed is why does a PUBLIC school have a dress code policy that limits colors of attire?
A public school can have a (and should) policies around things such as: no sandals or flip flops, no crude language or inappropriate imagery, no hats or baseball caps, no pajamas or sleep wear, no low cut tops, all pants/shorts/skirts/dresses must be mid thigh length, no douche-baggery laden ralph lauren POLO clothingâŚok maybe that last one is asking a lotâŚ
I get that in all seriousnessâŚbut requiring a very limited color palette strikes to me as requiring a uniform. Which is a big N-O in a public school.
So maybe itâs the parents who should be on suspension, not the 8-year-old who canât even drive herself to the shopping mall to buy a different shirt.
Part of the problem is the green: most schools do some variation of white and blue, so itâs easy to find shirts at all price points, but green is a secondary color, which means there are so many more shades of it, and itâs not automatically in the âschool uniformâ section of stores and websites.
I always learned way more in the B scenarioâŚ
I searched for the dress code and stumbled on the school site of the wrong Camden County - and look what I found: A persuasive essay titled School uniforms. The first sentence is: âI say schools hate creativity.â Some good points in it, too.
The actual âviolatedâ dresscode proves Dylanâs point: The board of education claims it can define âgood tasteââŚ
My three-year-old went through a phase a couple of months ago of picking up markers and saying, âIs this light or dark?â
If sheâd picked up a marker that color, I canât tell you which I would have said.
The points raised in the essay are, of course, valid.
Still, science:
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ555450
The (positive) effects seem to be more focused around female students. Schools would need to debate the costs (social and otherwise) with the benefits, obviously. Itâs never clear if thatâs actually happenedâŚ
You raised the benefits of school uniforms above and Iâm sure it can be conclusive proven (your first link is 404, the second one is only the abstract) - but suspending a pupil because of a lightish green? This affected the studentâs perceptions of the school climate for sure - though probably not in the way the second paper meant.
Somewhere in the BBS I discussed the zero tolerance policies, and this is a fine example for âgood intentions gone awryâ - would it negatively impact the school climate if the teacher asked the kid to not wear this specific piece of clothing again and informed the parents about the advantage of a uniform attire?
Thanks for the link! Letâs see here:
âMultiple pocketsâ are not allowed for pants or shorts. Not only is that too general a phrase, itâs also impractical.
Bottoms for boys must be khaki (which kind?..the range is huge) or navy blue. So, one very specific color and one very general one. Girls get to add âdark greenâ to that list. Meanwhile, tops must be white, dark green, or navy blue. Who came up with the idea that âdark greenâ was an appropriate paring to either khaki or navy blue? Iâm not a fashion designer, but really, thatâs just stupid. At least the dark-ish green polo shirt they picked actually would work with navy blue.
Having now read their dress code, it seems to have been put together by a committee who are more concerned with suburban white kids emulating urban black kids than anything else. And have no color sense.
And yeah, it really does state that each clothing infraction = one day suspension from school. Iâll bet they donât come down so hard on bullyingâŚAnd now that Iâve spent some time on their site and their handbook, I see that they reference the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, but do not indicate any punishments. So yeah: WEAR the wrong color green and youâre kicked out of school, but kick a kid whoâs wearing the wrong color green (or give her a hard time about it, singling her out and making her feel terrible) and apparently nothing bad happens to you.
Sheâs getting quite an education, that 8 year old.
Recent and well-controlled research shows that uniforms have barely any effect on achievement: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/01/12/18uniform.h24.html
Futhermore, several studies with positive results were funded by uniform manufacturers.
There are much more effective ways to increase achievement. Cf. John Hattieâs research at http://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/
Sicklerville, New Jersey?
More like Sticklerville, New Jersey. Knowwhatimsayin?
Thank God. That shirt on the left is in Terror Green, the official color of the Taliban.
The 64 shades of green article on WP I linked above has some nice names: Hookerâs green, Islamic green, Pakistan green, Persian green, Rifle green, Russian green, Screaminâ Green
Fifty Shades of Green, starring Lou Ferrigno.
Not for nothing, Hookers green is one of my faves. And it would totally qualify with this school board as âdark greenâ. 
I suspect mine would end more poorlier.
#SAD HULK
HULK NOT HAVE KHAKI SHORTS HULK ON SUSPENSION
