When Did Schools Become Convents?

The media has been bringing light to a number of events recently; while some are of newsworthy value, others are just a mere waste of air time and space. The item of news that has appalled me the most is the move that some Jamaican schools has taken in their quest to keep their students sexual hormones in check. Does administration really think that by virtue of implementing a ludicrous rule for female students to wear uniforms 12 inches below the knee, that they’ll miraculously become saints and recognize their body is the temple of Christ? Forcing teenage girls to wear frocks to school will only cause them to become insurgent. I can’t see the sense in this. When did our secondary institutions transform into convents where girls are expected to wear ‘granny frocks’ sweeping the ground?

I can’t fathom how school administration spend time focusing on trivial issues like school uniform length instead of assessing issues that impact the quality of learning. Am I to believe that uniform length alters the learning process? Teachers seemingly spend much time administering discipline for ‘inappropriate’ uniform, yet many fail to spend as much time doing what they are employed to do, that is to teach and ensure that students grasp the content.

This policy was implemented to ensure students abstain from sexual activity. But any sane individual knows that girls wearing uniform 12 inches below their knees or boys wearing loose fitting pants will not impact how adolescents understand and enjoy their sexuality. We need to be cognizant of the fact that whether or not a student is fully clad has no bearing on their sexual desires. And it certainly does not deter sexual activity. Sex starts in the mind and then the clothes comes off so wearing nun-like dresses and baggy pants makes absolutely no sense. One can only hope that the vast majority of our educators understand how the body functions. It would be rather sad if they don’t.

I detest the ridiculous policies that most secondary schools introduce as supposedly effective disciplinary practices. Perhaps we should re-institute corporal punishment since school administrators are so privileged to conceptualize ill-advised disciplinary measures that probably will cause more harm than good to our teenagers. It is time for schools to stop majoring in the minor.

How foolish are the persons who created such a rule to believe that it will have any kind of positive impact on students, girls especially. I didn’t wear a tunic 12” below my knee and my academic achievements are too much to mention here; maybe if my tunic was sweeping the ground like a nun, I would rebel to the point where I’d probably be a high-school dropout.