This thread last year http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=49600 explored this issue. I’d like to re-visit it with some fresh examples and invite others.
I’m a teacher at a K-2 public school, and I marvel at the way some parents send their kids to school. Examples:
Girls wearing high heeled SNEAKERS. These are not only silly looking, but dangerous in that the kids THINK they are sneakers, go tearing around in them, and then twist their ankles.
Boys dressed entirely in camoflauge. I have no further comment on how dumb this is.
Allowing kids to take wrestling action figures to school. Why not just tell the kids to start beating the crap out of each other in class? That’s what these things seem to encourage them to do. We have a rule that they can’t have them in school, and must have confiscated twenty of them, yet they keep turning up.
Sneakers that make electronic beeping noises when the kid jumps up and down. Whoever invented this should be shot. Parents who let their kids go to school with them should be shot in a non-essential part of their body so they don’t die quickly.
Complicated/expensive hair-dos. Interestingly, it’s often the poorest families that seem to find the money for expensive haircuts for their kids. They can’t give them breakfast before school, but they can shell out bucks for silly razor designs in the kid’s hair.
Other examples please…