Well, as a teacher, I can tell you that it can* be rude if the student uses it as a shield to keep me from seeing their face. I need to be able to see my students’ expressions - bored, puzzled, interested, sleepy, frustrated, whatever - in order to gauge how I’m going to adapt my lecture, who I need to check on first, if I need to break up an impending fight, and so on. Most hats don’t bother me, and my school doesn’t have a rule against them. Every now and then, though, a student manages to irritate me by doing stupid things with his hat (hitting other students, f’r instance) or by hiding his face so I can’t see how responsive he is. (And it’s always been a he so far, go figure.)
My high school does have this rule, but no one enforces it.
Maybe three or four of all 30 teachers ever say anything about cd players. The ones who don’t care just assume that if we are quiet, that is good and try to keep it that way.
Also about the dress code/hats issue, we have the rules, and they are not enforced, except by the same 3 or 4 teachers that enforce the cd player rules.
That’s it. I’ve had enough. What a bunch of self-absorbed crybabies. The man won’t let me wear a hat in the schoolhouse. The man won’t let me listen to my tunes. Oppression, oppression.
For the love of all that’s holy, reinstate the draft. Reinstate it now.
Yes, and in the military, you’d get to wear a hat ALL THE TIME! WHEEEE!
Rules are, by their nature, restrictions on personal freedoms. Sometimes we don’t like them. Life goes on. There is no “injustice” here, just inconvenience to kids who like to listen to music during school.
What the hell are you talking about? That was totally uncalled for.
I see no reason to ban the use of a CD-player outside of the classroom. Certainly there should be rules on things like volume, but I don’t understand the total ban on CD-players.
As to hats: Every single teacher I’ve asked about the no-hat rules at my former schools gave the same reason. They said it was to cut down on gang activity. I’d love to see their scientific research on that.
I can understand the rule about not having hats during tests. That makes sense. I do not understand how a hat (unless it’s a giant sombrero (sp?) or something) can be distracting or make things particularly difficult to see for the person behind the hat-wearer. It’s far more difficult to see the chalkboard when there is a tall or wide person in front of you; the hat affects things only a miniscule amount, IMHO.
I’ve never understood the politeness factor when it comes to hats. Granting the assumption that wearing a hat indoors is mildly impolite (I can’t imagine anyone saying it is a particularly serious offense), I don’t think schools have the right to impose a rule on students saying they must be perfectly polite all the time.
What a worthy and insightful commentary on this subject. Does your insistence that the draft be reinstated have anything to do with your possibly being old enough to evade its net? (Just a guess.)
Well, this is maybe a wussy answer, but I could see partial (I said partial) justification for this because CD players are valuable objects. Not only could they be stolen , but they also add to the stupid have/have not divisions so rampant in adolescence. I realize that banning CD players won’t wholly eliminate either of those problems, but since I don’t think they enhance the educational environment it’s enough of an argument for me.
I think individual CD players are just rude. You’re in school, with your peers. Interact, for pete’s sake! Use you CD when you’re working out or trying to tune out the weirdos on the bus.
The other thing is, rules are there for a reason. If you think they’re unreasonable (and they might be, of course), the first course of action is to find out more about the purposes of the rule and, if possible, negotiate for a change. Breaking the rule and then griping about how they shouldn’t enforce a rule because it’s “stupid” or bogus smacks to me of the type of irresponsibility that we have to work to lose as we approach adulthood. It’s so easy–in fact, it’s almost normal–to think that rules or laws or statistical odds don’t apply to us as young people, and then we feel it’s unfair when they finally catch up to us. But it doesn’t work that way. Break the rule, pay the consequences.
If you want to break it as a “conscientious objector” after other means have failed, that’s something else again. But I don’t think this is the case here. Or most times when high school students get busted for stupid-seeming crap.
Ummm…at my high school we were not allowed to wear hats anywhere on the school grounds, regardless of the fact that our school was set up like a junior college (a lot of small buildings housing five or so rooms in a park-like setting) and we spent a lot of time our tide outside in the cold just changing classrooms and eating lunch (only a certain percentage of the students could be in the cafeteria at one time due to fire restrictions). It got friggen cold, and my ears were in constant pain. Their explaination for the no hats on campus rule? You guessed it- gang violence. Yeah, I’d like to meet the gang that wears little blue knit caps with white puff-balls on top.
I guess I did come off a little whiney, but dude, I have seen what happens when you regulate every tiny aspect of a teenagers life. First off, once they move out, they go nuts, because they never learned the art of self-regulation. They never learned how to handle the little freedoms, like dressing themselves or figureing out when it is appropriate to listen to headphones. The end result is a bunch of drunken college kids taking reckless abandon of every single freedom they can get- often with disasterous results.
An even scarier result happens when teens realize that they have so little voice and so little control over their lives. They turn to violence and self-destruction in order to gain some power and have their voices be heard. I think we all know of tradgeties, big and small, that could have been avoided if we gave teens a little more respect and really listened to them and their concerns about their lives.
Beware of anyone trying to take away any of your rights.
The way I got around that rule was to buy some earbuds, run them through my shirt, put them in, and lay my head down with my arms covering my ears. If you want to relax in lunch and just have quiet music time, I would suggest this.
And Spavined Gelding, you being a lawyer, you should already know what I just said about rights…
Beware of anyone trying to take away any of your rights.
umm ahhh a rule banning walkman’s in a school is hardly taking anybody’s rights away…
I would like everyone to know that the rule against walkmen and the rule against hats were the only rules I ever intentionally broke at high school. This does not seem to have turned me into a juvenile delinquent.
I think even’s got a point. At least give the kids a good reason why the rules are in place, so they understand. Maybe not every rule needs to be understood in its completeness, but when the rules pile up and up, there needs to be an explanation. To be subject to umpteen (and exaggerated) ‘rules’ just gets more and more frustrating.
This is a fairly innocuous example, but I recall something from my childhood/teen years that fits into this. My parents were very strict, and arbitrary in regulating my TV viewing. VERY strict, and they never gave me any credit for having good taste. I had to beg and plead to see the most worthwhile program. Suffice it to say, it was suffocating. (Yeah, I know it was just the damned TV! But it grated on me.) I understood the reason behind restricting TV, and I am eternally grateful that I grew up reading for enjoyment, and cultivating other interests and talents besides vegging out in front of the tube. But I just wanted the “rules” to make sense, and I wanted a little control over what I watched. (Like, “3 hours of TV a week, your choice”. That would have been fine. 3 hours a week of whatever I wanted to see would have been bliss. No kidding. I just wanted to be able to see a few programs a week, without having to get an Act of Congress in order to do so.)
So, when I finally got a TV of my own (my older sister, knowing how our parents were, gave me a small B&W TV. My parents could not control this, since it was my TV.) And so what happened? I went absolutely nuts. I watched everything, every bit of TV tripe I could, wasted hours “catching up”. Just became a complete couch potato, watching and watching and watching. Fortunately, I’ve gotten over that phase!
Sorry for the long tangent, but I think it fits in to the OP. Rules can be good, rules can be useful and necessary. But when they are SO strict, overreaching and nonsensical, they will eventually backfire.
Not allowing hats to be worn in school or certain electronic devices being worn/used is hardly what I’d call strict and overreaching. I went to school that had a no hat rule. It was simply part of the dress code and had nothing to do with any perceived gang activity. Hmmmm, on the other hand maybe it had more to do with big 10 gallon cowboy hats.
I suppose in some areas wearing a hat indoors is considered rude. To all those who think that’s silly maybe you’ve got a point. But workplaces and schools all have rules about how they want employees and students to dress. What’s the big deal?
Marc
Oh, certainly not. The kids don’t need their walkmans attached to them every single waking moment, and wearing hats inside is considered rude. No argument from me.
But not allowing kids to wear harmless “puff ball” knit caps outside the the freezing cold (like even described) is nonsensical. It is very bad for you to go outside when it’s freezing cold without some cover on your head. And when there are enough of these kind of “nonsensical” rules, they eventually start to grate a lot on the kids.
Not allowing caps worn inside = fine. Hats inside are considered rude.
Not allowing caps worn outside in freezing cold = overly strict and nonsensical.
just wondering why this one slipped by.
aahh school in america. where a youngster thinks he/she has the boot of oppression on their necks because of some petty rules they have to live by 6hrs a day.where a youngster thinks his rights are being violated because he can’t listen to marilyn manson while at school…huhboy
I’m a teacher. As I understand it, the reasons are these:
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They’re a distraction. In school, you should be spending all (or at least most) of your time focusing on learning. If you have free time for CDs, cell-phone calls, or electronic games, you’re probably doing something wrong.
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They’re expensive. Not everyone in your school is as honest as you are, and stuff gets stolen all the time, especially electronics. And the school knows (because it happens to them semi-regularly) that you and your parents will be blaming the school for not having strong enough security to protect your stuff. I had a student once bring in an entire PlayStation system, with a bag of about fifteen games, intending to leave it in his unlocked locker all day. And he was furious with me for confiscating it- if I hadn’t, he would never have seen it again.
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They’re showy. A school is a place for everyone, from highest to lowest class, and this leads to conflicts pretty regularly. Flashing your expensive toys is a great way to create conflict with the people who don’t have them, and I am too busy teaching to spend my days breaking up fights.
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It’s just the rule. Come on, your whole life, there will be rules that you follow just because they’re rules. Drive under 65 MPH. Walk on the right. Don’t kill pigeons. If you know it’s a rule, and decide to break it, then you accept the consequences gracefully. If you oppose the rule, you don’t just break it, you obey it while lobbying for change.
But that’s just my opinion.
However…
Most of these things have a specific reasoning behind them: social interaction. You say “please” and “thank you” to demonstrate that you appreciate what the other person is about to do / has done. You say “goodbye” to display your affection for the those that you are about to part company with. Shaking hands? Same deal, you’re attempting to connect in a friendly way with someone you have just met.
It used to be considered extremely rude for a man to not wear a hat outside (“Man Ventures Outside Hatless!” – The Onion). Now, this is not the case, but its converse, the wearing of a hat indoors, remains offensive to some.
One major difference is in the style of hats we’re talking about, here: back in the proverbial day, the hats that these rules of etiquette were written around were classic men’s hats. These would look pretty odd when worn indoors, akin to wearing a heavy coat indoors. Nowadays, the hat in question is the ball cap. These don’t look especially outdoorsey to me, but YMMV. It seems to me that for this reason the “hats being banned because they block the view” argument holds little weight. Ball caps pretty much match the contours of the head, unless the brim gets in your way (what, the guys sitting sideways in front of you?).
I’m not out to say “all manners and etiquette are necessarily stupid!”, but just to suggest that we can all look objectively at these things if we want.
That said, I put my elbows on the table, also. Funk that.