In catechism I thought it was just the school colors. But since then, that’s the uniform of every catholic school girl I’ve seen. What is the significance of plaid for Catholic schools? Does Scotland have anything to do with it?
I don’t know. The Catholic school I went to had maroon and gray plaid skirts – my sister wore them for eight years.
MilliCal is going to a Catholic school next fall*, and we just saw the uniforms a few weeks ago – and the uniform is maroon and gray plaid skirts. Deja vu.
Of course, there’s more variety these days, and they have pantsuits as well. Which is pretty good, because MilliCal takes after Pepper Mill, who never wears skirts except on very formal occasions (like getting married). And the winters are cold and windy here in Massachusetts.
*Our town has significant financial problems, and several people have advised not going on to our Middle School.
I always wondered this. As a guy in a Catholic school I was okay with it, though after a few years it starts to lose its thrill.
I suspect there’s three issues at play:
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“Because we always did it that way.”
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Because the fact that all Catholic schools (well, not all, but most) mandate their use makes them LOOK like a uniform. When I was in high school a new Francophone Catholic school opened and elected to use grey non-kilt-style skirts, and they didn’t look like uniforms, they just looked silly.
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Kilts are insanely durable. The kilts they sold to girls at my school were also waist-adjustable and many girls used one the entire time they were in high school. So they’re economical.
Actually, it’s not the plaid per se. Normally Catholic schools oblige the kids to wear some sort of school “uniform” – a standard dress code of a relatively modest, attractive outfit. By far the most common ones feature plaid skirts (and often matching tops) for the girls; I’d suspect that there’s a garment manufacturer or two that “does” such uniforms as standard stock in trade.
Contrary data point: The Catholic school in the town where I grew up had solid blue skirts for the girls.
Grew up in one of the largest US archdioceses (Phila, PA) and went to 12 years of Catholic School and most parishes and schools did not have plaid skirts.
If there were any cultural connection, it would more likely be to Ireland (which also uses tartans) than with Scotland.
Oddly enough, an image search on Catholic schoolgirl uniform yields very few images of actual Catholic schoolgirls. 
The obvious answer is because it’s AWESOME.
/fetish
This one might keep you happy for a while.
All girls at private schools in Australia (and many public schools) wear plaid skirts. The Catholic school kids tend to get the better colours and stuff because they’ve been around longer than the Anglican, Methodist and Baptist church-schools.
It’s the Irish of course! I just pity the newer Pentecostal schools that are starting up…poor buggers have to put up with grey uniforms and even greyer blazers and ties.
Well, sure. But I think it probably works the other way 'round. If Catholic School Girls wore Burqahs, Burqahs would be damn sexy!
For another data point, the local girls high school mandates grey herringbone for Freshmen and Sophomores and navy herringbone for Juniors and Seniors. They must be purchased through a store called Schoolbelles, which sells school uniforms for a lot of schools in our area.
The Catholic elementary school on my block does plaid, though.
Nothing to add except this humorous story:
A guy I used to work with was telling his daughter about the high school that he and his sister had gone to, which was called “Madonna High School.” His daughter rolled her eyes and said, “I can just imagine what their uniforms looked like!”
In Los Angeles, there are some public* schools where the boys and girls have to wear uniforms–but of course it has nothing to do with religion or the Irish.
*(meaning paid for by the government)
Another contrary data point. In the three Catholic elementary schools I attended the girls wore solid-color jumpers. In high school they wore they wore a blue-white checked print skirt. My sister’s high school wore plaid, though.
If I had to make a wild guess, I’d say plaids mean every school can have a unique pattern but still make things – umm – uniform.
I taught at a atheistic Communist school in China and the girls wore green plaid skirts.
So it is not entirely limited to Catholic schools.
Catholic schools in Germany don’t use uniforms and as far as I can tell they never have. So it’s not a world-wide catholic thing.
Very true. English Catholic schools, where in the public sector, generally have uniforms similar to other state schools, with plain skirts or trousers. Plaid is mostly the reserve of private schools, Catholic and otherwise. (I’m not quite sure how similar Scotland is to this.)
Why do they wear plaid skirts? Because they would cause a commotion if they took them off. They might get arrested or something.
WAG: A patterned fabric is going to show smudges and snags less than a solid color print, and those skirts don’t get washed every day. Traditionally these skirts were made of wool, AFAIK wool fabrics are not commonly printed, so that leaves plaid which is woven into the fabric.
My Catholic high school let us choose between solid or plaid. The solid was polyester, the plaid was wool.
The boys at Sacred Heart school in Splfld. Mass. went to grades 1-8, the girls 1-12.
My sister graduated from the high school and hated every minute. These girls had to wear rolled “cuff protectors” over each wrist and a collar protector around their necks. IIRC, the material is the same as that used for Eton collars and maybe priests’ Roman collars.
And oh yes, they also sported green plaid skirts.
I think one of the rationales for uniforms is the prevention of rich kids wearing expensive clothes which might demoralize poor kids. {There’s a better word for ‘prevention’ but it escapes me at the moment .}