School was already hard enough for a lot of us, but then there were some strange rules that only made the thing a lot more difficult.
The blazer stayed put
It didn’t matter that you were too hot at school. Schools with a school uniform often had rules that you couldn’t take your blazer off without asking. Even when it was boiling, students had to keep their blazers on around school.Â
They could only remove them if a teacher gave permission to do so, as strange as it sounds. That means students could be sitting in a warm classroom wearing several layers, just waiting for permission to cool down. It’s such a silly rule.
Even water needed approval
That’s not all for being hot, as you had to ask another human being whether you could drink water. It’s such a basic human action, but no, you have to be ‘allowed’ to do it, apparently. Some schools take things further by requiring a pass to use the water fountain.
There is some logic to the rule. Teachers don’t want thirty kids wandering off whenever they feel like it, and yes, that kind of makes sense. But needing formal approval for a few seconds at a drinking fountain makes it all feel way too serious.
The backpack lived in your locker
Our school backpacks carried everything to school. That apparently meant their work was finished once you arrived, and you weren’t allowed to have them in the classroom. Some schools even force students to keep theirs in assigned lockers, rather than carry them between classes.
You still needed to take the contents of the backpacks with you. You know, like books, folders, a laptop, pencils, and whatever else, you just couldn’t use the thing specifically designed to carry them. It’s utterly ridiculous.Â
The collar test
The restrictions on hairstyles are some of the most ridiculous. A boy could have a perfectly ordinary haircut, but as soon as one tiny piece touched his shirt collar, that was it. Then it was a problem, it seems.
Many schools had rules saying a boy’s hair couldn’t touch the collar, and some schools had restrictions on how far hair could extend around the ears. Yes, there’s a line between acceptable and unacceptable hair that has nothing to do with mess.Â
Out came the ruler
Girls didn’t have it much easier, though. Almost every school has rules on skirt length, and some of them would go as far as using rulers to check whether skirts meet the school’s dress code. Teachers would physically measure a girl’s skirt.
It honestly seems so invasive, and pretty harsh, to have a rule like that. Just imagine trying to apply a rule like that in the workplace. It just wouldn’t fly, and rightly so, but it’s supposedly acceptable in a school.
Socks had rules too
It didn’t matter that most of your socks were hidden inside your shoes and trousers anyway. Schools still found time to regulate them, and a lot of them have strict rules on colors and patterns.
You could get the shirt right and the pants right. You could get the shoes right, too, but you’d still mess up the uniform because of two inches of striped cotton that were the wrong shade. It’s such a silly rule that really doesn’t benefit anyone.
The hair tie had a uniform
Let’s not forget hair ties, as having the wrong colored one holding your ponytail together was a dress code violation. It had to be the right color. It had to be the right material, too, just to make things even more complicated.
The school might require you to tie your hair back, but you couldn’t necessarily use whichever hair tie you happened to have. It had to be a certain, approved kind. A rule like this feels like it’s just a form of control, in all honesty.
One person could cost everyone recess
Collective punishment isn’t something most people agree with today. Yet it seems to be acceptable in the classroom, as you could be stopped from getting recess because one person wouldn’t stop talking.
You could finish your work and stay quiet. You could follow every instruction, but no, you could still lose your break because somebody across the room kept messing around. It certainly wasn’t fair, and that’s why it seems like such a weird rule nowadays.
The sweater wasn’t optional yet
You’d think that part of the reason for wearing a sweater was that you could take it off when you got warm. But that wasn’t always true. Quite a few schools expected students to keep their school jumper on unless a teacher gave them permission to remove it.Â
The students could run around at recess getting sweaty, yet they’d need to wait until they found a teacher. How hot it was didn’t matter. It’s very strange that we were technically teaching students they didn’t have rights over their own bodies, really.
Lunch ended by table
Finishing your food didn’t mean you could leave. No, many schools said your entire table had to be dismissed together before you could leave. You had to sit and wait until everyone else was done.Â
How slowly they ate didn’t matter, not in the slightest. You just had to sit there, staring at an empty milk carton to pass the time while everyone else finished. How fun.
Recess had a one-way door
It was no fun realizing you’d left something inside after recess started. Not because you had to go back inside, but because most of the time, you weren’t allowed to. You had to stay outside the school building during recess.
It’s a rule that doesn’t really make sense, and there don’t seem to be any good reasons why lots of schools had these rules. But they definitely did have them, and it was as unfair as it sounds.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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