The Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that students do not lose their rights to freedom of speech or expression while at school. However, in many of the cases we learned about in module 6, the school system still finds ways to try to limit and breach those basic rights. Dress codes are, in my own personal opinion, one of the biggest breaches in freedom of expression. Not only in the sense of what you get to wear, but in who gets to wear what. Many schools have different expectations in appearance among males and females in the school setting. For example, the high school I attended permitted girls to wear earrings, but would not allow the boys to wear them. Boys could not have hair longer than the collar of their shirts, designs cut into their hair, or hair accessories, while girls' length didn't matter and both boys and girls could only have natural colored hair. Many times, what you wear, the color of your hair, whether you identify as male or female, is a form of expression. Not only do these examples from my prior school limit students' freedom of expression, but they also exhibit gender discrimination. Enforcing such limiting rules can cause harm to the student's well-being by repressing them from being their true self. I understand some restrictions are necessary and need to be in place to keep student's expressions appropriate for the setting, but as long as it's not exposing provocative language//pictures, and not exposing an inappropriate amount of skin, I feel like students should be free to fully express themselves with personal style no matter the gender.
I believe teachers should be protected to have full academic freedom in the classroom and not be expected to follow the model curricula the school may have incorporated. Having teachers follow a curriculum can be repressing the true potential they have to teach their class. I think a curriculum model could be a good outline of what the school expects the teacher to teach, but should not dictate how they teach. Full academic freedom will give the teacher a chance to form relationships with her students and determine what they already know and bridge the gap to where they need to be in a way she best sees fit and most effective.
Hey Lady! I related a lot to the point you made about dress code rights. Dress codes can definitely hinder freedom of expression. so much goes into the things people wear and how that represents them. There are so many problems that lie within dress codes and I feel like everyone knows it. But why are certain ones that we know are wrong and biased still in place? We know what some of these dress codes are geared to and what they represent and they are still in place. I would like to see major change in these codes but I don't know what it will take for everyone to get on the same page.
ReplyDeleteHey Sydney! Thanks for taking the time to read and respond to my post! I agree it's going to take everyone being on the same page until we see some major changes on biased restrictions in the education system. I hope as a future teacher to stand up for my students when they feel misunderstood or feel as if they had been treated in an unjust way!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete