Re: Monday Return To School - UPDATE
Posted by Zonie on January 12, 2020 at 20:29:55
In Reply to: Re: Monday Return To School - UPDATE posted by Ry on January 12, 2020 at 16:23:50:
I can certainly understand your father being annoyed with having to be dragged away from his job to deal with a school fight, but you'd think the first thing he would ask would be, "What was this about?" I guess he wasn't even curious. Maybe he just automatically assumes that whatever the trouble was, you were automatically guilty.
I was only in one fight in elementary school, and, strangely, I didn't get into trouble for it, and, as far as I know, my parents didn't even know about it. Looking back on it, I think I may have been used as some kind of pawn in a desegregation struggle, as I noticed that from then until my graduation they never tried to have another Negro student attend that school.
The elementary school I attended, St. Thomas, was run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, and the teachers were a mix of laypeople and Benedictine nuns. From grades kindergarten through six they employed a double standard in that there was a uniform for girls but not for boys. There were still standards for what boys were supposed to wear and what they could not wear. In seventh and eighth grade, we had a uniform also. It consisted of dark blue slacks and a white knit shirt. Shoes and socks were at our discretion and were not part of the uniform.
The high school I attended was Brophy, and it was run by the Jesuit order. The school was for boys only, but there was another school next door called Xavier, which was run by the Diocese of Phoenix, which was for girls only, and some classes were offered for students at the other school (for example, Xavier girls attended one of my theology classes, and I went to Xavier for French and typing). It was back to the old double standard. The girls at Xavier had a uniform. The boys at Brophy did not. The administration didn't care what color our socks were as long as we were wearing socks. A common dress code violation was not wearing any socks, something ironically your headmaster sanctioned when you didn't have a black pair. I suppose having boys going around with no socks causes more problems in a hot climate like ours than it would in England. Generally our dress code was peculiar, strict in some areas and lenient in others. Boots were forbidden but sandals were allowed, as long as one wore socks with the sandals. Jeans were forbidden but shorts were allowed. I think they were trying to turn us into Californians.