Beauty Sacrifices for Teachers.
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Feb 15, 2013
Catey P.
The rules for school dress code are usually meant to prevent "distractions," although I wore my lip ring for my entire student teaching and only one student was ever distracted... for about two sentences. Then he got back to work. An elementary schooler once saw my back tattoo through my shirt and wanted to tell me all about her tattooed cousin. That's it.
I think making teachers dress a certain way is more about the morality we assume of people who look a certain way, and parents don't want their kids spending all day with an adult who has questionable morals. In the beauty world, we know that looks are purely an aesthetic choice, but it seems like a lot of people don't agree.
I'm going to be teaching full time next year, possibly for the rest of my working life, and I'm worried about whether or not it would be appropriate or wise to wear colorful makeup or even dye my hair blue again. I know it would be impossible to get a teaching job with blue hair... but I really do miss it.
I almost never wear shoes when I teach, just because I hate shoes. One particularly cold day, a few students were actually distracted when I put them back on!
I understand that I can't wear jeans and tank tops like I want to every day, but it just feels so stifling to think that I also have to abandon color for my profession.
Any advice?
Feb 15, 2013
Elisa S.
This! Yes! I went to work wearing hot pink eye shadow today using Valentine's Day as an excuse (I can do that at a preschool hahaha) but most days I feel like I'm toning down and conservative-ing up to better fit in with my coworkers. Preschoolers are distracted by EVERYTHING so it doesn't matter what I do. I'd say as long as your students are learning the content and learning morality and how to treat others that it doesn't matter what you wear to work. There's a certain level of professionalism that teachers should follow, like not wearing miniskirts or sporting a ton of cleavage. Otherwise, what's the harm? Not wearing shoes sounds like a cute endearing thing your students might enjoy about you, provided you figure out how to keep theirs on :] Maybe you could stay loose for everyday and tighten up for observations and conferences.
And I'd imagine after you land the job, you should of course find out what your boss's expectations are. My boss says I can pierce and tattoo whatever I want if I do my job well haha :] but I know I'm lucky. Good luck to you!
Feb 15, 2013
El O.
That's just part of the game you play for employment, most any professional job you take will not let you get away with blue hair or the truly outrageous fashion. I don't think this means you have to completely sacrifice your style. There are ways to tone down your style and still feel like you. You could look in to more liberal schools or art schools as well, they might be more lenient on the dress code.
Feb 15, 2013
Shelley W.
Bottom line is this...your first duty is teaching the children. Everything else comes secondary to that unfortunately. Being an instructor means sacrificing certain exterior aspects of yourself to be effective in the classroom. I wouldn't fight it because once parents start complaining its a wrap. And once those complaints start rolling in it goes into your file and good luck trying to advance. I'm on my daughters PTA board and some of those parents go to extreme measures to oust teachers they don't approve of. As a parent I could care less if a teacher has a full sleeve or stretched ears...just teach my kids.
Feb 23, 2013
Lara W.
You could do blue in the summer, or even add blue highlights or maybe a blue panel during the school year. land the job, then figure out the expectations. depending on what grade you teach, some students think its cool to have alternative teachers. they feel more comfortable around them and it makes them want to get more involved. In the world today, people create such high, uncomfortable standards for themselves that not even they like, all for the sake of trying to be "professional", but as long as you're doing your job well, and the students arent too distracted, why the hell not? My old school had a problem with my purple hair, but all of my teachers loved it. Students were only distracted on the first day. I soon brought up to the school board how they take students out of class to come to the office for "hair, makeup, and dress code violations" and how that crosses into our learning time. lets just say I got to keep my purple hair then (: