After a school district rolled back its policy on “casual clothing” for teachers, one educator made it her mission to find the most “absurd” professional clothing possible, to spite them.
The teacher is finding the ‘craziest’ professional clothing after her school changed its dress code policy.
“My district has been pretty lax on the dress code since COVID-19,” this teacher admitted in a Reddit post. “We all got really comfortable wearing jeans and comfortable clothing to work. Personally, I wore jeans most days last year.”
Obviously, her choice of pants didn’t negatively impact her ability to educate. In fact, she wrote that she was “praised for [her] instruction and [her] dedication,” all while wearing jeans.
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However, her district recently implemented a change, insisting that teachers wear professional clothing — meaning no jeans Monday through Thursday.
Despite pushback and frustration from teachers, the school district isn’t budging. So, she decided to approach the new dress code regulations quite eccentrically.
“Since I can’t change it, I’m taking it as a challenge to find the craziest out there ‘professional’ clothing possible,” she declared. “Going for Miss Frizzle vibes!”
Many teachers have an issue with the ‘professional’ dress code requirements.
Many see no need for oppressive dress codes as long as teachers meet educational expectations and maintain healthy classroom atmospheres.
“We all know jeans don’t make us any less effective,” the teacher wrote. “But they do allow me to be comfortable while being flexible and meeting my students where they are.”
“‘Professional’ dress is just another way that miserable, tiny people get to have utterly useless power over us,” another educator commented on the post. “Make no mistake about it — jeans or shorts or wearing a school tee on a Thursday instead of Friday has zero effect on student learning. This thinking is archaic.”
This commenter brought up a good point. Why do jeans affect a student’s ability to learn Monday through Thursday but not Friday?
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Another commenter pointed out the functionality of clothing, which is arguably more important than aesthetics.
“Teachers are expected to dress for the job teaching was decades ago,” they wrote. “Now teaching is so much more physical. I am constantly on the move, getting up and down, sometimes chasing a kid… we should be dressing for the job teaching is now.”
Other educators took issue with the financial strain this new rule put on teachers who are likely paid an abysmally low salary. They are suddenly expected to change the way they’ve been dressing for years, with no financial support or “stipends” from the school to help them source a new wardrobe.
“It’s obnoxious they waited until right before school starts to notify you of such a substantial change to the dress code,” one Redditor argued. “It’s such a busy time of year getting the school year launched, and it’s also typically a pretty expensive time of year with school supplies and other [behind-the-scenes] stuff.
Luckily this teacher is not letting her district’s rule dull her sparkle, and she’s already brainstorming ways to make the dress code work for her and her existing wardrobe.
“Professional hippie, that’s a vibe I could work with,” she joked. “I think my Renaissance Faire skirt might fall under the professional category.”
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories
