Schools Need to Address More Than a Dress Code
Re “Dress the Part, Teachers,” editorial, May 5: I would like to invite all The Times’ editors to visit our 23-plus-acre high school campus. Please come in September, when it’s nice and warm, and don’t worry about the air conditioning being too cold--there isn’t any. In the interest of equity, all of you, male and female, ought to wear both a tie and pantyhose. We’ll try not to assign you to the bungalow across the athletic fields, so wear nice shoes too. It’ll mean the world to our students.
Alexa Smith Maxwell
Los Angeles
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As probably the worst-dressed teacher in the LAUSD with excellent evaluations, I venture that my fellow teachers at Mount Vernon Middle School would gladly “dress the part” if parents and students would agree in writing to have the students show up regularly, diligently do their homework every night, study and learn those concepts they don’t understand, study for tests and do well even on those tests (like the Stanford 9) that have no consequences for the student--and that otherwise the students will have to be transferred from the school.
Marc Pollard
Los Angeles
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A few months ago I asked my ninth- and 11th-grade students how they felt about the way the teachers dress at our school. Dressing nicely in a tie or a dress, they said, doesn’t automatically make one a “good teacher,” nor does dressing casually necessarily make one a “bad teacher.” The majority of them added that they felt more comfortable with teachers who dressed more as they do, in casual but clean and neat clothing. Some commented that the teachers who wear ties and dresses can make them feel alienated, so they tend to tune them out.
I thought my students’ comments were perceptive and true. Getting all teachers to dress respectably will probably be a small step in the right direction toward improving our schools. But unless other, more substantive issues are addressed by all the parties affected by our low-performing schools, Supt. Roy Romer’s dress code will be nothing more than window dressing.
Richard Carlander
Camarillo
