New School Rules Let Boys Wear Skirts: The Times And The Sunday Times

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Link: New school rules let boys wear skirts: The Times & The Sunday Times

 

Eighty state schools, including 40 primaries, have introduced “gender neutral” uniform policies that allow boys to wear skirts and girls to wear trousers.

 

The schools have either dropped references to girls and boys in their dress codes or have rewritten their uniform policy — in the case of at least one state primary school — to say that pupils as young as five can dress in the uniform in which they feel most comfortable.

 

It is part of a little-publicised government-funded drive for schools to be more sensitive to “trans” children who are questioning their gender identity...

 

The rest of this report is behind The Times paywall.

[bald_pig]

We've had just "option A" and "option B" uniforms here since I started, as far as I was aware you couldn't specify gender for your uniforms?

[Oaktech]

I can't imagine the uptake will be high, peer pressure is a mighty thing, but I see no harm in it.

[FN-GM]

Makes things equal, fair do's.

 

Could do to do this for the work place. The uniform policies in 99% of them don't seem to be fair.

[jumpinjamez]

Makes things equal, fair do's.

 

Could do to do this for the work place. The uniform policies in 99% of them don't seem to be fair.

 

Anything so i dont have to wear a Tie. I would even wear a skirt, might be nice in the warmer weather

[sonofsanta]

Fair enough. /shrug

 

Anything so i dont have to wear a Tie. I would even wear a skirt, might be nice in the warmer weather

 

Apparently so

[LeMarchand]

It is part of a little-publicised government-funded drive for schools to be more sensitive to “trans” children who are questioning their gender identity...

 

Whilst I'm sure that there are children who know they're "in the wrong skin" from an early age, I have to say that many of the kids who turn up at my schools have difficulty with their name - so I find it hard to believe they could be sure that they are being presented as the incorrect gender.

[Oaktech]

Anything so i dont have to wear a Tie. I would even wear a skirt, might be nice in the warmer weather

 

I argued out of wearing a tie when I got here on health and safety grounds. If I lean over a pc with a fan in it, I don't want to have to remember to tuck my tie in every time. I have a couple of ties in my desk in case I have to meet dignitaries, but day to day it's just a shirt.

 

With global warming the way it is, I think traditional arab attire may the way forward!

[LeMarchand]

If I lean over a pc with a fan in it

 

If you decide to try a skirt, you should also be careful about leaning over whilst in proximity to a fan.

[Oaktech]

If you decide to try a skirt, you should also be careful about leaning over whilst in proximity to a fan.

 

That's a fair point. Someone should tell my office manager that too...

[mavhc]

But without a tie you'll not have a big arrow pointing towards your genitals. Not sure why else people would wear them.

[hardtailstar]

Was just talking about this with my boss yesterday.

 

In our dress code for staff it doesn't say anything about having to wear trousers so will be wearing shorts in hotter weather.... failing that I'll just wear a kilt.

 

In my last school I argued the point about women summery wearing skirts/dresses so was allowed to wear shorts.

[Lonix]

Whilst I'm sure that there are children who know they're "in the wrong skin" from an early age, I have to say that many of the kids who turn up at my schools have difficulty with their name - so I find it hard to believe they could be sure that they are being presented as the incorrect gender.

 

This has always been my thoughts. As a kid you don't know what you want out of life, see all the time that kids want hilarious jobs e.g. Super hero. So how do they know for certain something that really is so .. life defining.

 

Sometimes though without being offensive, it's more their upbringing than what they are born as till they are old enough to fully understand.

[witch]

This has always been my thoughts. As a kid you don't know what you want out of life, see all the time that kids want hilarious jobs e.g. Super hero. So how do they know for certain something that really is so .. life defining.

 

Sometimes though without being offensive, it's more their upbringing than what they are born as till they are old enough to fully understand.

 

I have read quite a few stories about children who feel they are in the wrong body and they do actually ring quite true - I was cynical at first but there was a distinct difference between a tomboy girl just saying "i wish I was a boy" and a child having a deep and solid feeling that they are really not what they look like on the outside.

I am all for children being able to wear whatever aspect of the school uniform suits them. I have always hated the fact that the boys and girls uniforms at local schools are different - the boys had to wear a tie but not the girls at my children's senior school. Different sports kit too which makes it expensive if you have boys and girls. Why not just make one list with trousers, skirts, whatever?

[sonofsanta]

The point is not "whether or not they know for sure", it's about not putting barriers in their way. Who are we to know whether a trans kid "knows" or not? I've no experience of that particular dissonance. It may well be that this is one area where you can know from an early age, but unless you've been through it, you can't comprehend what that certainty feels like. Gender is complex. Humans are complex.

 

Happiness is hard enough to come by in this world. If wearing a skirt is all it takes, that seems a pretty easy thing to allow.

[Duranis]

I was discussing a similar thing the other day with someone I know who is fairly strictly Christian and doesn't have the same view of the whole gender debate as me (though not as homophobic as you might think). Part of it was how we would each support our children if they came out as trans gender/gay, etc. Their problem was that their own personal beliefs would make it extremely hard to support that lifestyle choice but at the same time it was their child that they loved so they would do everything they could to make sure they got that support from somewhere else. It was a more tolerant answer than I was expecting to be honest.

 

Personally the only peoples sexuality/gender identification I really care about is mine and my partners, I'm quite happy for everyone else to do or be whatever makes them happy. However I have to admit I would be reluctant (at this point in time) to send my youngest boy (11) into school wearing a dress/skirt. If that is what he really wanted I would have zero issue with it outside of school but knowing how negatively it would effect him at that stage in his schooling were even the smallest of things can cause kids to be the target of bullying I don't think I could go along with it.

 

Of course the problem of that is while it is still considered "different" it will always be a point of discussion/bullying and it will never not be "different" if people are too scared to just be themselves.

[mavhc]

I'd like it if a bunch of people all chose to wear a non standard form of dress to support those being bullied about it

[speckytecky]

As a bloke I reckon it's got to be well handy for trips to the loo; no danger of walking round for the rest of the day with your flies open

Anything so i dont have to wear a Tie. I would even wear a skirt, might be nice in the warmer weather

[Arthur]

New school rules let boys wear skirts

If boys can wear skirts kilts in Scottish schools, surely it shouldn't be an issue in English schools?

[DJ-1701]

It's that time of year again:

 

Boys wear skirts to school in hot weather no shorts uniform protest - and they've started a trend

[LeMarchand]

I was wishing kilts were acceptable outside of Scotland/posh wedding the other day.

[Oaktech]

I was wishing kilts were acceptable outside of Scotland/posh wedding the other day.

 

I was contemplating this the other day... One place I worked we had a guy who was possibly the most Scottish bloke I'd ever met, he was site staff - I couldn't understand 4/5ths of what he said and the 1/5 I could understand was f**k, he used it like a comma. He wore a kilt pretty much all year round, so when it got hot there was absolutely no question about it being acceptable, people just did it, at one point there was about 10 other kilts in the staffroom. It was glorious!

[CAM]

Looks like their idea has caught on with the GMB and hospital staff at Watford!

 

Porter heatwave dispute: Union 'will tell staff to wear dresses' - BBC News