How Should I Dress?

In Professional Dress For Teachers – Sending an Important Message from Tips For New Teachers and Student Teachers, Sam asks

“What do you think? Is how we dress for work significant? Does it matter? Do kids really care? Should there be a teacher dress code? How would you define professional dress?”

This week I worked at a charity golf tournament and was given some dress code information. No blue jeans allowed but white, khaki, or blue slacks/capris/shorts are allowed. Ladies were warned not to wear their shorts too short. Even on a golf course there are requirements!

I think what you wear to work is very important. There are appropriate dress for different kinds of occupations. Doctors and Nurses wear their kind of clothes. Construction workers wear the clothes that work best for their kind of work.

Teachers have a certain dress that they should wear

I started off teaching in a self contained class for students with emotional disabilities. I was told to wear tshirts and blue jeans which I did for 3 years. Then I switched to high school where no blue jeans or tshirts were allowed. What a difference it made. It made a difference in how I felt about myself and also how the students saw me.

I felt more confident and self assured. I felt better about myself and what I was hoping to do by teaching. I wanted to make a difference and I felt I was now in a position to do so. I think by changing how I dressed was a step in the right direction. By dressing professionally I was also showing that I respect myself and I expect others to respect me also.

Now students saw me as a role model. By dressing this way, I was making an impression on what students thought and how they saw the world. They could see that there are different ways to dress for different types of situations.

When I helped my students get a job at a local fast food restaurant, there was a requirement that boy’s pants had to be pulled up and they had to wear a belt around their pants. At first my boys were resistant to this dress code but they complied. As soon as they got their first pay check and saw what their actions resulted in, I never had a problem with sagging pants any more.

Even dressing for the prom requires something different than every day dress. Students have an opportunity to dress in formal clothes. This is actually a wonderful learning experience for teenagers. Not only do they learn how to dress for a different situation but they also learn social skills for this.

I really feel it is a shame that employers need to tell teachers that they need to dress professionally. I think it falls in the same category as having to tell an employee to arrive to work on time, be prepared to work, and do their job correctly. None of this should have to be said. I think when teachers need to be told these things; it really demeans the teaching profession. By needing to be told this, others get the message that we don’t care about what we do.

For me, dressing professionally means dressing in nice business clothes. I would not wear these clothes to do yard work or play. It involves wearing nice pants/tops or dresses that I don’t normally wear to hang around the house. It is clothes that make people look at me and say I value and respect my profession.

How do you feel about dressing professionally? Please share.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'Working from home FUTAB'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18548283@N00/2459694249

Dress Code Preparedness

Many years ago I joined a group called Emergency Preparedness that prepared groups of people for possible disasters. A few years ago I joined another group that basically did the same thing but the important thing about both was to get prepared. I think schools and parents need to do the same thing when dealing with dress codes, dress code violations, and the consequences that follow.

In Back to School Clothes: One of the Many Reasons I Have “Edusomnia”. from PrincipalsPage The Blog by Michael Smith, he talks about comments from both students and parents about the clothes that were already purchased. Then he gives some great advice:

“… I do know that reading the handbook is free. Which might be a good idea before going shopping. Just a suggestion Mom and Dad… keep your receipts, just in case.”

Kids are going to tell parents that certain types of dress are acceptable in school even if they aren’t. Let’s face it, I did it as a kid and you probably did too. Only, when I was growing up, my parents really didn’t care whether I was popular in school or what was acceptable in school because my parents were much stricter than any school I attended. I just knew as a teenager that I would probably win the “Geek” award for clothes (among other things). It seems that today, parents care more about the popularity of their child than their own values. I really feel that they trust their kids too much and that is where the problems begin.

Parents need to take the upper hand concerning their children’s dress. As a parent, you are in control of the money and therefore should have the final say in their clothes. It is no secret and never has been that there is a dress code in most schools. It is your job to find out what this code is so you don’t waste your money. In today’s economic situation, this should be motivation for you if nothing else is. I don’t care if your child is in kindergarten or high school, you need to know what is acceptable in school. Of course if you aren’t going to get the scoop before school starts, like this principal says, save your receipts!

Teachers should also send home a copy of the dress code with the child on the first day. I also made my students return the copy signed by both the student and the parent. I called the parent if this was not returned. This is really effective when there are problems later on! There also needs to be consistency in enforcing the dress code. It doesn’t do the students any good if one teacher enforces it but another one doesn’t. This has always been a major issue at the schools I have taught in.

Dress codes shouldn’t be this hard. There are dress codes for employment and even dress codes if you go out to eat. Many restaurants expect men to wear collared shirts, many won’t allow shorts or tennis shoes. Teaching dress codes in school is just another learning experience that they can use later in life. Learning to dress appropriately will help the students be more successful in life.

Original image: 'James, I think your cover's blown!' http://www.flickr.com/photos/23912576@N05/2962194797 by: Ludovic Bertron