What school rule have you encountered so far that's really useless?
By wahmivy
@wahmivy (776)
Philippines
May 20, 2009 12:38am CST
I remember the school (it was a girls' school run by nuns) I attended for grade school and high school was so persnickety about the uniform. You could get a violation report if your socks were too short or too long or if it had some sort of print on it (should be plain white). There was also this rule about not walking while drinking. I know it's supposed to be safer, it'll avoid spills or choking or whatever, but to make it a rule that could actually affect your conduct grade (hence your overall GPA as well) if you disobey it, that's just ridiculous. And then, since I attended school there from the '80s to the early '90s, several short haircuts became en vogue (barber's cut and Demi Moore's Ghost hair), the admin was against that too. Girls who sported short hair were required to grow out their hair. Borderline Gestapo, eh? Can you remember any of your school's "dumb" rules? :)
4 responses
@oyenkai (4394)
• Philippines
28 May 09
Also when I was in high school - there's a rule to never get a skin head hair cut. First the teacher was picking on this male classmate because he hasn't gotten his proper haircut, the teacher says it's too long. So my friend got tired of it so he does get a hair cut and comes to school the next day ...bald. We really didn't take it against him and we didn't even think it was funny - it seems like the right thing to do since the weather was so hot then and all... he got called to the principal's office for his haircut.
Well none of the rules stated that there's a minimum length of hair so what do they care?
Thanks for the response on my discussion!
@aseretdd (13730)
• Philippines
21 May 09
I have thought in like 3 schools... and each one has its own not so popular rules... in one school... girls are only allowed to use black or white hair pins or bands...different colors will be confiscated... cell phones are not allowed to be brought in school... and guys are only allowed to grow their hair at a certain length...
The more traditional the school is... the more silly the rules are...
@wahmivy (776)
• Philippines
21 May 09
Those rules are actually pretty common in Philippine schools. Where I studied, we had that same hair tie rule, only they included navy blue as well since that was the color of our jumper (over white blouse). It's true, they think being a traditional school is about suppressing any form of individuality among the students.
@Ahmone19 (28)
• United States
20 May 09
There were some pretty ridiculous rules in my high school too. The dress code was really strict, if you had even the smallest tear in your pants or shirt, your parents had to bring you clothes. The girls had it really bad, I felt sorry for them. The one that killed me was if you were absent for more than 10 days in one quarter, your teachers could choose to fail you. So that means if a teacher didn't like you, and you got really sick, you were in trouble. I don't think they were allowed to fail you if you made up all your work and had a high grade, but a D or a C was fair game. To make matters worse, if you missed too much school they would give you detention or even suspension sometimes. It made no sense for them to kick you out of school for not coming to school, how does that solve the problem? My middle school was even problematic. I remember one incident that I was involved in where a few kids lied about what happened but I came out and told the truth. The kids got suspended for 5 days, I got extended suspension for a whole quarter. What would somebody learn from that? Don't tell the truth, you get off easy if you just lie. I know the school systems are supposed to be here for our good or whatever, but they really need to think about what they're doing to the students.
@wahmivy (776)
• Philippines
21 May 09
You got a worse suspension for telling the truth? Now, that's just warped. They'd suspend you even if you had been sick? Gosh, some schools can really lose focus about their purpose. My husband attended a hyper-conservative Baptist school that enforced paddling. I remember him telling me he got suspended for not having memorized a chapter in the Bible (they had to memorize a chapter every week or so). That's just dumb. Give a kid a bad grade for failing to memorize something, but why suspend him? They also have to chant dumb things like "I don't like early courtship!" during general assemblies. Crazy!
