All throughout my years I wore a uniform on the days when we
went to school. I went to a private Christian school and was also homeschooled.
(I totally fit into that Tim Hawkins’ video about homeschoolers.) On the days
that we were in school, I wore typical school uniform. Girls wore plaid skirts
and polo or peter-pan shirts and guys wore khaki pants and polo shirts. I never
thought it was weird because that was all I had known and it was what everyone
wore to school. Whenever I would go out after school or to an appointment
during the day, I would wear my uniform and people would stare at me as I walked
by. No one ever said anything, but you could tell they saw me as different and
thought I didn’t belong. I never really thought too much about it because as a
private school kid or homeschool kid, there were always comments about what I
was wearing, what we learned in class, or why my mom didn’t think public school
was good enough for us.
I decided to wear my high school uniform around campus one
day. I really wasn’t sure what everyone else would think. Would they just pass
me by without a thought or would there be chatter about what I was wearing?
What happened really surprised me. First to see me were my residents. They gave
me all sorts of looks. Even though they knew me, some of them just gave me
looks and kept on walking. Quite a lot of them asked me why I would ever wear
that at college. It really surprised me how my own residents surprised me. Next
I was around my coworkers. They weren’t so judgmental as they had a great time
making jokes about what I was wearing. When I went out to class, many people
just stared at me. No one really said anything, there were just many looks
given my way. The next thing that surprised me the most was showing up on Yik
Yak. I was called schoolgirl, white girl, stuck up, rich girl, and high school/
college wannabe. It really did make me second-guess how I looked and dressed.
This activity made me really think about how I judge other people. I am quick to look at someone and judge them, even though I know that’s not the right thing to do. Just because I was wearing something out of the norm, I was judged quite a lot from many people I don’t even know. It really made me think of making sure I get to know people before I form an opinion. This will especially be important in my classroom, as I need to get to know my students before I form an opinions about them, because I will either help set them up to succeed or fail. I really did enjoy this activity even though it pulled me out of my comfort zone.
This activity made me really think about how I judge other people. I am quick to look at someone and judge them, even though I know that’s not the right thing to do. Just because I was wearing something out of the norm, I was judged quite a lot from many people I don’t even know. It really made me think of making sure I get to know people before I form an opinion. This will especially be important in my classroom, as I need to get to know my students before I form an opinions about them, because I will either help set them up to succeed or fail. I really did enjoy this activity even though it pulled me out of my comfort zone.
I had the same experience as you, sitting and thinking of all the fun things we get to do for this assignment compared to actually going through with all the things we thought of. It is two different minds sets almost, on one end your just goofing around with friends joking about what crazy stuff you get to do and than on the other end is the serious self conflict of getting over your hesitations and actually doing it.
ReplyDeleteI think its really cool you wore an outfit that you had to wear all of high school! Something that you grew so comfortable wearing because that was the normal thing to wear to school than wearing it here, where you are free to wear anything you want and seeing the reactions you get from close friends, residence and just the general public. Comparing how you felt when you were still in high school but out in public and when you wore it around campus and all the feedback you got is a really cool way to look at it. I know I personally remember seeing people in uniforms in high school out and about and I would look at them but it wasn't out of judgment. I was usually trying to figure out where they went to school because I thought it was interesting to see/compare all the different uniforms for the different schools. But seeing a person in college wearing the same uniform as what they wore in high school would be a little strange and definitely a cool social norm to break.
Haley,
ReplyDeleteI love that you chose to complete this assignment by wearing your uniform around campus for the day! You were able to write a powerful blog explaining your experience because you were able to contrast how different you felt wearing your uniform while in college compared to when you were in middle school and high school. You grew up not knowing any different from wearing the uniform every day and it was routine for you.
It is crazy to think about how fast “norms” can change. Trends come and go and I feel that social and cultural norms tend to change with time as well. It almost seems to be human nature to quickly glance at something or someone and immediately form a judgmental thought. How can we as future educators help to defer this from happening within our classrooms? I desire for my classroom to be a safe environment where students feel comfortable asking questions and allowing themselves to branch out of their comfort zones. Although we cannot snap our fingers and change the world entirely, we can be a positive light in a dark world. We can help to encourage more positive interactions one step at a time.
I really enjoyed reading your post and I feel that completing this assignment was an eye-opening experience for me. It definitely forced me out of my comfort zone as well.