This made me laugh today. I don’t really get how a 4 year old boy with shaggy hair is a distraction to other 4 year olds, but  a 4 year old boy with braided hair is good to go. I guess that is why I don’t make the rules.

I hope you read the article, or watched the video I posted yesterday about the kid being suspended from school for his “long” hair. I try not to get on my soap box too much, but this is one of those times that I just cant help it.

We had a discussion around Thanksgiving about rules. I told one of the kids that was at the house to do something and he said “why?”. My answer to that was “because I said so”. My mom was pretty quick to jump on my case and give me a hard time about it, because it was the first time I had been on the “adult” side of that exchange. I am sure I asked why a lot of times as a kid, and I know I heard “because I said so” more times than I can count. Like someone said in our Thanksgiving day discussion, the truth is sometimes in life you have to do things just because someone else said so. You may not always like it, or agree with it, but that’s how its goes sometimes. People that pay your salary aren’t always going to give you a reason when they tell you to do something, the bottom line is they pay you so you do it. The alternative is don’t do it, and get paid from someone else. That’s how the adult world works. I completely understand how that works. I understand that the school system “should be” preparing our children for the adult world that they will go on to live and work in and hopefully become productive members of. I understand that there are rules and the rules are there for a reason. I do have issues with the rules sometimes though, and this is one of them. One of the quotes from the school district in question was what really bothered me.

“students who dress and groom themselves neatly, and in an acceptable and appropriate manner, are more likely to become constructive members of the society in which we live.”

I think that statement is absolutely ridiculous.  I really doubt that the kid in question is distracting any of the other 4 year olds with his somewhat long hair. They are 4 year olds, I really think they have other things on their young minds than each others hair cuts. I understand when kids get older and start to do things just to buck the system, and I think there has to be a fine line between letting kids of any age express their individuality and letting them run wild and do whatever they want. I think the school system is doing a great job showing these kids that they don’t care about their individuality. I think they are doing a great job of telling these kids that they would rather them all be cookie cutter members of society than be individuals and express some originality. I think the statement that people that dress or groom themselves a certain way are more likely to become productive members of society is a big old load of bull butter!

I guess in all reality the school system really is just preparing these kids for the rules that they will face as an adult. I feel little Taylor’s pain, I haven’t always wanted to wear my hair the way other people want me to wear it. I personally think there is way more to people than the way they dress or wear their hair. There was time when I grew my hair out long and I had to deal with people not liking it. I never really saw that as my problem. No days I like to wear my hair short, but I still like to grow my goatee out at times. I have always loved my long goatee, but most peopleI know don’t really care for it. It doesn’t really matter to me, because I am not growing it out for anyone other than myself. When I look at someone that has long hair, facial or otherwise, I don’t automatically assume they must not be productive members of society. When that picture was taken I was working at a bank. Most of the people that worked at our bank were wound a little too tight and were more concerned with how people looked rather the person themselves. I adhered to the dress code, and I even thought my goatee was in compliance. The dress code only stated that facial hair must be neatly trimmed. I kept my goatee trimmed around the edges so it didnt look all wild and bushy, although I will admit it had its moments. I followed the dress code, I did not have any visible tattoos at the time, but I had that long goatee. I was at that job for 6 years. I was married, was buying a house, owned my car, paid all my bills, helped out other people in the community when I had a chance and not once did I end up in jail or rehab. By all accounts I was a productive member of society, but I still had people complain about my goatee. That never really made sense to me. Not once has my goatee ever reached out and slapped someone or caused anyone any physical harm. The only thing people could say about it was that they just did not like it. We had surveys every year I was there to see how we were doing our jobs. I always did fairly well on these surveys. I was always friendly and personable when I was working on someones computer and tried to be as professional as possible, but some people were still more concerned about the way I looked than the fact that I was able to do my job. These were people that relied on me doing my job so that they could do theirs and they were still more concerned with how I looked. I still to this day don’t understand that. If I take my car to a mechanic I could care less that he has grease on his clothes or long shaggy hair. What I care about is how good of a mechanic he is because I need my car fixed. I just think people are ridiculous sometimes when it comes to appearances.

I will say this, as many problems as I had at that job only once did my boss ask me to “trim” my goatee. I took a little off the length and he was happy with that. My problem is mainly with people looking at peoples outward appearances rather than whats on the inside.

I apologize if that sounded more like irritated rambling than rational complete thoughts. That tends to happen when I get up on my soap box. I get all worked up and my mind works faster than I can type.

So, my question to you is this. Why do we as a society put so much emphasis on peoples physical appearances? That is the question of the day. I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Texas School Suspends Taylor Pugh for Long Hair – Sphere News.

 ”designed to attract attention to the individual or to disrupt the orderly conduct of the classroom or campus (are) not permitted,”

“students who dress and groom themselves neatly, and in an acceptable and appropriate manner, are more likely to become constructive members of the society in which we live.”

I can’t even express how ridiculous I think that last statement is. I will write about it a little more tomorrow, I am trying to get a couple of posts finished that I can schedule for the weekend since I have family Christmas plans this weekend. If you want to check out the rest of the story about young Taylor and his disorderly locks, just check out the link below.