News of the Osakan teen who sued her school for forcing her to dye her naturally brown hair went viral last week, with numerous international media outlets reporting the story from a critical point of view. Much of the criticism focused on the school's insistence that all students have black hair, regardless of their natural hair color. While the story had already provoked critical opinions in Japan, the international focus on the case has encouraged an even stronger reaction, with opinions on social media questioning the merit of hair-related and other appearance-related rules in Japanese schools, and some calling for their elimination.
Sensing an opportunity, Chiki Ogiue, critic and chief editor of the academic journalism site Synodos invited people to submit their own stories on Twitter:
---"It seems that 'natural hair color certification' and 'mandatory black hair' are in the news but I think there are also other unreasonable "shady school rules" which need to be amended. I'd like to collect examples for my research..."
---"...I'm not looking for a facile takedown of the teachers in the field . Rather, I hope it can serve as an opportunity for a dialogue on revising practices that have, for one reason or another, been allowed to continue until now. That being said, "natural hair color certification" is clearly discriminatory. As someone from the previous generation, I am ashamed of such local rules that have persisted into the present times."
Striking just the right tone, Ogiue's open invitation to Japanese Twitter went viral, and the responses soon began pouring in.
Here are some of the more surprising of Japan's "shady school rules" that were revealed to exist:
---"When I was in middle school, even the color of our hair ties (dark colors) were decided, and if we ever wore a brightly colored hair tie, our teacher would caution us, saying: "Stop that or you'll draw the attention of your seniors" (in this case, critical attention).
---"In my son's middle school, students can't trim their eyebrows. (The kids who follow the rule end up with unibrows like Ryo-san in the manga Kochikame)..."
---"No matter how cold it was outside, teachers would yell at us: 'Don't wear tracksuit pants under your skirts!' (when we came dressed that way.) I think the bigger problem was teachers ordering us to 'put up with the cold!' "
---"In the high school I graduated from three years ago, the color of our underwear was mentioned in the dress code (...) Girls were restricted to white or beige camisoles under their white shirts, but I hated it because light colors like white or beige made our bras visible. What's more, during our monthly "dress code inspections," we had to lift up our shirts to show the color of our camisoles. Even in front of male teachers, of course... Apparently, the school is still doing this. I think it's sexual harassment."
---"I don't know if you could call this a "shady school rule" but we couldn't wear scarves at our school and the reason they gave was "because all things gaudy or showy are prohibited." You'd think the reason would be "because it's dangerous," you know, since long scarves can get caught in cars or something like that, but no..."
---"I don't know if this is a "shady school rule" but when I was in middle school, only kids who lived more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away from school were allowed to commute by bicycle. That's 100 km each way! Commuting by bicycle!"
---"I thought I would die because of their rule against using sunscreen. I had them exceptionally allow it after I brought in a medical certificate from my dermatologist, but it must have given my PE teacher a negative image of me and he ended up giving me a grade of 2 out of 10, even though I was above average in practical skills tests and got perfect grades on written exams. I still resent him for that."
---"When we had hikes up the mountain, we were prohibited from carrying water canteens. The reason was to develop our fighting spirit. And this was on a mountain where climbers often go missing... lol."
One point which many commenters seemed to agree on is that the most shady school rules were those that seemed to indicate that the school did not consider the safety and welfare of the students under their care to be their utmost priority, a sentiment reflected in the following tweet:
---"Self-restrained behavior befitting a high school student..." "Behavior indicating a proper awareness of one's situation as a (middle / high) school student..." To be honest, I always wondered what they meant by "behavior befitting a (middle / high) school student." It seemed to me that school rules were designed to make sure students' appearances were "simple and unnoticeable so that others wouldn't give them strange looks" rather than being particularly concerned with protecting the students.
News of the Osakan teen who sued her school for forcing her to dye her naturally brown hair went viral last week, with numerous international media outlets reporting the story from a critical point of view. Much of the criticism focused on the school's insistence that all students have black hair, regardless of their natural hair color. While the story had already provoked critical opinions in Japan, the international focus on the case has encouraged an even stronger reaction, with opinions on social media questioning the merit of hair-related and other appearance-related rules in Japanese schools, and some calling for their elimination.
Sensing an opportunity, Chiki Ogiue, critic and chief editor of the academic journalism site Synodos invited people to submit their own stories on Twitter:
---"It seems that 'natural hair color certification' and 'mandatory black hair' are in the news but I think there are also other unreasonable "shady school rules" which need to be amended. I'd like to collect examples for my research..."
Ogiue further clarified his stance:
---"...I'm not looking for a facile takedown of the teachers in the field . Rather, I hope it can serve as an opportunity for a dialogue on revising practices that have, for one reason or another, been allowed to continue until now. That being said, "natural hair color certification" is clearly discriminatory. As someone from the previous generation, I am ashamed of such local rules that have persisted into the present times."
Striking just the right tone, Ogiue's open invitation to Japanese Twitter went viral, and the responses soon began pouring in.
Here are some of the more surprising of Japan's "shady school rules" that were revealed to exist:
source: Dick Thomas Johnson / (C) Flickr
Hair
---"When I was in middle school, even the color of our hair ties (dark colors) were decided, and if we ever wore a brightly colored hair tie, our teacher would caution us, saying: "Stop that or you'll draw the attention of your seniors" (in this case, critical attention).
---"In my son's middle school, students can't trim their eyebrows. (The kids who follow the rule end up with unibrows like Ryo-san in the manga Kochikame)..."
---"When I was in middle school, the moment my bangs reached my eyebrows, the teacher would force me to trim them..."
source: Dick Thomas Johnson / (C) Flickr
Dress Code
---"No matter how cold it was outside, teachers would yell at us: 'Don't wear tracksuit pants under your skirts!' (when we came dressed that way.) I think the bigger problem was teachers ordering us to 'put up with the cold!' "
---"In the high school I graduated from three years ago, the color of our underwear was mentioned in the dress code (...) Girls were restricted to white or beige camisoles under their white shirts, but I hated it because light colors like white or beige made our bras visible. What's more, during our monthly "dress code inspections," we had to lift up our shirts to show the color of our camisoles. Even in front of male teachers, of course... Apparently, the school is still doing this. I think it's sexual harassment."
---"I don't know if you could call this a "shady school rule" but we couldn't wear scarves at our school and the reason they gave was "because all things gaudy or showy are prohibited." You'd think the reason would be "because it's dangerous," you know, since long scarves can get caught in cars or something like that, but no..."
source: (C) Pakutaso
Rules of Conduct
---"I don't know if this is a "shady school rule" but when I was in middle school, only kids who lived more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away from school were allowed to commute by bicycle. That's 100 km each way! Commuting by bicycle!"
---"I thought I would die because of their rule against using sunscreen. I had them exceptionally allow it after I brought in a medical certificate from my dermatologist, but it must have given my PE teacher a negative image of me and he ended up giving me a grade of 2 out of 10, even though I was above average in practical skills tests and got perfect grades on written exams. I still resent him for that."
---"When we had hikes up the mountain, we were prohibited from carrying water canteens. The reason was to develop our fighting spirit. And this was on a mountain where climbers often go missing... lol."
One point which many commenters seemed to agree on is that the most shady school rules were those that seemed to indicate that the school did not consider the safety and welfare of the students under their care to be their utmost priority, a sentiment reflected in the following tweet:
---"Self-restrained behavior befitting a high school student..." "Behavior indicating a proper awareness of one's situation as a (middle / high) school student..." To be honest, I always wondered what they meant by "behavior befitting a (middle / high) school student." It seemed to me that school rules were designed to make sure students' appearances were "simple and unnoticeable so that others wouldn't give them strange looks" rather than being particularly concerned with protecting the students.
By - grape Japan editorial staff.
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