The Question of makeup in schools.

I wrote a blog entry about schools and their enforcement of the rules on wearing ties for the female population in those schools which you can find here, today there has been an article circulating about girls wearing makeup in schools and the reaction of teachers making them remove it by force.

You can watch a video of one of the girls at his particular school talking about experiences on this matter in her school.

You can also read the full article here 

Some of the comments on the facebook page are cringe worthy, you can see the full thread of comments here.

Firstly what a wonderfully articulate young woman this is and very brave blowing the whistle on the treatment some girls are receiving in the school, of course her points went over many people heads as you can see in the comments from some people such as 

 which incidentally 323 people share the same view.

The important point this girl is making is the bullying that this girl and obviously others feel they are having to endure to the point girls are being distressed and clearly traumatised by the schools actions, this may seem like a non issue to us grown ups and clearly some have the opinion the kids feelings are irrelevant and it should be all about rules, but no this child is making valid points that clearly a lot on those threads are missing.

and a contrasting view which I think is on point.

Yet sadly only 15 people shared that view.

 The clear message this is sending to those kids is that 'image is more important than education'. Many comments from people on the thread point out that 10-15 years ago they where not allowed to wear make-up etc etc etc, well that was 15 years ago and times have changed for females, social structure and pressures are very different now to what they where 15 years ago, is it not time these schools started to modernise themselves and their draconian rules.

You want these kids to learn, well start to listen to them and stop ignoring them and making out like it does not matter what their opinions are, schools have heard the same thing over and over and over again about school uniform and makeup for many many years, yet kids are ignored, kids opinions like this articulate youngs girls do matter, their voices do matter on things that affect their life and their mental wellbeing, it is not about time schools started to listen and not just dictate, because that is not what school is all about, it is about nurturing confident young people who are confident that their voices will be heard in this world on things that matter to them.

I remember the days of orange faces in our school, has that affected those girls in their life going forwards, no.. it has taught them to be more careful when choosing colour tones....

Schools please get a grip with your school policies and bring yourself into the modern age, catch up and stop enforcing draconian rules that benefit no one, all it tells me is that schools are inflexible institutions that have no regard for those children forced to be in them.