Stratford Makes Case Anew for Uniforms

High school has always been a fashion show. Fifty years ago boys would check others' labels to see if their shirts were made by Gant. Girls disparaged home-sewn dresses. As long as appearance and status matter to teenagers, the desire to impress with clothing will never die.

That's the background for the dust-up over Principal Heather Taylor's remarks about tight leggings at Stratford High School last week. 

For those of you who haven't visited a high school lately, here is the school's dress code:

We don't know what came before or after the remarks that caused such furor: "I'm gonna tell you this now: Unless you're a size zero or a two and you wear something like that, even though you're not fat, you look fat," but it's fair to assume Taylor was discussing the dress code. Experienced teachers know all too well the horrors of enforcing one.

The large majority of today's teens have no concept of modesty. In fact, our culture at large reviles any suggestion of female modesty in its celebration of sex. Take a good look at what the media sells to teenage girls and you'll understand. Girls thin as sticks won't look sexy regardless of how immodestly they dress; those of more normal weight will. Was that inchoate idea in Taylor's mind when she made her comments about fat?

We'll never know, but with uniforms she never would have made them.