“I think subconsciously,” writes Scott Farver in an article in Education Week on how he dressed when he began teaching in an elementary school, ”I was trying to go for the I-just-returned-from-Peace-Corps-and-don’t-want-(or-know-how)-to-dress-professional look.” And succeeded. Then, teaching at a school in rural New Mexico, for a reason he doesn’t explain he bet himself that he could wear a tie for a month. He won it, and bet himself he could wear it for a year. His students were bemused and some of the other teachers critical.
So far, apparently, a kind of lark. Then he realized that if the president happened to visit the school, he and everyone else “would be dressed to the nines,” and therefore:
If I wore a tie for an important person like the president of the United States but not for my students, what kind of message would that send? If I did not wear a tie, did that mean they were unimportant? I don’t know if my students would ever reach that conclusion, but I felt like it was implied somehow. We dress up for important people and events. We dress up for presidents. My students are important. Every day of school is important, as important as if the president were visiting.
While I am not proselytizing that every staff member in a school building dress up, I do feel that students need to know they matter. So I wear a tie. I shine my shoes. I get haircuts. I try to reflect their value by what I wear, how I speak, and how I behave. When I enter a classroom, I think about how I look because I want my students to know they are important, as important as a president.
Thanks to Gary Houchens’ weblog for the link.
November 29th, 2012 | 9:08 am
Very nice. I totally approve of his attitude, the rational for it, and the practice.
Surely the quality of the teacher is more important than the dress, but at least a somewhat formal/professional attire goes with the job.
If not a tie, then the pants and the shirt need to be “spruced up.” And kids should be taught to dress properly – especially from middle school onward.
I don’t see preschool teachers in a tie, but from grade school onwards, it’s refreshing. Especially because, as he says, he is not wearing a tie for the same reason as teachers may have done so 100 years ago – to communicate an unpleasantly stiff, authoritarian, rigid attitude towards the pupils, but because of an attitude that regards the children and his job as important.
November 29th, 2012 | 10:30 am
I like the attitude expressed in that article. Often people think that dressing up, especially with a tie or even a suit, is trying to make oneself look important. So they dress casual and think it’s a virtue. But the best reason for dressing well, as given in the article, is to show respect for the other person or group. Thank you for sharing this article with us.
November 29th, 2012 | 11:43 am
What a refreshing article! It also articulates something that I long felt to be the case but couldn’t quite say why. As a university professor, I always make sure to wear a good dress shirt and slacks to work (and even wear the occasional tie, though only when the mood strikes). I remember in grad school having professors make an ostentatious show of coming to class in a tee-shirt and jeans. Even then I found it phoney and actually condescending (as if saying: “I’m so brilliant I don’t need to dress up for you or anybody”). So, Bravo! to Mr. Farver!
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