{"id":469,"date":"2009-09-11T00:34:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-11T00:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/2009\/09\/11\/the-ties-that-bind\/"},"modified":"2009-09-11T00:34:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-11T00:34:00","slug":"the-ties-that-bind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/2009\/09\/11\/the-ties-that-bind\/","title":{"rendered":"The ties that bind"},"content":{"rendered":"
This BBC article <\/a>about school tie styles brought back lots of memories!<\/p>\n

Many British schools are apparently introducing clip-on ties in order to force their students into monotonous conformity<\/s> “ensure consistency” and “provide an atmosphere of discipline”. I think this is a terrible shame; while I agree with the underlying reasons for school uniforms (principally to minimise bullying due to discrepancies in how much parents can afford to spend on branded clothing), there is a proud British schoolkid tradition of subverting uniform codes to rebel against authority and express individuality, and diverse tie styles are a large part of that. <\/div>\n

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\"\"The BBC says “No-one can be precisely sure when the process started – it may even have been decades ago – but it’s clear that it’s reached crisis point.” Decades ago sounds about right to me! <\/i><\/p>\n

My primary school didn’t have a uniform while I was there, and it was only when we moved up to secondary school that we had to learn to tie a proper tie knot. Our uniform consisted of black shoes (not trainers\/sneakers), white socks, a navy blue skirt or trousers*, white or pale blue shirt or blouse, navy blue cardigan or V-neck sweater – and a navy blue tie with thin yellow diagonal stripes.<\/p>\n

The official uniform code didn’t mention shoelaces, and so we expressed ourselves chiefly through that medium. I remember having tartan and then fluorescent laces, while one of my male friends had laces printed with “left” and “right” (and insisted on wearing them on the wrong feet). Our shoes sported a veritable rainbow of individuality.<\/p>\n

The official code also neglected to specify tie style, other than saying we had to have our top button done up and the tie knotted just below it. I turned up on my first day, age 11, sporting the traditional tie style that my Dad had taught me and that I’d spent hours perfecting. Only the first-years without older siblings were wearing our ties in this “kipper” style, which immediately marked us out as targets for ridicule.<\/p>\n

On the second day, I tied my tie back-to-front, with the narrow part in front and worn long enough to tuck into the waist band of my skirt, and the wide part tucked inside the shirt – just the way the older kids did. My parents both protested, so I retied it the “proper” way – and promptly switched back as soon as I left the house. I wore my tie in this way most days for the next five years, occasionally experimenting with the 1-inch-long-narrow-tie that was the most popular alternative. A few of my friends went for the 2-inch-long-super-wide-tie look, and even unpicked the tie’s seams and spread the edges out to get it even wider. (This was, of course, an “ironic” response to the narrow ties of most of their peers). Some of the stricter teachers would make us fix our ties at the start of their classes, but as soon as the bell rang, the styles would magically revert…<\/p>\n

Sixth-formers (those of us who stayed on for the optional final two years, from age 16-18) didn’t have to wear the uniform. And the school ditched the ties not long after I left, anyway, and switched to a more modern trousers-polo shirt-sweatshirt combo instead. Most kids were pretty happy with the change, but – and here’s the important thing – they continued to rebel through the medium of shoelaces.<\/p>\n

As the BBC article says, “there will just be other ways to rebel.”<\/p>\n

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*For my first couple of years at the school, girls were only allowed to wear trousers from November to March. This unpopular restriction was finally overturned when we got our first ever female Muslim classmate.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This BBC article about school tie styles brought back lots of memories! Many British schools are apparently introducing clip-on ties in order to force their students into monotonous conformity “ensure consistency” and “provide an atmosphere of discipline”. I think this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,25,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-silliness","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}