Who needs math when you can just dance in a cage on the weekends?

I had a not so great Math teacher in 8th grade named Ms. Uman.  She was a Go-Go dancer on the weekends and did a MEAN lawnmower dance.  Excellent role model this chick, EXCELLENT. (Sorry Ms. Uman, but its true.) In retrospect I know she was a not so great teacher because she was ALWAYS sitting down on the stool in the front of the room.  I have 12K in debt and a Masters degree in Education that taught me sitting teachers are generally lazy teachers.  At the time, I knew it because at the end of the semester she told that class we'd only covered about 1/2 the curriculum but not to worry, we could always just repeat it next year.  Awesome.

There was a kid in Ms. Uman's 5th period class that only had one shirt.  He was quiet and he sat in the back of the classroom.  I have to admit that I never noticed him until someone started talking about the fact that he never changed his shirt. The giggling started each day when he walked in wearing the same waaay too large shirt.  The giggles turned to talking which turned to gossip and the gossip in turn became a class joke. 

This is what I think of when I hear complaining about the uniforms imposed by the Alachua County School Board this year.

Limiting students to plain polo shirts, khakis and jeans may (and I say may with as much skepticism as can be crammed into a three letter word) repress student individuality and freedom of expression.  These quasi-uniforms may not be strict enough to bridge the gap between the haves and have nots.  It will however make the Joe's less noticeable.