Mandatory Fun

A guy I used to date worked in IT for a big corporation and he called the stupid team building activities and other social events related to work as Mandatory Fun.

In light of the events in the football world, I'm beginning to think we are experiencing a similar situation at school.  Purple Friday is a big deal at both of my schools.  So big that if a child has the audacity to wear another team's jersey, he or she gets teased, yelled at, and verbally abused by classmates.

Recently, a letter went home to families in a city school (not my school system) that children who did not wear purple on Friday would not be allowed to attend the pep rally.  Instead, they'd be put in the library.

As a book nerd who thinks spectator sports are stupid, I could think of no other place I'd rather be than in the library during a pep rally.

But what about the kid who has parents too busy/overwhelmed/forgetful/intoxicated/high to read letters sent home and ensure their child is dressed in the approved attire?

What about the kids from out of state who have a family that (gasp) support another sports team?

And when did public school become a place where administrators can impose a certain color to wear to an assembly?

I went to Catholic school where we had a uniform and certain rules governing its wear and use.  That was understood- and as we all got older, we did everything we could to edge around the rules as much as possible- and were reined back in through demerits.

But these are children ages 4-11 in a publicly funded school.  Their primary goal in school is to learn to think a little (but not enough to start questioning the system) and do well on tests so the school looks good and their parents can brag about it with a sticker on their vehicles.  It isn't a place where kids are supposed to be ostracized, teased, bullied, insulted, and denied access to extracurricular activities based on the color of their shirt.

With all the money and time spent on the anti-bullying rhetoric in public schools, (and believe me, it is rhetoric on my one school since the administrator is a bully) to then make such an exclusionary rule is to pretty much undo all those posters they had the kids make saying "Don't be a bully!" and

"It's okay to be different."

We all know that in the world of school, it isn't.