Sports, Dress Coded, Refrigerator

It was another quiet week. Luke had lots of sports practices. He had his second flag football game on Saturday and scored 3 touchdowns! One was pretty cool, he caught a great pass and then ran to the end zone. The other two were handoffs, but still impressive. His whole team is pretty good (for K/1) and they are fun to watch. On the walk home, Luke told me that he likes all sports and is just a "sports guy" but he thinks soccer and baseball are his favorites. I thought it was interesting that he likes baseball so much, because that one is currently a struggle for him. He is not great at catching or hitting. Of course, he is also among the youngest on his team, maybe even the youngest. The ages begin in April and his birthday is in March. So, based on the way the dates work, he is very likely playing with 9 year-olds. I never thought much about ages for sports until I read "Outliers" which had statistical evidence on how professional athletes (in certain sports anyway) almost always have birthdays at the later part of the age cut-offs. It's not because they are better, but because they appear better next to their younger teammates in the early years and get picked for extra opportunities (travel teams, all-stars, special camps, etc.). So, Luke should have been born in May. At least if he wants to be a professional baseball player. :)

In other random news, Anna got "dress-coded" on Friday. She called us and was upset. They wouldn't let her go to class unless we brought her a change of clothes. I was pretty annoyed as I knew what she was wearing and I thought it was a shame to keep her out of class pending my arrival.  When I got to the school, I politely requested to see whoever was in charge of the dress code and they called her to the office. I asked her to tell me what was wrong with Anna's outfit, so that we wouldn't make the same mistake again. And, she said...nothing. She said that Anna was dressed fine and she wasn't sure why they coded her.  Ugh! What a waste of a drive. Fortunately, the school is close, but I still had to tack on 30-minutes to the end of my work-day to make up for the diversion. And, on Fridays, I try and work straight through to get off early, but at least it was a quiet morning so I had the ability to go right there. 

The outfit that started it all.

It did make me ponder on the dress code. What if her shirt hadn't covered her butt? I feel like the dress code is too arbitrary. If they want them to dress professionally for school, fine, I would get that. Tell them they must wear polo shirts and knee length shorts and khaki pants and apply it to everyone (like the elementary school uniform). That way, no one's clothes are a distraction and the right tone is set. But, why can't a girl wear leggings and a shirt that covers her belly but doesn't stretch past her butt? Tight jeggings are okay, but leggings are not. And, why not? If body parts are covered, what does it matter? That brings me back to the "professional learning atmosphere" type argument, but the dress code allows for a lot of outfits that aren't the least bit "casual Friday appropriate." It seems like another way of unfairly sexualizing girls and holding them to a different standard. Although, I suppose boys can't wear leggings either. <sigh>

Finally, I asked why they couldn't give her a warning or let her wait for me in class, as it was her first offense. She responded that the students are well aware of the dress code and therefore warnings are not given. Then, she reiterated that Anna's "violation" wasn't really a violation. I didn't say it, but I really wanted to respond with--the students are obviously held to a higher standard than the teachers, because some teacher wrongly singled Anna out. So, the students have to know the policy and cannot receive a warning or be allowed to attend class while waiting for a change of clothes, even for a first offense, but the teachers can admittedly make a mistake. So, maybe people aren't as informed as they are supposed to be after all?

But, I wasn't trying to be rude, and I don't think I was. I think we had a good, respectful conversation. I understand that the school doesn't set the policy, so I was never going to be difficult. It just made me consider something I had not before.

We watched the Super Bowl. It was exciting to see Tampa Bay play. We tried to get the kids more invested, but they didn't really care. It was electronics time, so they brought their laptops in the living room (probably for super bowl snacks) and didn't pay much attention to the game. But, Thomas and I enjoyed it.

Our refrigerator broke. The same refrigerator that is just 18 months old and was super expensive (warranty was one year). Thomas did some research and was pretty sure he knew the problem, but he didn't have the right tools to fix it. We called a repair man and Thomas told him what he thought. The guy ignored Thomas' suggestion and spent a couple of hours taking things apart. Finally, he tried what Thomas had suggested and it fixed the problem. Obviously, Thomas isn't an expert and he easily could have been wrong, but I am not sure why the guy was so reluctant to listen to his input. However, he was nice, came out on a Saturday, fixed the issue and charged us a fair price. So, alls well that ends well. 

Boy, this post was like a Seinfeld episode--a blog about nothing.