Re: Is this OT?

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

        Your conclusion is a glowing non sequitur.  Weariing a uniform
requires conformity of behaviour and nothing else!  I graduated high
school from a military school where I wore a uniform.  Do you think that made,
or encouraged me to become a conformist?
        What wearing a uniform might encourage is courtesy in the
classroom to fellow students and teachers.  Perhaps it would be less
likely for students to in outlandish costumes to attract attention with
outlandish behavior if uniforms were required.
                                Regards,
                                                Jack




 On Tue, 3 Sep 2002, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

> UnderNews feedback:
>
>
> ||| TEACHING CONFORMITY
>
> J. PHILIP SCHEDIWY, APPLE VALLEY, CA - While reading the book
> Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky I came across an interesting
> section.  Noam says that basically what our schools teach is Obeying and
>
> Conforming.  That really didn't surprise me.  In the twenty-two years
> that I spent in public miseducation it was very obvious.  Not only were
> student expected to conform, so were the faculty.  I still remember the
> harassing that I took because I refused to join the California Teachers'
>
> Association.  My reason for doing so was because the Association had
> come out in support of a candidate for State Superintendent of Education
>
> for whom I was bitterly opposed.  Since the council had made the
> decision without polling the teachers my only recourse was to withhold
> my dues. Fortunately for me, their man lost. There were numerous times
> when teachers would complain to me that my debaters (I coached
> forensics) challenged statements the teachers made.  My reply was to
> inform them that they should not make statements that they could not
> substantiate. And so I was not amazed by Chomsky's findings. However, on
>
> the same day I read that portion of his book, the snail mail brought my
> monthly copy of The Costco Connection. Each month therein is a debatable
>
> question. This month's is "Should public schools require students to
> wear uniforms?" Eighty per cent of the respondents said, "Yes." Talk
> about forced conforming.

--
        "What did Barrow's lectures contain?  Bourbaki writes with some
scorn that in his book in a hundred pages of the text there are about 180
drawings.  (Concerning Bourbaki's books it can be said that in a thousand
pages there is not one drawing, and it is not at all clear which is
worse.)"
                                        V. I. Arnol'd in
                                Huygens & Barrow, Newton & Hooke