Have a "Fashion-Free Summer"

Anyone who has encountered the dubious experience of walking behind a teenage boy in a shopping mall can be forgiven for succumbing to the temptation to support dress code requirements in public places. A view of “Joe Boxer” peeking over belted jeans that angle somewhat south of where most people expect it to be is enough to cause one to advocate for the return of knickers. I am reminded of this cultural oddity as La Salle students sit for their final exams, flushed with anticipation for the start of summer vacation. The malls will be flooded with teenagers in varying stages of sartorial disarray. Boys’ hair will grow longer, girls’ shorts will shrink and a variety of “message” t-shirts will proclaim an array of nihilist (or pointless) messages. And, there will be a flood of belts-below-the-butt as far as the eye can see.


These are the moments when I celebrate the existence of La Salle’s uniform requirement - the virtue of which can be measured on any given Friday when “Spirit Day” or “Dollar Dress Day” produces student clothing more aligned with mall-hopping attire than the khaki pants and LS polo shirt usually seen Monday - Thursday (I’ve learned to invite visitors to the campus on any day but Friday).

Those who advocate for the Friday exception argue that teenagers need to be able to express themselves - and sociologists would agree. I recognize that I am a bit of a “Luddite” when it comes to my view of how teenagers should comport themselves in public spaces. I also suspect that the best I can hope for in this regard is that the adult world - which they will enter in just a handful of years - will impose upon them a conformity to standards of dress that is only a pipe dream in high school. So, I recognize that “Casual Fridays” at La Salle will always be a foundation for the inevitable testing of boundaries that is the sacred mission of every teenager. Yet, I wonder, shouldn’t that be enough? Shouldn’t the promise of a casual Friday be sufficient for our students to accept the more restricted dress code of Monday-Thursday? Every parent reading this should be rolling their eyes at my naiveté. I know it’s a rhetorical question! The point is this: why do we engage in this test of wills from Monday - Thursday? Surely there are more important battles (keeping every grade above a “C” is a good example).

This grim rumination at the end of a school year has been prompted by an article I recently read entitled:

Dealing With Today’s Social Norms

When a Catholic school teacher says to a student “tuck in that shirt,” it means more than actually tucking in the shirt

The author celebrates a by-gone era when lay teachers, sisters, brothers or priests would tell a teenager: “Tuck in that shirt” and compliance would be instantaneous. No more; social norms have changed and our teenagers are exposed to a barrage of electronic images which disparage conformity and celebrate transgression. The author argues that the traditional elements of Catholic education - traditions, foundations and values - have served the Church well during the last three decades of cultural chaos. Anyone who has encountered the Catholic Church would recognize that ritual, routine and principles are the central operative elements of its schools. That was true fifty years ago and it is just as true today.

For me, this is the “edge” that schools like La Salle have over the other fine private educational options available to the students entrusted to our care. We hold in trust a tradition of Catholic and Lasallian education that has served the Pasadena area for over 50 years. The ritual, traditions and values of a Catholic and Lasallian education inform our college preparatory mission by asking this rhetorical question: prepared for what? If it is only college, then the existence of La Salle High School is unnecessary. If the answer is a life well lived and well worth living, then, perhaps, something as simple as a tucked-in shirt has larger cultural consequences that escape the notice of most 15 year-olds. Sociologists and psychologists, for example, have found 'external appearance' to be one of the prime factors that decides how a child is perceived and accepted by a peer group. At La Salle, we expect our students to demonstrate care and concern for others, especially their peers. This is challenging enough in the world of today’s adolescents, without having to also manage the status-conscious aspect of teenage fashion statements. At La Salle, the uniform serves the same function as our rituals (daily prayer/monthly mass) and traditions (Lancer Cheer/singing the alma mater while waving one’s hand with the number of fingers representing one’s year in school): to reinforce for our students a sense of community that aspires to reflect the values of the Catholic Church.

A Taco shop just opened in Sierra Madre. By 3pm, it is filled with students sporting La Salle logo wear. As I drive by, I can better appreciate the notion that “sometimes the instruction to tuck in that shirt” is more than actually tucking in the shirt. Have a blessed – and fashion free – summer!