I'm going to be very direct about this—getting my children dressed for school in the morning has become a nightmare, and I would like the American educational establishment to do something about it. The problem is particularly acute with my daughters, who are 7 and 5 and have developed rather strong opinions about what constitutes acceptable school attire. I don't object to the opinions themselves.
To be honest, I'd be terribly disappointed to discover I'd raised two bland little creatures without any aesthetic convictions. Unfortunately, though, their convictions bear almost no resemblance to my own—so you can imagine how much of an issue this whole getting dressed thing is. At the moment, both girls are devoted to oversized sweaters and baggy pants, a fashion I despise and don't understand.
Apparently, this is what passes for cool in elementary school, and so every morning begins with negotiations between what I consider appropriate for school and what their classmates have collectively decided is fashionable. New York weather swings 20 degrees in half a day while school buildings appear to operate according to their own mysterious meteorological systems. The sensible solution would be to wear a shirt and bring a sweater along, except that carrying said sweater to school is apparently a social offense and something my kids cannot be bothered with.
So I must either scream and insist they wear one or smuggle it into their backpacks and hope they won't take it out before the car starts moving. Jackets, apparently, are an even greater affront to their dignity, at least until they step outside and discover that their mother was, once again, right. In case you were wondering, they won't ever admit that lest they'd be forced to take a coat the next day so they usually just look at me, walk back indoors and then come out with a jacket on.
And, we haven't even discussed hair or shoes, which are deserving of their own essays, or the fact that my younger sons, who couldn't ordinarily distinguish between a sweatshirt and a potato sack, have noticed that their sisters are exercising constitutional rights and demand the same privileges. Meanwhile, lunches need packing, teeth need brushing, homework needs locating and I may have a conference call beginning in seven minutes. Yes, that's a random leap, but I promise there's a method to my mental madness.
I hesitate to borrow educational wisdom from a country whose students have lately been making headlines for rather less admirable activities, but on this particular matter, the Italians understood something fundamental about childhood. Throughout my elementary school years in Milan, we wore grembiuli, literally "aprons," although the word hardly does justice to these magnificent instruments of domestic peace. The boys wore black smock-like jackets, leaving them only the relatively uncomplicated decision of which pants to wear.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
