Ashley Espinoza

COMM 1270

3/25/18

Feeling Safe at School

Values can reflect a person’s end goal. Milton Rokeach classified these as terminal and

instrumental values. Terminal Values are goals that we work toward. They are central to

an individual’s value system. These values include social recognition, inner harmony

and a sense of accomplishment. You must be careful when using these types of values

in an argument. They can often take over an argument and downsize the importance.

Values can come from a variety of places like the environment you are raised in or your

religious affiliation. People usually make a terminal out of an instrumental value. For

example, you must be a good person to find the love you desire. There also are

sometimes when instrumental values, like hard work and faith, could become terminal

values. Instrumental values are ones that help you to get or achieve a goal. These could

include broad-mindedness, independence or responsibility. Although, it is important to

distinguish them when you are building and analyzing arguments.

One value that I find important is freedom, specifically freedom of expression. This term

has been used frequently due to recent national tragedies. I will be using this term to

discuss the amount of creativity many middle and high school allow students to have. I

have gone through many of these struggles when I was in high school last year. My

decision maker will be those with administrative power in these schools. Although
schools are institutions of higher learning, they are also where children learn about how

to be themselves and voice their opinions in a social setting. This can be the first step to

how they express themselves to the rest of the world. Schools are starting to create an

environment where children fearful to express who they really are and how they feel

with others. Many argue that this lack of expression could be because of the dress

code, educational curriculum or their inability to let students try things and possibly fail.

The dress code in schools is nothing new. It is just a list of regulations that students

must follow as they dress for school. It is quite obvious things, like not wearing a crop

top and shorts to class, but it is somewhat prejudice against those with different body

types. As someone who graduated high school in the last year, I have vivid memories to

being singled out due to the dress code. There was one particular morning when I was

walking into school and heard it. The noise I dreaded hearing every so often. I turn

around and face the sound of the hall monitor calling me to come to her. She gave me a

scolding look as she looked up and down at my attire. That is when she looked down

and notices what every other hall monitor notices. She told me to pull up my shirt, as if

it’s my intention to show my minimal amount of cleavage to everyone. As a more full

figured person, I got this kind of warning occasionally. As she was giving me a long

lecture about the dress code, I noticed a group of girls. Each one had a different dress

code violation. One had a skirt short enough to possibly see under it and the other one

had a dress with a deep open back. Instead of stopping them, the hall monitor

complimented them on their outfits. I had been putting up with this since I was a

sophomore. This sort of conduct is not only biased, it is creates an environment that
makes students feel uncomfortable. These rules don’t only apply to what you are

wearing; it also includes how you choose to style your hair. According to the Jordan

School District dress standards, “all students shall maintain their hair, mustaches,

sideburns, and beards in a clean, well-groomed manner. Hair, which is so conspicuous,

extreme, odd in color or style that it draws undue attention, disrupts, or tends to disrupt

or interfere with the learning atmosphere at the school, shall not be allowed." This

seems reasonable until it is put into practice. Kayla Lattimore shared a story on NPR

about a school in Boston that reprimanded black students their choice hairstyle. When

Mya and Deanna, juniors at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, refused to take out

their hair extension, they were kicked out of all their extra-curricular activities. According

to their mother, Colleen Cook, administrators would routinely target black students,

telling them that they should chemically straighten their hair. In the end, there must be a

line that is drawn between wearing inappropriate clothing and recognizing that certain

aspect, like cultural attire and body shape, make students unique.

The function of school has changed since it was first introduced. An article in Forbes

magazine describes how in the beginning, schools were originally designed to support

industrialization. Students were destined to work in factories, which only required

education on how to work the equipment. As time progressed, there was more of an

emphasis to become something with social merit, like a doctor or lawyer. To achieve

this type of result, they told students to follow a specific set of instructions. This didn’t

allow them to have any creative ability. In our current state, things have not changed.

Sir Ken Robinson, a New York Times best-selling author of "The Element", TED
speaker, education and creativity expert, gave a TedTalk discussing how educators

need to reform the educational model. He also argues how the world of education is

changing and that, “creativity now is as important in education as literacy and should,

therefore, be treated with the same status.” Not allowing students to express

themselves creatively. Kyung Hee Kim, a Professor of creativity & innovation at The

College of William & Mary, performed a research study on children over two or three

decades. In his research he stated that the children had become, “less emotionally

expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less

imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to

connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from

a different angle.” To summarize, changing our educational curriculum will allow

students to become more expressive.

Many may argue that these educational techniques are used to prepare students for the

real world, but that is not true. The world is an unpredictable place where there is not a

simple right answer. Failure is the best way to improve oneself but we are lacking our

opportunity to do so. In Psychology Today, they discuss how children are taught one

way to do something and that everything else is wrong. Without this willingness to take

risks, there will never be any change. What if they way schools are teaching them was

wrong all along? The same article also discusses the lack of communication when a

child is failing. For example, a child could take a math test and receive a 65%. There is

little to no interaction with the teacher to see what they did wrong and are left to

conclude that they are inadequate. Finally, there needs to be a level of allowance to fail
at a task but also a level of communication with the educator to see how they can

improve. That is how the world actually works.

To finish, you may be wondering why a sophomore in college has such an interest in a

lower level education. I have already served my time in these institutions, but I am

worried for my sister, who will be starting high school next year. She is someone that I

have known to have such a creative mind. She has a deep passion for art and music

and I am scared that high school will turn her into someone that is somewhat of a

conformist. With the implementation of updated educational curriculums, more inclusive

dress code policies and acceptance of failure, we will create an environment where

children can grow and feel like their voices are heard.
 Works Cited

“As Children's Freedom Has Declined, So Has Their Creativity.” Psychology Today, Sussex
Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201209/children-s-freedom-has-
declined-so-has-their-creativity.
Author Communications. “Tag: Dress Standards.” Policy Manual, Policy Manual Jordan School
District, 14 May 1974, policy.jordandistrict.org/sub/dress-standards/.
Batten Institute University of Virginia Darden School of Business. “How America's Education Model
Kills Creativity and Entrepreneurship.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 Mar. 2015,
www.forbes.com/sites/darden/2015/03/19/how-americas-education-model-kills-creativity-and-
entrepreneurship-2/#1452a7283e49.
Dalile, Line. “How Schools Are Killing Creativity.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 10
Apr. 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/line-dalile/a-dictator-racing-to-nowh_b_1409138.html.
Gabora, Liane. “What Creativity Really Is - and Why Schools Need It.” The Conversation, 26 Mar.
2018, theconversation.com/what-creativity-really-is-and-why-schools-need-it-81889.
Lattimore, Kayla. “When Black Hair Violates The Dress Code.” NPR, NPR, 17 July 2017,
www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/07/17/534448313/when-black-hair-violates-the-dress-code.
Robinson, Ken. “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading,
www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en#t-178052.