Appearances Are Destructive

Summary

    Mark Mathbane urged that dress codes could not only protect students from school violence but also promote their learning- as shown in his sisters’ example. Considering the better educational environment than South Africa’s, he enrolled his sisters at the public school in America. However, his sisters became mocks at school because of their clothes, which contributed to their desire to transfer to another school.

    Mathbane thought that there was nothing wrong with his sisters, so he decided to visit other public schools to prove that what his sisters encountered was common phenomena. In schools, students cared not about their minds but about their bodies; for example, students were more familiar with names like Calvin Klein and Gucci than Zora Neale Hurston and Shakespeare. Teachers felt frustrated when teaching students who paid too much attention to their appearances and disrupted those students who were willing to learn. For those parents who were not wealthy enough to buy luxuries, they felt upset because they could not satisfy their children with expansive clothes, which made cruel and uncaring impression on their children. As for students, asked why they pay so much attention to appearances, they just answered that “it’s cool thing to do,” and that they felt respected and honorable. Girls attracted boys not by intelligence but by dressing mini dress and garish looks. Mathbane saw the argument by civil libertarians against dress codes as misleading, for dress codes were everywhere in our everyday lives without harming freedoms, which demonstrated by flight attendants, employees of fast-food chains, military personnel and so on.

    Performing dress codes could provide students with proper learning environment. Because of the neatness and discipline brought by dress codes, students could attach more importance to learning instead of appearances. Mathbane also argued that Americans should focus on creating safe and effective schools rather than limitation brought by dress codes.

Response

    No matter dress codes exist or not, there are students who focus on their appearances instead of minds. If you pass through classrooms at high schools, you will find students who wear uniform and look in the mirror all the time. Even dress codes are strict, students are eager to make themselves more attractive than their peers by all means.

    Education is one way that can guide students to pay more attention to their minds. Teachers tell students why intelligence is more important than appearances and what students should focus on at their childhood and puberty. Most importantly, teachers should let students know that one’s value lies not in appearance but in mind. An attractive and gorgeous girl may be popular with boys when she is young, but when becoming old, she will find that only wisdom and virtue remain. Besides, some students who are born to affluent families cannot understand that buying clothes sometimes cost much money. Only when they become parents who have to work and support families will they know appearances are destructive when they have to spend most money on necessities and real estate.

    It is difficult for young students to know that appearances are not everything. There is nothing wrong with pursing fashion, but we should realize that fashion and appearances are changeable and the above two things cannot be our loyal friends; fashion and appearances betray us when we are poor and old.