quote:First, teachers are not in the service industry, they are in education.
I think teachers can be said to be in the service industry. However, doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. can also be said to be in the service industry. Their (and my) job consists of serving the public and their clients.
Professional dress depends on what the profession is and what the circumstances are. I almost always wear jeans to work and I'm a senior engineer. Nobody has ever said one word about it. I do wear nicer clothes to meetings and will occasionally even wear a tie. If I'm meeting a client in the field at a job site, I will go back to my trusty jeans. I will likely be trudging through woods, handling dirt and generally doing physical work beyond sitting at a desk - the same as Cor apparently does.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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quote:I've never seen a university where professors had a dress code. Most of my professors wore jeans and a shirt with a collar, though a few wore ties and one or two wore jackets. So that's where I get my impression of what the definition of "professional attire" for teachers: nothing excessively revealing, nothing dirty or clearly damaged, nothing with inappropriate messages or with advertising, and no T-shirts. I look at the pinnacle of professionalism in my profession: professors and that pretty much defines what the dress code ought to be for me.
And then there was the professor at the med school where I used to work. She wore provocative and unnecessarily revealing clothes on many occasions. For example, one time she wore a suit jacket that closed only across the bust, with nothing underneath.
I thought that was very unprofessional. Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I never said I would accept a bad teacher simply because she was dressed well or that being well dressed was my only criteria of what fits a good teacher. And any of you who know me at all know better than that, so quit trying to make it look as if I'm a snob who only cares how teachers dress.
Of course I want a good teacher for my kids - in fact I will go so far as to say I won't accept anything less. If I think a teacher isn't do a good job I'm going to speak up about it, and if she's the best dressed teacher in the world that won't matter.
I do, however, respect professionalism. I respect it enough to dress somewhat professionally myself when meeting with professionals. And I do not accept the premise that a teacher can't be an effective teacher unless she dresses in jeans and sneakers.
Sorry, that's an excuse. It's an excuse to wear whatever you want to and not be held to standards.
My kids have excellent teachers. They also have dress codes that requires them to dress professionally, and at that school jeans and sneakers isn't considered professional.
That doesn't mean teachers should look like investment bankers. My oldest's middle school math and science teacher wears outlandish ties - he's a sports nut and wears ties with sports team logos on them and sometimes wears ones with cartoon characters on them. A tie with the tasmanian devil on it isn't the proper attire for most professionals, but it is for middle school teachers. The kids love him, and respond to him. Even my daughter who said before the year started that she hated math and science and yet now loves his classes.
He's able to have rapport with the kids, and relate to them and still maintain a standard of dress that in my mind, is appropriate for a teacher.
My daughter's first grade teacher never wears jeans and sneakers and yet she is the most hands-on, get on the floor, get messy, get involved teacher I've ever known. I adore her and feel lucky my daughter has her as a teacher.
It is possible, as the teachers at my kids' school prove, to be a good teacher in something other than jeans and sneakers. And, I happen to think it's a good idea for professionals to both act and dress like professionals.
And I agree with zgator - you are in the service industry. So are firefighters, for example. And talk about standards - my husband wears a white button down shirt, and if you think you can't keep a button down shirt neat and clean on your job - try doing it when your job consists of you working around things like spurting blood and fires.
You provide a very needed, very important service to the children and parents of the community. It's a very honored and important profession. It should demand a certain level of respect - and in my opinion, dressing like a professional helps indicate to others that you deserve that respect.
Obviously you disagree with me, and so do most of the other people here. That's cool. Like I said before - you can fight it and accept the consequences, or you can go along. You decide which is the smarter move.
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Belle, in my opinion, a polo type shirt is more comfortable and gives a better range of motion than a button-down shirt. I thinks its bad that your husband has to wear one on the job. I really, really want firefighters to be as comfortable as possible. Please tell me he doesn't have to wear a tie.
It's somewhat like the Orlando police that wear black uniforms. I feel bad for the poor officers who have to direct traffic on a broiling August day wearing black.
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quote:It's somewhat like the Orlando police that wear black uniforms. I feel bad for the poor officers who have to direct traffic on a broiling August day wearing black.
They can't wear shorts? In Miami Beach, police officers have a "shorts" version of their uniform.
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posted
Belle, I never said you would accept or reject a good teacher based on dress. I simply asked you a question with very specific criteria involved. In fact, you still haven't answered that specific question.
I also never said that a teacher can't be effective unless he/she wears sneakers and jeans.
I said that I cannot be my most effective unless I'm wearing sneakers and jeans.
I'm glad your daughter's teacher is comfortable in that attire. I bet she goes through a lot more of it, though, and spends a lot more money on replacing damaged items or on drycleaning.
Yes, I'm in a form of the service industry. That, however, does not make it right for me to be kept waiting around 45 minutes for irresponsible/disorganized parents to show up to a scheduled meeting.
As for your husband's attire in his job, I think it is ridiculous. There is no way a firefighter doing the kinds of jobs he must do should be required to wear what he wears. If he's comfortable in it, great. If not, it may be time for the "professional dress" standards in his profession to change. And they do change.
Let's look at a few, shall we? Take nurses, for example. The original uniform was what? Stark white dress, stockings, and white heels? That has certainly changed somewhat. I see nurses wearing white pants and tops, pale colored shirts and tops, white sneakers...And what about those who specifically work with children? Bright colors are the order of the day with animal prints and rainbows.
And then let's take teachers. Originally, women had to wear dresses. There was nothing else allowed. Pants would have been considered inappropriate and unprofessional. But times changed. They are still changing. As students move farther and farther from the "sit at your desk and listen to the lecture and take notes" to the "hands on, activity-heavy" students they are now, the dress for teachers has changed to accommodate that move. This is simply the next step in the "professional attire" that many have taken.
And lastly, I'm quite happy with the respect I have been given by my students, my students' parents, my co-workers, and all my administrators save one. I was elected grade level leader this year. I am the Language Arts department head. I was judged on performance, alone.
Posts: 676 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I totally understand Cor's position because I know what it's like to feel more comfortable in a particular type of clothes in a work setting. For me that's on the more formal end of the range for my profession; for Cor that's on the more informal end of the range for her profession.
In other words, it seems to me that as long as the clothes worn are within the accepted range in the profession -- as decided by the norms of the profession [rather than the opinions of one manager] -- then the effects that the clothes have on the person performing the job should take precedent over anything else.
It does make a difference in the energy level that you are able to bring to the job.
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