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wingspan • february 25, 2011
With millennials pushing the boundaries, some are left to question whether this generation is...
Some wonder if current fashion has exceeded the bounds of decency ssistant principal Kent Parent is walking down the hall of Z-building during a class change when he notices a female student wearing a tank top. He approaches the girl and asks her if she has a jacket to wear over the tank top. School rules clearly state that tank tops are not acceptable under the dress code. The girl pulls out her jacket and waits for Parent to walk away. When he is out of sight, she puts the jacket back in her backpack and forgets it ever happened. “I think the high school fashions have become a little more revealing and more tight fitting. I enforce the dress code by making on-the-spot corrections, allowing the student to find other clothing to cover up with or change into,” Parent said. In the early 1900s, it was considered improper for women to wear dresses that didn’t touch the floor while men wore suits and ties in public. This was the normal everyday attire. Now, long dresses and suits are considered “special occasion” clothes. The evolution of fashion has increasingly become more form fitting and revealing. “I went to high school in the early ’90s, not the pinnacle of fashion at all,” science teacher Amy Zalevskiy said. “We were coming off of the fabulous ’80s, which is where you put everything on. It didn’t really matter what it was, just put it all on.” Low cut shirts are a current trend. Pants with rips and tears in them are also typical teenage attire. A similar trend for young men is to have their pants sag to reveal their boxer shorts. Some students’ clothes meet the dress code when they stand, but when they sit down, they
become more revealing. Suggestive clothing can lead to a negative image or bad reputation. “You should know your clothes are inappropriate when you have to bring a jacket to school to cover some body parts that get shown when you sit down,” Zalevskiy said. Some students push the boundaries by wearing appropriate clothes when their parents are around and changing when they get to school. The school dress code is moderately strict. It states “school attire should be in good taste and properly cover the body.” This means no tank tops and no shorts or skirts that don’t reach the fingertips. “The dress code is • strict enough. I think Dress Code it’s very adequate • no head coverbecause what we ings do is address • • no derogatory/ those individuals that are drug or alcohol in violation,” related writing Parent said. on clothing • Critics • no spaghetti say that teens straps/tank tops have tested • and stretched • covered midriff the boundar• skirt/short ies so much that length below they can wear fingertips practically what• ever they want. • no bare feet Others say that the dress code is limiting students’ individuality. “Teenagers test the boundaries in what they wear, depending on what the boundary is at that time. Today’s teens have gone too far in what they wear,” Zalevskiy said.
Kelli Bishop
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Spanking still a common punishment for children
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Patrick Martin Feature Writer
o you’re distracting other students, too?” the teacher said to Miranda. “Can you follow me?” “It won’t be too long. Her punishments go by quickly,” someone whispered. What does that mean? Miranda wondered. When the teacher closed the door, Miranda knew what was going to happen. Hanging on the door was a weapon anyone could recognize, a large wooden paddle riddled with cracks from years of use. “You could have paid attention, Miranda. Don’t worry; you’ll learn better when we’re done.” This story is fictional but the punishment is real. More than 1,000 students are affected by corporal punishment every school day across the United States. In the 2007-08 school year, more than 200,000 children in 20 states were paddled by school officials. That number has significantly decreased over the decades as some states have banned corporal punishment, labeling it a form of child abuse. Some parents and schools have turned to punishments that do not involve spanking and slapping. They say that punishment is more about teaching what is correct behavior and less about forcing out bad behavior. According to www.kidshealth.org, children one to two years old are more curious than their older counterparts, so having fewer things exposed to them should punish them. Teenagers, on the other hand, should learn from their mistakes to be better prepared
if they encounter the same problem again. “There is a difference in guidance and discipline. Guidance is more positive; you use it to guide children in the right direction. Discipline is when they know the right thing to do but do differently, and we take those steps to correct that behavior,” parenting teacher Jennifer Taylor said. A survey conducted from 1971 to 1991 by two researchers, Rex Forehand and Britton McKinney, showed that parents have started using physical punishment more and more. In 1971, 84 percent of surveyed parents said they had used corporal punishment. By 1991, almost 100 percent of the surveyed parents said they had used corporal punishment at least once. The major reason corporal punishment is still used in today’s society is because of a lack of understanding, Taylor said. “Most parents do what their parents did to them. Physical abuse gets into young children because of the lack of understanding of the parent,” she said. Fortunately, legal abuse is steadily decreasing as people learn more about the after effects of corporal punishment. Physical punishment by parents and schools is still legal in the United States and Australia, the only developed countries yet to ban it. About 20 states still allow corporal punishment in schools, including North Carolina. Henderson County permits it, but there are few or no reports of it. Even if a student in Henderson County were to receive corporal punishment, there are strict guidelines for administering it.
Feature Writer
nglish teacher Cliff Searcy is walking down Z-hall and hears a student say a profane four-letter word. He walks over to the student and pulls him aside and tells him he needs to watch what he says. It’s not appropriate for school. “I hear students in the hall drop the f-bomb or say something that’s even sort of acceptable on television. I’ll walk up to them, trying not to embarrass them and say, ‘You need to clean your mouth up. That’s not appropriate or polite.’ And that’s where I try to come from with it,” Searcy said. Adolescents use slang every day as if it’s nothing to them. Parents know that if they had said anything near what some teenagers say today, their own parents would have punished them. “Language is fascinating, and on top of that, what keeps it fascinating is that everybody puts their mark on it. I have no problem with students using slang,” Searcy said. “If students will realize there is standard written and spoken English, and then you Generation Slang can use other strategies to create emphasis, then you’re using the Matching Quiz language and you’re not allowing the slang to use you. That’s where 1950s A. groovy it’s bad. Where you get trapped into little expressions and phras1960s B. ’rents es and you can’t transcend beyond that to use formal language. 1970s It will show up in the writing you C. hipster do for college or the writing you might do for a job.” 1980s D. wicked Slang has moments when it is appropriate and other mo1990s E. hauss ments when it’s not. When interviewing for a future job or speak2000s F. get jiggy ing formally, it is important to remember to watch what you say. Today G. dig it Some students have a difficult time making this adjustment. “When you’re writing and speaking, with the exception of using something to make a point, you use proper English. I’ll stand in front of my class and say, ‘Ain’t no way.’ Well, I know that ‘ain’t’ is not a word and that it’s a double negative. I know it’s wrong, but it catches their attention so it’s effective communication,” Searcy said. “I call it coding. When I’m down at the garage around my buddies, my English is terrible because their English is terrible and I don’t want to seem like I’m putting on airs. When I walk in my classroom, there is an expectation that I will model good English in front of my students, and I do.” Cursing is becoming more common in public settings. Statistics show that from the time the average teenager wakes up until the time they go to sleep, 80 to 90 spoken words, 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent of the words they use, are curse words. “It’s obviously worse today,” Searcy said. “Swear words that were very unacceptable back then are used now. Now they have plenty of acceptable uses on TV shows. Most of the time I’m sitting here and I’m like, ‘Did he really just say that?’ There are very few words in the swearing area that you can’t use on public TV. Part of me says, ‘Words are just words.’ There are a lot of euphemisms that people use like ‘darn’ or ‘heck’ that have the same meaning. On the other hand, I think there’s a politeness to it. It still bugs me when I sit down in a restaurant and hear somebody behind me who is just left and right swearing.” 50s-C, 60s-A, 70s-G 80s-D, 90s-F, 2000s-B, Today-E
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Katie Miller Feature Writer
Adults complain about teenagers’ ‘vulgar’ language
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