Letter from a supporter (edited):

Hi there:

... I've been a teacher at [another local school] since [ -]. Before that, I was a student at [a school] where students were required to wear coats and ties everyday. I have almost recovered...

I have followed with great interest the ongoing controversy at Atherton... since last year. To me, the very fact that the school's administration has failed to harness the obvious energy and creativity of the student-body in general, and specifically the talents of those of you who have stepped up to speak against the dress-code, is a terrible shame. More, it's practically a crime of incompetence. When a school ignores the true potential of some of its best minds, it says a lot about the priorities the school sees: not education, mutual respect, or personal growth; but instead, fear of individuality, obliteration of choice and personal expression, and domination of one generation over another. What a legacy for the Class of 2000 to recall as they look back years from now !

It makes me so damn mad when teachers and school officials operate from the ASSUMPTION of MISTRUST of students. Adults who think this way about young people are a disgrace to education and should not be entrusted with the heavy responsibility of helping kids ready themselves for the wider world.

These adults fear, misunderstand and unconsciously resent youth. Their response to your potential power and independent thinking is to exercise every possible form of control they can imagine. Even before the school day begins, a dress code overtly seeks to control the child. It says: We will tell you what you may wear; we will dress you so as to satisfy our own sense of authority over you. And before you enter these doors of knowledge, we will have you tractable and uniform in behavior. Do and think as you are told !

This approach to creating an educational environment is precisely the opposite from what their real job is - to prepare you to choose wisely, to act independently, and to think for yourself. There is no justification, academic or otherwise, for this abuse of authority.

Sadly, most kids (and parents) cooperate, capitulate, or tolerate these insults, because there is a price to be paid for disobedience. Thoreau felt that those who did not speak against injustice were not meeting their duty as citizens, as true patriots. But of course, he was a crazy misfit, right? A learned man is always a threat to the authorities. An independent thinker is the most dangerous sort of radical.

You who stand against unjustified, essentially inhumane policies are Atherton's finest students and bravest parents. You are learning in spite of those who would have you submit. In some round-about way, your minds are being stretched by all this bru-ha-ha over buttons and collars, colors and fabrics...but -- and here's the rub -- unfortunately, you are also learning to mistrust the very system that is supposed to nurture your development.

... I had to UNLEARN racism, homophobia, sexism, elitism and more. I have tried my best; I have made it my career never to (mis)lead students down such destructive paths of intolerance and prejudice. No student deserves an education which also carries with it a negative association with real curiosity, open exchange of ideas, and individual worth.

I visited Atherton the other night with my 8th grader... one disappointing aspect was quite telling: they distributed a copy of the Aerial to us, but it was an issue dated October 1998. And you know why. So did the administration, but they HOPED the potential new student and parent would not notice.

Think about that. How cowardly and blatant a deception. They are still ashamed of YOU and your WORK, instead of seeing themselves for what they have become... control freaks.

I urge you to remain true to your own futures, even if your "superiors" are not. Be rebels. Fight the power. And remember that a bright light is the best disinfectant.

Respectfully, [signed, but name omitted here for privacy]

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