Mom suspects staff might just be a bunch of perverts.
It’s getting chilly in Japan, and so common sense says that wearing warmer clothing is the way to go. Of course, if your school requires you to wear a uniform, you’re kind of stuck as to what the primary components of your outfit are going to be, but Japanese mother and Twitter user @hanacoppy figured she could at least protect her daughter (of undisclosed age) from the cold slightly better by letting her wear a pair of tights underneath her uniform’s skirt when she went to school.
The school, however, didn’t agree with this unauthorized addition.
“My daughter said he legs were cold, so I let her wear a pair of tights under her skirt. But when she got to school, they told her ‘Tights aren’t allowed, because if your legs are warm, you won’t be able to concentrate.’
Can’t help but think they’re the kind of perverts who get off on seeing young girls’ bare legs.”
One of the ostensible reasons for schools requiring uniforms is that they’re supposed to help students concentrate. Without having to spare mental energy deciding what to wear or comparing their clothes to those of their classmates, the hope is that their young minds will be able to focus entirely on the vital educational content their teachers and textbooks are presenting.
However, @hanacoppy argues that the school’s policy on tights is completely backward in terms of helping kids learn. “In my entire life, I can’t recall ever being able to concentrate while I was thinking ‘My legs sure are cold,’” the frustrated mom said. “Haven’t the administrators ever heard of zukan sokunetsu?” she went on, referring to commonly held Japanese belief that translates literally as “cold head, warm legs” and holds that it’s the healthiest combination to keep your body in.
Other Twitter users were quick to poke a few more holes in the school’s logic:
“Okay, so then the boys should have to wear skirts too, right? And of course the teachers need to concentrate while they’re teaching, so they should all have to wear skirts also.”
“And naturally everyone who works in the school’s administrative office wears shorts to work, right?”
“I’m not imagining a private company where all the salarymen punch in wearing hot pants, and I can’t stop laughing.”
“I guess when your kid catches a cold, you can send her doctor’s bill to the school, plus an invoice for your lost wages from when you took a day off to take care of her. Oh, and they should also give you a written promise that any days your daughter misses won’t be counted against her perfect attendance record.”
That last comment is definitely meant to be tongue in cheek, but the difficulty in rectifying those problems after the fact definitely brings to mind the phrase “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” However, in Japanese there’s also a saying, “Baka ni tsukere kusuri ha nai”, “There’s no medicine that cures stupidity,” and that seems to be the case at the institute of learning @hanacoppy’s daughter attends.
Source: Twitter/@hanacoppy via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
Follow Casey on Twitter, where he remembers one of his teachers when he was a kid telling him the classroom’s uncomfortable chairs would help him study, and also thinking the idea sounded stupid.