In schools with pools, students were sometimes required to swim naked, and teachers would conduct inspections for cleanliness that schools today would not dare allow, whether because of greater respect for children or greater fear of lawsuits. The antipathy to taking showers after gym class puzzles some teachers and coaches. I just don't get it. When I started in '74, nobody even thought about things like this. The whole thing is just hard for me to accept.
Some people believe that children today simply grow up accustomed to more privacy.
Years ago, when bigger families lived in smaller houses with fewer bathrooms and bedrooms, it was the rare child who could maintain a sense of modesty. But in the meantime, Millstein was deluged with calls and letters of support from people who remembered their own feelings of shame and embarrassment in the public showers. People remembered their own humiliation. I myself remember moving from my little country school to the city school, and being mortified about having to take showers, But in those days, you did what the schools said, you did what the teachers said. Mandatory showers and teachers on shower patrol are virtually a thing of the past now, and rinsing off after gym is the student's option.