Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1901-09-26
SHIRT WAIST TROUBLE.
A Popular Fad Gets Into the Public
Schools

The shirt-waist question has b0bbed
up in the schOolrOOm.
AS a burning issue it IS now taking
! precedence over the wriggling CT the
book publishers about repositories.
The State Superintendent Of Educa-
ton has had a letter from mother
who has a son in graded school in a
town III Piedmont North Carolina.
The letter has in it the following
question: us it permissible in public
school presumably for the education Of
| the masses, for a principal to make IN
arbitrary rule On the subject OF dress?'
| If a boy is sent 10 school, clad in clean,
| whole garments, with clean hands and
! face has the principal any authority to
| send him home for his coat when the
! temperature is such that every man IN
/ town is working in his shirt sleeves"
The letter continues With the state
ment that the lad in the case has gone
| to school in Baltimore. New York and
Brooklyn without being sent home for
| a coat. but that in the North Carolina
| town in question such arb trary and
tyranical rules are to be found.
! Describing the clothing Of her son,
| the lady continues, Il dress him in
! fresh shirt-waists daily, without su-
| spenders, with neat trousers, belt,
shoes and stockings. | submit that the
| child is properly clad and that even if
he had on rags public school has no
right to refuse the by a chance for an
education on account Of the lack Of a
coat"
Because OF the annoyance caused the
lady. she has Withdrawn her son from
the school until State superintendent
Toon shall have decided whether or
not he can be admitted without a coat.
In her letter she says that such action
as this does not encourage New
Yorker to settle in your State to be
obliged to pass the censorship of a man
who may know how to teach, but not
necessarily the final Tsar on the sub
ject Of dress or fashion"
1t seems that the lad, who is in the
seventh grade, is the only one without
a coat, and that a rule exists for sew
entb grade boys to wear coats, though
the lady says that last year the same
trouble was had in the sixth grade. His
mother says that she considers his con-
dition much better than that of boys,
who, while suffering from heat, pull
their coats down over their shoulders,
expose their suspenders, and present
anything bat neat appearance.
She commends the school, but insists
that the parents have the right to dress
their children as they see fit, and that
such acts seem fit for monarchy and
not a free country.
In closing her letter the mother says
that all the younger children of the
school are bare-legged, coatless and
decorated with suspenders. She asks
for a decision from the State Superin-
tendent as to the extent of the author
ity of a schoolmaster over his pupils
dress.
Gen. Toon will taday answer the let
ter. He has not stated definitely what
his reply will be, but if his conversa-
ton on the matter is an indication Of
his decision he will say that the parent
is the guardian of the child's dress, and
that so long as a child is in decent ap-
parel he is entitled to public school
privileges, coat or no coat, with sus-
penders or without Suspenders.