School "Culture Day' - why didn't school see this coming?

[mids2019]

https://www.joe.co.uk/news/school-issues-statement-after-sending-girl-home-for-wearing-union-jack-dress-496690?fbclid=IwY2xjawLkEB9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHmXD4szLMfsqNubbE12kCn_Noe5jb2VGlNFVU0_IUIevHxzByCQ-5GXFN8F8_aem_P-q7I_yFCq82TY-Qr8mGdw

A local school state d a huge debate by sending a girl home on school culture day for wearing a union Jack dress. The question is why the school should have naively held an event which actually least a to more division than unity?

My daughter (white British) attended a similar event, for which she paid a pound, and dressed in jeans and t shirt. I asked how she had decided upon the attire and she stated 'well I don't have a culture'. I then had to explain that she did have a culture and even the jeans and t shirt were a product of fashion changes in western liberal society. We had a discussion about all the great products of white British culture, the music,science, results of the industrial revolution, shared experience in great wars, monarchy etc.

There is a white British culture but going into detail about this obviously brings into focus cultural divide and opens up divisive areas whether white British culture benefited from colonialism and past oppression.

Of course culture day probably was meant to highlight minority cultures and act to promote dress etc. from ethnic minorities as a welcoming inclusive gesture but by allowing all pupils to think about their culture we have to define 'white British' culture and by defining 'white British' culture schools have inadvertently started a discussion they didn't intend.

It’s not in NI, it’s in Warwickshire.

I agree that England and the UK have a huge and exciting culture, but your post is a wildly bizarre reduction of Indian culture! We don't need to put down another culture to celebrate our own, and by celebrating the intricacies of our own, we can recognise the depth of others too. Indian culture isn't defined by the few opportunities we come into contact with it in Britain.

@ShyAzureCat
I thought the incident took place in Warwickshire, not Northern Ireland?

Not unless Warwickshire has moved….

I completely agree with you OP. My school does this and I agree its really difficult. I wear a tshirt from my local town but it can make some people feel really awkward, why encourage these children to wear their traditional dress when maybe they don't want to? Maybe, as you say, they just want to wear jeans and a tshirt! Thats part of their culture too (as they go to school here!).

So you’re judging the dress the girl wore to school and her speech because her father likes TR on social media? Is that really the link you need?

Not great decision making there. On your question I have no desire to whip up anything against a 12 year old girl who did what the invitation from the school explicitly asked for. She doesn’t deserve your judgement.

Best suggestion yet!

I beg to differ. I've a teen myself and the group of girls/boys she hangs around with are quite vocal about alot of political things, including feminism, inclusion and culture. Sometimes they sound like they are in their 30s, not 13. They challenge each others believes and educate themselves far more than I ever did at that age to be honest. This particular generation seem to be way more advanced, in some ways and not in others.
So I don't know about her not having written it herself to be honest.

Including it, as this school did not, is not focusing on it

It is not a reduction, I knew someone would say this so there is a sentence there saying so.

agoodfriendofthethree · Today 07:53
I'd love to know why the school also sent home the kid who had come dressed as a farmer. What on earth were they thinking?!

I would also like to know why the farmer’s outfit wasn’t permitted.

Exactly. In Spain, people would wear the Spanish flag and probably flamenco dress

whats the problem with the Union Jack? It’s literally our flag

As if!

I’m not judging the child. I am judging her parents for involving their child in a politically motivated stunt. And I am also judging all the wide eyed innocents on this thread!

Yes but then they could say horse racing promotes animal cruelty.

as someone who became a teenager in the Cool Britainnia/ Brit pop era I think a spice girls dress is a great representation of uk culture. I used to work at an office that had meeting rooms based on different cultures and counties and the UK room was mods and rockers themed which I can’t remember. I can remember that dress though! It was an iconic moment

I did wonder what the school would do in that eventuality. Would they try to suggest that she’s wrong to see herself as British? 🤦‍♀️

Apparently the school also turned away a boy with a Welsh flag (wtaf?), a boy with a St. George flag (currently one is flying from local cathedral - it's some saint's day), and a boy dressed as a farmer in cords, check shirt and peak cap. What were they thinking?

Presumably they thought that ethnic minorities would wear a traditional costume (a bit patronising in itself) and bring in food, artifacts for the cultureless white children to look at.
The idea that e.g. Britain has no culture is insidious and dangerous and has been around at least since the 80s - well do I remember a conversation with the teacher in charge of 'festivals' asking why he wasn't touching on Easter - it wasn't his remit.

I do not subscribe to the idea (heard from a left-leaning liberal I was having dinner with a while back) that all the ills of the world are down to colonialism and European culture (that doesn't exist 😡). I suspect that a great many ills are down to cultures across the world that denigrate women, do not allow women to work outside the home, won't educate women, think slash and burn agriculture is the way to go, and allow rampant unchecked capitalism to cut down rainforest/exploit work forces etc. Most of that has b-all to do with colonialism (and existed before colonialism knocked on the door) - and colonialism never covers the actions of e.g. the Chinese empire over millenia or the Persian/Ottoman empire either.
The school opened a debate it didn't want to have. Maybe they should at least have the debate in the staff room?

I admit when I saw headline and clicked yesterday I thought it was going to be usual sad face story and an inappropriate skimpy outfit.
But the dress isn’t revealing, not too tight, it’s knee length. She had trainers on and a plastic bowler hat.
The school advert was your attire must reflect your nationality or family heritage.
What did the school expect the children who are British Nationality to wear? I’d have anticipated lots in football shirts, red/white/blue, something with Union Jack on. There were lots of Union Jack dresses in shops like Next and Asda for coronation street parties so some kids might dig one of those out.
School have massively misjudged by sending her to isolation/home.

I haven't read the article in detail, but if a school has white British children attend who have been here for a few generations, then what do they expect those children to rock up in? Unless there are issues of right-wing propaganda within the student body.

I'm Jewish but I dress like a regular white British person (which I am, third generation). Maybe I would have worn a star of David to show my Jewish identity, but that would have been it. Normally I go around in jeans, t-shirts and trainers.What am I gonna do otherwise, dress up as a bagel or a chasid?

You are wrong. There is a huge back story to Britain and tea, The East India Tea Company, and the ships we sailed, the journeys made. The Boston Tea party, for goodness sake.

This smacks of the school not having the first clue about diversity and culture but jumping on a bandwagon of weird orientalism where we unthinkingly celebrate 'exotic' cultures to embrace their 'difference', which is actually just another form of racism. Very daft. What did they expect their majority white British pupils to do?

Well, if you're not sure, Google is your friend - go and find out.

As it stands, all you are doing is throwing mud and hoping it sticks. I don't know about anyone else, but your posts are certainly leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

You can’t evidence your claims in any way.

Why spread misinformation? The idea TR was involved is your take with nothing to back it up.

Well people in every country eat and walk so I’m not sure that’s the best comparison. Not every country are tea drinkers. I struggle to get a cup of tea in Spain and often the homes we stayed in would have a fancy coffee machine but no kettle or tea bags. Other places (like Turkey) usually serve their tea black and having milk is not the norm. A cup of tea with milk feels very British to me.

I’m finding an increasing number of posts on Mumsnet come from this faux “I can’t BELIEVE (but fundamentally the point of my post is that I agree with) this conservative, right of centre (insert point here)”

Its like rage bait is being auto-pumped into Mumsnet.

I imagine a Farage minion behind every single one of these types of posts.

If you are indeed genuine OP then I apologise but there’s a theme here and it’s part of a bigger pattern that is very un-Mumsnetty.