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.

I thought the father was called to collect her? Was she put in isolation?

Goth, Punk, Heavy metal. All originated in the UK. You're welcome. 🤘🏻

Why did she need to change the dress?

I can see how schools end up in papers with bad press reading, given how you’d respond.

She wasn’t. She waited in Reception for
her father to collect her.

Are you absolutely sure there was nothing more to it than a dress? Absolutely sure?

I was going to ask if the Welsh flag would be allowed and clearly not. 🙄 What's wrong with farmers? My mum's mum's side of the family came from farmers! And it's not like it's something unique to Britain.

It’s entirely possible that a 12-year-old wrote it.
Under the direction of her undereducated father.
It doesn’t sound like the ramblings of your typical teenage girl does it?
I feel really sorry for her. I had a prat of a father.

Anyone who is able to think critically knows that he is at best a grifter.

Do we know that anyone else was sent home from any source except the father?

If you could answer @TheCrenchinglyMcQuaffenBrothersat 11.00 that’d be great

I disagree, my dd would've written something similar without any guidance from an adult. What do you mean by implying her father is uneducated. My late dad didn't have a single qualification but was one of the most intelligent people I have ever know.

could you explain the nuance please?

I can imagine all these too short, tight had form slurs would only be applied in this case. Why is that?

There’s zero basis for the misinformation.

The rise of the far right is extremely nuanced. Most people prefer to be centre but the rise of the far left has pushed more people right. In any political movement there will be characters people group around. Why do so many feel Tommy Robinson speaks for them?

Of course we have a British culture. Go to Britified Gibraltar and you can quite starkly see this.

Britishness could be: Cups of tea and biscuits, WI, Anglican Church, Royal Family, Rolls Royce, quaint village with a cricket field, bad weather, stiff upper lip, wartime spirit. I could go on and on and on and on.

I think sometimes we can't see what is in front of us.

We have a culture day at our primary but the kids don't dress up. Is wearing a Union Jack dress a political statement?, 'you can't say you're British these days without being put in jail' as Stewart Lee once said. In which case her point has been proved.

Maybe they should ditch the dress up just have the children bring in items of their culture.

I agree, I detest ‘Happy Holidays’. I have loads of friends from different countries and religions who all wish me ‘Happy Christmas/Easter’, and likewise I wish them Eid Mubarak/Happy Diwali/Gung Hay Fat Choi. Some have been very touched I knew when Diwali was. Nobody is offended in real life by using proper names for any celebration, beyond ridiculous!

But what has that got to do with her wearing an entirely appropriate dress for a school event?

Should Courtney be permanently in isolation lest daddy's political views infect her classmates? And does being a Tommy Robinson supporter make you a member of a proscribed group?

If school knew that Courtney's dad was likely to take umbrage at their reaction then they were very silly to do anything other than be relieved her dress was actually a decent length.

Weirdly lots of us support freedom of speech - bit of a British thing allowing that. I wouldn't be signing my own child up to take the stage at any political event (I don't like children in politics - yes Greta, I am looking at you) but if others choose to do it then that's up to them.

I'm very much leaning towards voting Reform at the next GE... all the Parties are equally crap right now and I suspect they will be no better, but it will be so much fun watching 5 years of pearl clutching and wailing from the out-of-touch illiberal lefties.

Uneducated father.

He cannot therefore have an opinion....
And any opinion he does have is to be sneered at.

I’d love to know whether these people think a parent waving a Palestine flag and therefore supporting an actual terrorist organisation - Hamas should lead to their kids being isolated in school?

I’m brown Asian and sent in my kids wearing a Union Jack waistcoat and bow tie- that is their cultural dress since their parents and grandparents were born here! Seems like you can’t win!

Because they are gullible?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25862838

People should certainly be free to express different political opinions, but please choose leaders who aren't convicted con artists.

@CurlewKate I understood from the first report I saw that she spent the day in Reception by herself.
Apologies if wrong.😊

And also, how do we know he is “uneducated”? What does that even mean? I suspect that Pp is using it to describe someone who has an opinion very different to their own.

He has the fact that he is a Tommy Robinson supporter in his FB profile. And I have seen that Courtney has been asked to make her speech at a TR rally in several places on SM including on here. I have repeatedly asked for evidence, but none has been forthcoming, hence my constant “allegedlys” and similar caveats.

Apparently. According to one man with no evidence.