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.

That speech wasn't written by anyone. It's AI via dad.

A union jack dress is hardly 'traditional British clothes'! But I agree that she should have been allowed to wear it. The school were wrong to send her home.

Wtf? This is messed up. Would love to know if school has a rule when you become 'British' and are no longer part of 'foreign culture'?

They should just stop culture days. These ridiculous things are the reason why Reform is taking over.

Everyone still ignoring the alleged Tommy Robinson connection, I see.

Perhaps she should have gone as a viking or roman if you can go back into your cultural heritage as far as you like

Perhaps she is french hugenot or romany

I think that sounds really othering for the people who are presumed to have a different culture.

The school definitely got this wrong. There’s nothing inappropriate about the dress that she wore, and others saying she couldn’t have written that speech herself are underestimating how talented some young people are (or that ChatGPT might have helped…).

We should be promoting British values in our schools, teaching both the good and the bad things that have emerged from our history.

You didnt answer what relevance it is for her wearing the national flag to a culture day at school.

To be fair that would be because connection or not, this is not ok from the school

It would raise eyebrows to turn up in that dress here in Perthshire. In parts of the Central Belt, she would’ve been sent home. There is a reason no football colours are allowed in the vast majority of Scottish schools.

But, our pupils dress up in a ‘touch of tartan’ in November and January for St Andrew’s Day and Burns’ Night. Scottish culture and language are certainly celebrated in Scottish schools. Primary schools teach Scottish Country Dancing in PE and there is the annual Burns/Scottish poetry recitals.

A union jack dress isn't traditional British costume, but it doesn't matter if a school kid just picked a spice girl outfit and wore that. Music is part of culture and it was easy to put together. It's not offensive.

It came up on my Facebook as I am local. The original letter suggested football shirts for the English 😂

Is Perthshire not in Britain?

Exactly. My DS wore his kilt to school.on culture day alongside his Scotland rugby top & boots - exactly what he would wear to a rugby match. He's worn it to Scout/ Explorer events loads too (in fact, a friend's DS has a kilt as their scout uniform).

It didnt have to be a traditional costume, its was something that represents their culture or nationality (according to a previous post).

That can be anything you choose it to be.

Many Millenials and Gen Z have a dim view of the Union flag. They associate it with colonialism and racism. I guess somewhere along the line they have been taught to think this way. I think that’s rather sad, but there we are. Do Belgian, Spanish, French and Dutch kids look on their flags with similar disdain I wonder?

When we had days like this at school, my Korean friends would wear hanbok (I think? Please correct me if I'm wrong). They wouldn't wear them when walking down the street in Seoul, not at home, only on special occasions. Should they have come in the jeans and t-shirts they wear when they go to Korea? Or should my Indian friends have worn the jeans and t-shirt they wear when they go to India?

Making a special effort to find a pearly queen outfit, or a Morris dancing outfit (and there is quite a youthful troupe of dancers in my area) is not so hugely different. People in British culture /do/ actually wear these clothes.

Edit to add: you could also celebrate British choral tradition, where the singers wear unique clothing. This is an exceptionally rich part of our culture (whether you actively engage with it or not) and is celebrated and emulated around the world.

Also othering for children who for various reasons don't know much about their extended family.

Presumably you have some children who can wax lyrical about great grandpa coming over from Turkey, Boris Johnson style, and other children who just don't come from families where that kind of knowledge is accessible.

Seems much more sensible (and relevant) to allow children to define culture more broadly and more personally.

I dont know about Dutch or Belgian but they certainly dont in Spain or Italy. In Spain there is a recognition of what colonisation did for the nation and celebration of explorers (aka plunderers and pirates as we would name ours).

Everything comes with pros and cons.

Can I just say that my DC's secondary school have done Culture Day for years, 30+ different cultures including British, English, Welsh, Scottish, N. Irish (on both sides) are included equally with everyone else.

The school in Bilton have apologised. They got it wrong.

The answer to that seems straightforward and you have to be trying quite hard to miss it. Non-white British are likely to have in their somewhat recent past a non-British heritage, which they were encouraged to celebrate in their dress. Some white British will have too. But there will be students who have no such non-British heritage in their known family story, and those will basically all be white. They were the group who were sent home from school, when they tried to follow the brief and dressed in the only national cultural signifiers they can lay claim to.

Football is a big part of British culture. We have one of the best leagues in the world. A football shirt should be allowed in my opinion. As I’ve said I would be interested to know what others wore, culture isn’t restricted to religious dress for example.

Why shouldn’t she wear the dress? Please explain.

I was prepared to see a really short inappropriate dress or something but it's fine, the school are ridiculous. What was she meant to do, culturally appropriate another country's national dress?

I was responding to people on the thread who were saying union jack isn't traditional costume. I was saying that doesn't matter