Perspectives

The school uniform, the ‘ideal’ pupil’s appearance, with its associated ‘ideal’ behaviour, is clearly an important symbol. Unsurprisingly, at the end of compulsory schooling, the desecration of these symbols by pupils is a prominent part of their celebrations, part of the rites of passage that mark transition into adulthood. Such desecration also seems to be recognized as a legitimate activity by teachers, but only at what they see as the proper point in time of the passage – at the end of the week. The beginning of the week was still ‘school’, requiring business as usual, governed by school rules. These competing definitions of the situation between teachers and pupils were at the root of the problem.