You WHAT?!

"We want uniforms." they said. Their agreement in the approach of the topic told me that this was something they had conspired on. "Where have I gone wrong????" I thought. In all my striving to create a different breed of Christian school - one that embraces individuality, creativity, and allows for development of clothing standards based on conviction - I never thought that this would come up. I thought they'd be grateful. Plus, they look good every day! I have only had to come down on my overweight 9 yr. old's skirts, and that was because the way she moves, we could all see the gigantic HANNAH MONTANA stamped on the inner lining where her butt was...
But they were ALL in agreement! (although my Kindergartener's idea for uniforms was that we should all wear Bob the Builder hardhats.) I've never seen such unanimity! I tried in vain to reason with them but despite my arguments for autonomy, they thought matching was a novel idea. "And besides," they said, "Amber and Amethyst matched until they were 10." I finally derailed them with the issue of color. We haven't picked school colors yet, so the debate shifted. The real fight was on. While the highschool girls rallied for dynamic duos like purple and black- NO Fuschia and Silver - NO!! Purple and Fuschia And Silver AND Black... my 4th grader drew "fashion designer" pictures of skirts in scented markers with every conceivable dotting, dashing, paisleying, and "floraling"; in every color "combination" imaginable (or at least utilized by Lisa Frank). "But what FONT should we use for a logo?" " What should our logo even be?" "Should we have some saying on there, like, a verse or something like that?" "We shouldn't have an anticolor in the theme, we should have 2 contrasting colors, one warm, and one cool, and just accessorize with black, white, silver, or brown if we want to!" "Here Mrs. M. This is my drawing of the skirt styles we should make"... Oddly, the boys didn't care, and dutifully submitted to science and history over "My Idea is Better Than Your Idea 101." "What is this, some kind of democracy?" I feebly quipped, no match for this cogent caucus. Then it hit me. For hours they have been rallying, debating, polling, presenting, voting for ideas, coming up against me, thinking independently.... this is just what I want!
...I'll even give in to uniforms *bleggh* for this. They petitioned for a goal of Uniforms by Next Semester. I gave in. I didn't want a sit-in, SO. I'm taking ideas. What should our school colors be? They can't be Red/White, Green/White, Royal blue/White, Light blue/Navy, Burgundy/Black because of surrounding schools. Right now I like Purple/Sage because it is a compromise of some of their suggestions, most of them think it might be ok (though not as good as THEIR idea) too. Is that too Pottery Barn?



To all you OTHER Christian schools out there:
The moral of the story is: When you give them room to grow (instead of attempting to control and put them into the "Baptist Box" you have imagined for them) they just might grow.