David Hoffman Has Some Fun With 1950s High School Dress Codes. Did They Work?

many teenagers are as concerned as their parents with the public's conception of today's youth this group is our ideal of the proper school attire and social behaviors of the hicksville junior high student you're watching an educational film 1957 teaching students what to wear in school i'm david hoffman filmmaker and i was raised in east meadow levittown and i was a sophomore in high school in 1957 and that film was made in hicksville long island the next town over so i thought it would be fun fascinating provocative to look at the dress codes at that time why do i find that so interesting in part because people at that time the leadership felt that if you control the dress if you control the look you could control us the teenagers the baby boomer teenagers well let's look at what happened first of all why did they the older people the parents the school leaders the church leaders think that they needed to control us well that's a question we're going to put aside for now but it really interests me and did it work did the dress codes work well first of all i thought we'd look at clothing look at what was going on at that time look at us baby boomers as teenagers 1957 girls were wearing crinolines they wore peter pan tops they wore penny loafers i couldn't afford penny loafers but i remember kids having panel overs and they took out the pennies and they put quarters because we had money back then they put quarters in their shoes girls had these pop-up bead necklaces let me just tell you the girl will come up to you and she'll go and just that sound and she was popping the necklace very exciting girls wore these thick belts that accentuated their waists and if you had a girlfriend she would wear your ring or she would be pinned and there were pins on the left side and pins on the right side one said virgin one said not i can't remember which was which maybe you can and lastly girls wore these tight tight sweaters that was permissible even in school as long as they weren't too tight they were unbelievably exciting at the time to teenage boys like me now what do boys wear boys wore their father's clothing is the same a suit jacket a shirt short hair now us teenagers were able to buy all that stuff because we had money all kinds of summer jobs allowances from our parents particularly the new middle class we had money and what were we buying records and clothes now music separated us from our parents and from the school but so did clothing clothing you could either be part of a group by wear the same clothes they wore a lot of girls did that or you could wear individual clothes your own individual style that kind of stated who you were kind of like having a car which was your car said who you were having clothing said who you were school didn't like that now let me just say before i go on i was no fashion statement i did not wear clothing to make a statement about myself in fact i used clothing to try to become anonymous i wore exactly what everybody else wore trying not to stand out and before i talk about how they restricted clothing i just want to say one more thing about girls clothing they were pedal pushers i mean they were so sexy you could only wear those on the weekend you could not wear pedal pushes to school so now i like to look at the school rules there were a lot of them okay hemline length you had to be below the knee now in catholic schools they really measured this when you came to school how do i know that because i had a catholic girlfriend and she would have these pins on her skirt where when she came out of school she pinned up her hemline above her knee and when she went to school she pinned her hemline below her knee hairstyles there was a proper hairstyle and there was a not proper hairstyle and length don't cut your hair too short it has to flow down if you're a girl cut your hair short if you're a guy nothing longer that wasn't even in our thinking no dungarees now dungarees were a big style at the time in part because marilyn monroe wore them and when marilyn wore duggars a lot of girls said wow i'm wearing dungarees dungarees no no in school and of course no leather jacket leather jacket meant troublemaker juvenile delinquent no leather jackets now what happened if you didn't follow these rules well first you got disciplined you got sent to the principal's office and you had to sit in the principal's office and say you weren't going to dress like that again two you kind of got publicly humiliated the school shamed you for wearing those clothes because other kids loved it and worst of all call your parents we're going to call your parents we're going to tell them what you want to school and here's what the school officials said about dress code why they did it this is what they said one it improved learning i guess kids didn't concentrate on each other as much was their thinking it enhanced safety for girls three let's focus on our looks as though teenagers are not going to focus on their looks if they're wearing these clothes boy was that not true and if you think about it like we thought about it the parents and the teachers were becoming disciplinarians they were going to be disciplinarians why did parents want the teachers to become disciplinarians mostly because the parents could not control us the parents put so many restrictions on kids that it just wasn't working so they said to the school you put restrictions on kids and i'm going to show you a bit of an educational film where the teacher is first of all a disciplinarian what's this what kind of behavior do you call this wait a minute you say where you are this is the kind of behavior i might have expected of you all i do is leave the room for a few minutes and what do i find confusion disorder and you what were you doing i was just going going to what throw the eraser i suppose it's a good thing i caught you i'll make an example out of you but that's enough out of you leave this room and report to the principal's office immediately two detentions three detentions boy is that not working not helping education not letting kids kind of express themselves and trying to use clothing as a disciplinary tool now the idea of clothing and style and discipline is not new in the 1920s corsets were a requirement for girls and hats for boys in the 1930s they allowed knee socks instead of stockings in the 1940s everybody had to wear a mary jane shoes and for boys it was jackets and sweaters in the 1950s girls had to have high necklines no showing anything here of course by the end of the 1960s this stress code thing was collapsing and i think a student took a case to the supreme court about wearing an armband armbands were making a statement against the vietnam war black armbands and the student won so for me looking at this is a lot of fun and i hope it is for you as well but there's a real message here because some of you my commentators my subscribers talk about how wonderful the 1950s was that we should go back to the 1950s and i just want to say it didn't work it never works the idea of trying to control students stress now i think it's going too far maybe my opinion i'm not sure about that but i know there's a good case to be made but the idea that you would control hairstyle hair length dress style really didn't adjust teenagers the girls and boys who did it said that they had less sex when they did these surveys they didn't later surveys showed in fact their behavior was the same but they tried to fit in and follow school rules where other kids the rebels didn't i wasn't a rebel in terms of clothing but i supported those who were i hope you've enjoyed this look at dress code i'm going to run this again and another film also at the end of this for those of you to see just what was hicksville high school in 1957 saying students should do and clearly students didn't many teenagers are as concerned as their parents with the public's conception of today's youth these students are portraying what we consider bad taste in school attire and behavior this student is wearing an ankle bracelet dungarees and dropped earrings this student is wearing an extremely tight skirt and tight sweater open shirt black jacket dungarees are mentioned in the code as not proper school attire this group is our ideal of the proper school attire and social behaviors of the hicksville junior high student the vast majority of behavior problems in the classroom involve minor breaches of discipline these incidents frequently originate in the classroom situation itself and are within the control of the teacher discipline air problems in the classroom are symptoms of underlying weaknesses in total learning situation mr grimes mathematics teacher is displeased with the progress of his ninth grade class in mathematics you see what low grade you made on your weekly mathematics test more than half of you failed most of those who passed just got by nobody had a hundred percent this is the poorest class i've had in a long long time most of you have no foundation at all now the troubles with your attitude you don't pay enough attention in class you don't do enough work outside of it you don't know what the word study means given the slightest idea don't you realize that mathematics is an important subject i tell you right now that unless you get over your lazy habits and come up to the standards i've set for this class many of you will have the pleasure of repeating this course next semester what is it [Applause] all right this one i have to leave for a few minutes now i want you to open your books and work out correct solutions of the problems you missed i can't make any sense out of this i might as well quit he never even took up this third problem it's a jib he's got me scared to death i'll just never pass this course i've been used to taking this stuff anyway i'm afraid to take my paper home he's just a sour person the trouble is you don't know what the word study means you haven't the slightest idea what's this what kind of behavior do you call this wait a minute you say where you are this is the kind of behavior i might have expected of you all i do is leave the room for a few minutes and what do i find confusion disorder and you what were you doing i was just going going to what throw the eraser i suppose the good thing i caught you i'll make an example out of you but that's enough out of you leave this room and report to the principal's office immediately well hurry up don't take all day who did that all right since you think it's so funny the whole class can stay in for 45 minutes this afternoon then you'll see how funny it is remember the whole class is to report back here at four o'clock where were we i can't come i got a newspaper out to do i got football practice he can go fly a kite i have a piano lesson i can't miss him i think he's horrible stop that whispering grimes do not have a happy time of the week who dropped that book all right i'll wait till you're quiet many of you failed to hand in your homework yesterday [Music] now you know that what is this stop that noise [Music] two detentions three detentions leave this room and don't come back until you're ready to apologize to me well this is going to get us nowhere maybe we'd better go back to see if we can't find some of the causes of this undesirable learning situation just what was mr grimes purpose in making such statements as these this is the poorest class i've had in a long long time this is hardly the way to win friends or influence people you don't know what the word study means getting the slightest idea might not be a bad idea to show them how i tell you right now that unless you get over your lazy habits and come up to the standards i have set for this class many of you will have the pleasure of repeating this course next semester what kind of motivation is this to what does it lead the trouble is you don't know what the word study means you haven't the slightest idea this reaction is the answer it was the result of mr grimes provocative remarks now take this it's a good thing i caught you i'll make an example out of you oh come now mr grimes by taking it out on the boy aren't you covering up a symptom of your own deficiency [Music] who did that yes who did some boy probably but the chances are it summarizes the feelings of the group there is an unwritten code covering such situations why try to buck it all right since you think it's so funny the whole class can stay in for 45 minutes this afternoon mass punishment is a dangerous weapon and doesn't work too well two detentions three detentions leave this room and don't come back until you're ready to apologize to me it's a long way to the end of the term when will this end thus what should have developed into a sequence of pleasant and valuable learning experiences had deteriorated into a series of disagreeable and injurious personal tensions this is all wrong need any of these incidents have occurred at all suppose mr grimes had tried another approach most of you are disappointed in the low grades you made on this test so am i nearly all of you had trouble with that last problem on ratio perhaps i didn't do a good job explaining ratio now ratio is commonly used in everyday life mother uses it in the kitchen when she takes a recipe for a big cake uses proportional amounts of ingredients to make a little cake vice versa but let's suppose a recipe called for eight cups of flour and four eggs i wanted to make cake half that size how much would i use you'd need four cups of flour and two eggs that's right you boys use it in the shop and you read a blueprint as you know blueprint's merely a scale drawing of something that's usually larger suppose i had a blueprint a bridge it's going to be 100 feet wide but on this drawing the bridge is only 10 inches wide now how many feet would each inch represent 10 feet that's right a lighting ratio let's see where we made our mistakes the problem was this what is the ratio between four and a half yards and one and a half feet now you looked hardly at four and a half and one and a half said the answer was three that's where you fell into a trap what you forgot was that before you can divide you have to reduce all units of measurement to the same unit now what's the unit here me that's right my guy i sure fell for that one first of all let's change four and a half yards into feet that gives us 13 and a half feet and now we can divide 13 and a half feet by one and a half feet right answer is nine well i see where i made my mistake i want you to look over your papers very carefully and see where you made your mistakes i'll come down the aisles and if there are any questions don't hesitate to ask me yes from dr williams all right thank you i have to leave for a few moments on page 15 of your books the first three problems are exactly like number one on the test suppose you do as many as you can until i get back i get the idea now i sure messed up my test paper i'm glad he's going over these questions i'd never make hair tail out of them otherwise you know i'm beginning to get some sense out of this i hope i do better next time i'd hate to bring another paper like this home the way he explains it it doesn't seem too hard oh come on cut it out i want to do these problems oh let's have some fun while mr grimes is out who wants to do these old problems anyway now you know where that border ratio belongs that's right put it there all grimes is a pretty good egg that's more like it now you're getting it let's see if you can do the next one classroom control and learning efficiency are products of good teaching learning must be made meaningful interest in work for which learners see a purpose provides its own discipline but in spite of interest and meaning it must be remembered that some incidents will occur skill in handling such occurrences prevent their growth into problems well that's a pretty good catch for a moment i thought you'd miss i'm sorry but i owed him the apple well i guess adele is expected to pay his debts i'd suggest though in the future you do your baseball practicing outside of class [Music] a friendly attitude with a sprinkling of humor goes a long way toward winning the regard and cooperation of the class for respect is a more desirable molder of behavior than fear the development of mutual understanding between teacher and pupils will help eliminate disciplinary problems you

Channel: David Hoffman

Views: 476,825

Keywords: David Hoffman filmmaker, David Hoffman, 1950s rules, 1950s dress codes, 1950s teenagers, 1960s teenagers, 1950s clothing styles, pedal pushers, dress codes, high school rules, 1950s high school, baby boomer stories, baby boomers, hair length, Catholic school, 1950s Long Island, 1950s school discipline, 1950s teachers, 1950s, school rebel, teenage rebel, 1950s sexy, 1950s girls, 60s dating, dating, 60s relationships, relationships, MAGA

Id: o5SkgErV8II

Length: 22min 41sec (1361 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 12 2020