At a private school pupils have helped design their own casual uniforms.
PUPILS at Theodor Herzl High in Port Elizabeth started the new millennium with an injection of freshness — Debbie Casalin came to school in stylish dark denims and a navy blue T-shirt, Valyn Kaplan preferred the navy shorts with the skirt overlay and white shirt.
It’s not a traditional school uniform and it’s not civvies. It’s somewhere in between. The pupils say their new multiform is comfortable and gives them a sense of freedom and individuality. This innovation is not a flash in the pan at Theodor Herzl, but an organic response to the school’s mission to educate its pupils in a mature environment.
Headmaster Neville Rudman said they try to legislate as little as possible, preferring to engage the pupils in decision-making. For example, the multiform is a healthy mix of regulation items and individual tastes.
Take the jeans option. Rudman said they have not compiled a list of criteria, but simply raised awareness among pupils about levels of appropriateness. To his mind, fashionably torn jeans or low hipsters are not appropriate, but he prefers to deal with this on a one-to-one basis rather than introduce absurd ratios which measure the distance between the waistline and the hipline. Pupils must be discerning and consider what is appropriate. ”I have only spoken to two or three pupils so far about their choice.”
Rudman joined the school at the beginning of last year and said the idea of a new approach to uniforms was already in the air. ”My initial reaction was of horror, as I had been raised in a traditional environment.” He said parents also expressed reservations about the proposed alterations. The school managed the change by including parents and pupils in the decision-making process.
Local designer Michelle Dodds created a range of outfits. Then came a fashion show in July last year, followed by a questionnaire, where pupils and parents were given the opportunity to respond and suggest changes. All the old school uniforms have been collected and will be distributed by the school’s Interact Club, which focuses on social issues.
The sense of responsibility and freedom that underlies the multiform is also manifest in other areas. Rudman said they have had a system where matric pupils from their third term onwards are given a taste of campus life by allowing them to come in civvies and also to choose what classes they want to attend with a minimum guideline of 80% of classes. ”We give them the opportunity to make choices and accept responsibility for them, ” says Rudman.
— Eastern Cape News Agency, February 3, 2000.