Our school system has made progress and benefited children in so many ways over time. However, one problem that has stuck is racial and gender stereotyping that can greatly affect our learning.
I have seen and felt the impact of stereotyping in my own education system. I have heard stereotypes suggesting that Asian people are supposed to be automatically smart and that Black people are too dumb or loud. Not only do these stereotypes affect children in schools, but they also affect students in the outside world. It causes them to feel discouraged and incapable of doing things because society has set a standard for them that may not be obtainable.
Stereotyping can further have profound effects on students’ identity development and academic success. Social psychological research suggests that negative stereotypes about women and minorities can create subtle barriers to success that set them up for failure.
One of the most common ways the problem of racial and gender stereotyping plays out is in the way schools enforce dress codes for girls. One of my Black female friends got dress-coded for wearing a black top. This shirt was not cropped nor see through, and it fit all the acceptable dress code guidelines. The only known factor of why she got dress coded is because her body is more mature than the rest of the middle school girls.
Girls cannot change the way our bodies are and we should not be sexualized for it. And this is even more unacceptable because this sexualization occurs in school. Due to this, I see girls walking around in baggier clothes, in fear of the fact that they are getting looked at and disrespected by what they are wearing.
Schools preach how they should be a safe place for us to grow, learn, and mature. But how can they be if we can’t even wear reasonable clothes without feeling unsafe?
According to a study from the National Women’s Law Center, nationwide, 53 percent of public schools enforced a strict dress code during the 2015–16 school year. According to this study, the majority of the females who attend public school feel discriminated against due to the dress codes in our schools. Some may argue that we shouldn’t show our shoulders and knees because they are too distracting. But the adults who enforce these policies fail to realize that we can’t help if people get distracted by what we wear. This is unfair. Dress codes are used to sexualize things that shouldn’t even be dress coded in the first place.
They say we show our shoulders and knees because they are too distracting. But the adults who enforce these policies fail to realize that we can’t help if people get distracted by what we wear. This is unfair.
Students spend a large fraction of our lives at school, and racial and gender stereotyping can cause real harm. Students should feel safe and comfortable in our educational environment; however, school makes it hard for certain students to do so, and that’s a problem.
Schools should be a safe place for students to embrace who we are.
Amaria Hall is a part of the Kentucky Student Voice Team and Young Authors Greenhouse’s 2021 Education Justice Writing Cohort. She is an eighth grade student at Leestown Middle School in Lexington, Kentucky.
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