Barefoot In School At All?

Started to think today, the school year is starting back up. I happened to be outside when the school bus came by this afternoon, and the two kids across the street got off the bus, dropped their backpacks in front of their house, and immediately yanked off their shoes and socks and started playing in their yard barefoot.

Back when I was in grade school, I don't think we had hardly any opportunity to go barefoot while in school, I can think of maybe 2 or 3 times, between kindergarten and 8th grade, where we were permitted to remove our shoes and socks in school. High school was little different, the only difference was we had to change out of our school uniforms into gym uniforms for gym class, and we were supposed to change our socks for gym. But most of us actually didn't. Not like that was actually "going barefoot" anyway, it was at best just changing your socks. Now I know some of my friends and other people maybe had more opportunity to be barefoot in school. Even if they weren't allowed to go barefoot daily, they maybe had at least various activities or other stuff where going barefoot was allowed.

So I'm curious - do kids these days have much chance to go barefoot in school? Being that kids spend so much of their childhood in school, it seems like an environment where going barefoot should be at least a little bit tolerated. What's been your experience?

 

When I was in middle school and high school, when we were doing gymnastics or trampoline in gym class, most of the girls didn't wear shoes. Also, years that I had gym class in the afternoon, most of the teachers I had in later classes didn't care if we didn't wear shoes for the rest of the day, in warm weather. Again, only the girls chose to do it. After school activities like marching band and cheer leading and flag practice in warm weather, bare feet were common.

Don't know what the rules are today.

 

Personally, I don't think the school ground would be the most ideal or hygienic place to let your brats off barefoot.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure if its a standard rule to have to wear shoes at the public school here in southern cali. I'll look into it when I walk to pick up my lil bro ina bit. When I think back I ALWAYS wore shoes because I skated for 26 hours a day. And I went through shoes like cops go through donuts. Than when I moved into the ashram around age 20 or so I never wore shoes. Just sandals. and even then they would only be worn for the 25' distance between the ashram and the main temple room. And then no shoes in temple. Also shoes or boots were only worn if u totally needed to because we were taught our feet are considered to be unclean, and our shoes are very dirty, so always reaching down to tie and untie would mean we have dirty hands and then touching literature or other things could risk making an offense. SO much easier to just kick off your chanklas right quick. OK I'll shut up.

 

-but I don't think it should really matter shoes boots or none in school. Another thing is I know in one culture its offensive to wear your shoes in your teachers class room.

 

We're not talking about eating food off the floor, just walking on it.

 

There's a simple commercial circling our TV stations at the moment. It's a foot cream. Because showers at public swimming pools contain harsh bacteria. That's with everyone dripping of chlorine too, I do not believe the school auditoriums, rest rooms, lunch rooms, canteens or change room are going to be any more hygienic.

And what about glass and sharp objects? There's a reason shoes are mandatory and it's not to poke fun and belittle the people that don't believe in them. There's general concern about safety of children. One kid slices their foot and the school may just be looking at a court date. It's not worth it at all in the eyes of the school. People need to realize this before putting their personal agendas forth, that's it's not criticizing or throwing your beliefs to way side, it's all about the security and no school wants a detrimental effect rippling down to the court house.

Same as supermarkets that don't allow barefeet. It's a safety concern and everything I said a top applies to this situation. Not only safety, but it's a genuine hygiene concern too. You shouldn't be bringing in your dirty unwashed feet into a place where people but their fresh produce for their own family. And no kid at school deserves to be infected with dirty feet bacteria just because you think your daughter shouldn't wear shoes.

The American TV portrays schools to never have a uniform but I wore uniforms all my school life up until university. School uniforms exist for reasons.

 

All these issues have been dealt with here before, in many different threads. You have all your facts confused. I'm not even going to attempt to straighten all this out. I don't know where to start.
:wall:

Read some threads in here before you lecture us on facts that aren't real.

 

Okay Karen,
There's no such thing as hygiene problems with bare feet if you say so.

 

Water is the big problem. Public showers are never dry.

 

I don't remember barely an inch of dry land when it rained at school muddy footprints everywhere, wet carpet and that painted concrete that gets slippery when wet. Leaking roofs, overflowing pipes... and this is sitting on the floors where the kids spit their gum, saliva, half eaten food. Poor old mums ham and cheese sandwich laying in a pile of yuck...

Well I wouldn't want my kids walking their barefoot I can tell you. Got into enough arguments me coming home with a few pebbles stuck between the treads in my shoes, Christ only knows the drama if I'd walk on the carpet after treading through a day at the school
Cesspool.

 

I guess I was fortunate that my school buildings were nothing like that.

 

Barefoot?? I used to wear assless chaps

 

Couldn't find an all nude school?

 

Nah I was going to school in LA, not San Francisco

 

I'm trying to think back to my school days to see what occasions I can remember being able to go barefoot... Not very many, to be honest...

Did a lesson on ancient Egypt (or Greece or something) where we had to dress in costume and got to go barefoot

Did a science project where we calculated a human's density by going into a full tank of water and calculating how much water spilled out. We had to wear clothes and not a swimsuit, but they did let us go barefoot.

Did some other science project where we were supposed to study something in the water in the pond behind the school, and the teacher said we could go barefoot to wade in the water if we wanted.

That's about it. Other than changing into gym socks for gym class, but that doesn't really count. So like three times between pre-school and college?

On the other hand, a friend of mine lived in New Zealand for a couple years. He may be exaggerating a bit, but he said he could pretty much go to school barefoot any time he wanted. He said a lot of kids did and it wasn't unusual or a big deal or anything. Must be nice...

 

It was certainly possible back in my days. While not a very common choice, I did know students who, during the warmer weeks on both sides of the summer vacation, did opt to take off their footwear for comfort, especially during recess. This was usually not punished, just as long as you behaved yourself. Only the more formal school events required you to wear something proper. In fact, during indoors gym class, there was a strict requirement to go barefoot in the gym, if you didn't have a pair of indoor shoes with you, because naturally, the school didn't want the expensive lacquering job on their gym floor to get ruined, and the floor was slippery anyway. Most students just opted to go barefoot, because they couldn't be bothered to pay for such a specialized shoe.

 

I actually got in trouble in grade school for running around barefoot. The principle told me to put shoes on or my feet would get covered in planter warts.

That actually did end up happening, years later, and I had to get them all burned off of my feet. It fucking hurt.

 

mmm, yeah they do...