I want to go...

... barefoot in school (ignore the age on my profile), but unfortunately I'm very worried about what might be said by staff. Also, school is very dirty. I'm from the UK, but are there any first hand experiences, stories and tips from you guys? I'd basically like to know what people thought, what happened, what your feet ended up like etc maybe to encourage me.

 

Why ignore your age? Does it not reflect the truth that you are of school age? My take is that schools in the UK are more relaxed than those in the US and that you might have an easier time of it. Although---uniforms are big over there, right? Maybe this isn't such a good idea.

 

Is there some kind of strategy I can use whereby I start of with shoes and kinda gradually have them less and less.

 

But aren´t school about to end for summer?
I don´t think you have to make up that big statement.
Tell people you prefer going barefoot, you find it fun and it´s healthy for your feet. Maybe someone follow your example.
You could start by going barefoot at home in the neighborhood, so you build up self confidence and people get used to seeing you barefoot.
You could start being barefoot at PE, then the step to being barefoot at the rest of school would not be as big.
You could start in those spring days, when it´s cold at the morning but get hot at daytime. Begin to take of your shoes and go barefoot in school for some days. At last you just go barefoot to school as well. At that point I don´t think people would get that surprised.

 

you could try this morbid idea just as an alibi for your first time barefoot at school:

- find a pair of old crappy useless shoes with somewhat high, fragile heels (or some other worn out piece of footwear);
- saw in the middle one heel, or damage it otherwise ;
- when at school, break the heel on purpose, and throw your shoes away in simulated disappointment;
- observe the reaction coming from the estabilishment (teachers) and your peers to your abrupt , backed-up barefooting and find out ... :reddevil:hehe

if you think this is a sick advice you are probably right...

 

I have so many thing I want to ask about it... Like there is a huge mud puddle which I have to go past once a day, it goes about ankle deep and it always seems to be wet mud, so what would I do? And if I started coming to school barefoot, what about lessons like chemistry? I'll tell you my timetable:

Monday: Maths, Chemistry, Business Studies, PSHE, Art
Tuesday: IT, Physics, Biology, Maths, Business Studies
Wednesday: Double Art, English, Physics, Biology
Thursday: Chemistry, English, Business Studies, RE, IT
Friday: PE, Biology, English, Chemistry, Maths

What about rain? What about dirt? There's so much I want to ask.

 

Dude if there's a wet mud puddle and u enjoy barefooting in mud and stuff, go for it. If you dont like to be seen, try going at night or something

 

if I am just strolling on the river, in the woods etc i love to enjoy the mud. then I take a wash in the river. If I am in town better turn around the puddles. if it's raining I prefer to wear something like flops in town, just not to appear a total nutcase. if i am bycicling i never wear shoes. It's not that i need shoes, but in order to promote barefooting as an acceptable thing i think it is better to avoid appearing an odd man out in front of the shoddy. It's sort of a political choiche, though. On the seaside i go barefoot even if it is raining. BTW nothing cleans your soles better than rough asphalt and heavy rain.
but there are no rules. do whatever makes you feel comfortable and not awfully misplaced. all that I said is just a personal point of view. you could also discover that barefooting isnt the right thing for you because of the reactions and the looks... communities do differ. I've faced the widest range of reactions, from sympathy to menaces. i cant tell for school barefooting because at my times i wasnt in these things . but once i heard of a girl who used to go in class barefoot. i never met her, however.

 

Ok, today I wore socks to school, and they were black so nobody noticed. I didn't wear any shoes, but I kept a pair of flip flops in my bag. I then went to all my lessons with just the socks and got on fine like that, then at lunch time I managed to take the socks off and wander barefoot around a couple of corridors before ending up putting the flip flops on; again nobody noticed. Then, in PSHE and Art I kicked them off and spent the whole of those two lessons barefoot, although I did wear flip flops between lessons. Perhaps this was my first step? Oh and I kicked them off briefly on the bus too, so my feet are slightly dirty. Where should I go from here?

 

Sounds like you are off to a great start, keep on barefooting, it will get easier with time.

Just remember: Just say "NO" to shoes and socks!

 

You have to accept the fact that the feet get dirty when going barefoot. It´s natural. I understand you don´t want to make muddy foot steps in the school, but just couldn´t you just find another way around the mud puddle?
Or you can walk trough some grass, that will most often wipe the dirt off.
I don´t think you have to worry that much. Just go for it barefoot, and deal with problems when they appear.
In what extent do you go barefoot in other places than the school?

Don´t you experience the first heat wave in the UK for the year?
It´s getting uncomfortable to wear shoes. It´s a good argument to go barefoot. And when it´s getting little colder, you just tell you are so used to going barefoot, you don´t want to go back to shoes again.

 

Just avoid the puddle, or go barefoot only inside the school, not outside, if you're worried about tracking dirt.

 

I put a few pics of today's adventure on my gallery.

 

Hmmm I dont see any pictures.

 

Hmm... Well they were there.

 

This is me walking to school...



This is me in my outdoors lesson...



This is me in on my visit to a local factory in business studies...



Me in a tiled school corridor...


I was wearing a skirt, with nothing on my feet, flip flops in bag just in case. Thoughts? I thnk I have manly ugly feet.

 

Not ugly at all! Thanks for posting, and congrats on your barefoot adventures!

 

flip flops. Easy to slip on and off...carry them in your hand for a while so if somebody says something, you can slip them on while they're looking, and take them back off when they're gone.

 

Welcome to the club - its good to hear from someone else in the UK !


I think the most important advice is to know your limits - you can't go from wearing shoes to full time barefoot overnight - physically or emotionally.

Even in the UK the ground gets hot - a couple of weeks ago I was shopping in Brighton (barefoot of course). The town centre was perfect as some areas were in the sun and some in shade. When I walked down to the seafront it was full sun and bloody hot ! I got a couple of blisters because it was too early in the season for that.

I've never had any 'hastle' in the UK for being barefoot (well, only my wife...) and we don't have NSNSNS signs so there are no imaginary laws to contend with. However, in a controlled environment like school, you are 'someones responsibility' and liable to their rules. If I remember right, teachers have a fantastic ability to make you feel stupid in front of the whole class and schools don't like kids who are 'different'. What I am trying to say is you need to grow a thick skin !

I'm probably going to upset some other board members now, but I also don't think it is necessary or desirable to be a full time barefooter - it is possible to try too hard and appear a total freak ! I really enjoy being barefoot and look forward to new places that I can go to enjoy myself and I am ALWAYS barefoot at home and in the garden. But, if was barefoot full-time I wouldn't have this 'hobby' to look forward to. All I ask is people to undersand that sometimes I wear shoes and sometimes I don't - it's a clothing decision like wearing a hat or gloves.

Lastly, your bare feet will always be prettier than any shoes, so don't worry what they look like. Just think - I'm a guy so I have actual guy feet (my gallery has some shots like yours). There is little that I can do to pretty them up !

Good luck !

 

I want to go barefoot in school too!

I did in like the classes (only the cool teachers let me) but i didn't in the halls cus our hall monitors are fucking bitchs!