Jo jo bows.....

What's wrong with America!? Or Americans! It/they are always getting picked on.

I rather suspect that this anti Jo-bow clutching at pearls thing is class-based.

They're probably considered a bit common.

In my day, only the posh girls wore big ribbons!

I haven't seen them about here, but after reading this thread, I asked a friend at Church this morning if she was wearing a Jo-Jo bow. She didn't know what I was talking about, just said it was a bow on a hair clip as she was so fed up with her hair.

I had no idea what a jojo bow was until I read this thread. Now I know and I think they are awful but harmless if little girls want to wear them. BUT not at school - if schools have regulations regarding what the children should wear then parents should adhere to those regulations. As someone has already said if parents don't want to comply then they should put their child in another school.

Circa 1955!

Having just read the uniform rules for my GS's new school, I'm delighted it is soooooo rigid! He's going to school to be educated and rules are to be encouraged.
The bows are pretty as a weekend thing ......

The huge (and in my opinion horrible) bows reminded me of my 9th birthday many years ago. Just as my party was about to start I was sent next door to fetch our Polish neighbours' little boy. His mother insisted that she put my long hair into a typically Polish hairstyle - it took ages, culminating with a huge ribbon bow plonked on top of my head. By the time I got back home, the birthday guests had woofed all the chocolate biscuits much to my disappointment. (In the Fifties chocolate biscuits were a treat!). Ever since I've had an aversion to bows....

Schools needs parents to back them up when a policy has been agreed upon. School uniforms are intended to promote equality and a sense of belonging. It reduces friction created in classrooms and enables children, whatever their family circumstances to fit in. Once a school and governors have set out a policy and we agree to accept a place at a school its up to us to play by the rules.

Yes there are some pretty unpleasant things that also need addressing....so lets save the arguments for them....and work with teachers and support staff to address bullying, bigotry and all 'isms'.

Its also a good lesson for life....there will come a time in any child's life when they have to play by the rules....societies laws, a job or profession etc. Children learn so much from their home environments and if they are taught to pick and choose whatever rules they like....then we do them no favours.

Oh my gosh!! ??
Who could have known that the subject of bows would be so controversial ??

I think I'll leave the subject of pierced ears for another day ....?????

(Dives for cover again.....??‍???‍?)

Rules are fine, and learning to abide by them, but they have to have some point to them.

I'm with HildaW on this - as a former teacher & latterly a school governor.

I think they look awful, but the fashion/craze/fad will pass.

I recall at least 3 other girls' hair fashions which brought about "guidance for parents" from schools;
a) multiple scrunchies being worn (late 90's?)- even by girls with short hair! (I think that may just have been at one school only!).
b) the all-day wearing of a small triangular headscarf with knot tied at back of neck (early 00's?) which I think may have stemmed from a religious source.
c) the wearing of a fully elasticated headband (the sort you could pull out until it had a wavy edge)just above the eyebrows "hippy style" (60's - guilty as charged!).

i m sure the point is if all the girls in a class wore them at that size you d never see the board or the teacher, they are so huge and I don't think fashion statements should be brought into schools surely that's the whole point of uniform to look smart and alike with no signs of opulence or expense at £12.99 a bow surely that will be yet another pressure for parents by their children to buy silly expensive fashions

I am left wondering how students at uniformless sixth form colleges or universities learn anything at all!

I doubt whether girls that age would be wearing such tacky hair adornments though, Luckygirl!

I too am a school governor - our lovely school has a uniform, but pupils are only obliged to wear it when on a school outing - for safety reasons, so that they can easily be identified. Otherwise, on an ordinary school day, they wear it or not as they choose.

It does not seem to have stood in the way of their academic progress or the social cohesion of the school - or at least OfSted certainly did not seem to think so, to go by their judgement of the school!

I was in school taking some photos the other day, and captured a lovely group of smiling girls with their hair bows - they looked wonderful.

"Tacky" - now there is a value judgement if ever I heard one!So maybe this aversion to the bows is about class?!

Rubbish! Just because I think they're 'tacky' is nothing to do with 'class' - they just look like Minnie Mouse bows to me and not even that cute!

Fine out of school (we all wore some strange choices) but why insist that schools should allow them?

And the link in the OP did indicate that this was a primary-school or early teen craze - not sixth-formers.

They harm no-one. They are not "tacky." They are just the latest fashion. They do not involve indecency or danger or any other good reason not to wear them to school. They are just bows. Just bows!

The point about sixth formers is not that they are likely to wear them, but that their education is not impaired by what they do choose to wear; any more than a primary schoolchild's choice of fashion impairs theirs. Therefore banning them in school has no point whatsoever.

I disagree, for all the reasons given by others above - the cost, the rivalry, the petty niggling schoolgirls of that age are prone to. But that's just my opinion.

pen50 said: "I always thought the point of strict dress codes in school was to channel the pupils' revolutionary efforts into ways to thwart the clothing regulations, thus avoiding a re-run of If..."

I agree. School fuss about unimportant stuff is a distraction ruse to keep kids toeing the line where it actually matters.

Exactly....if you come down hard on the small things, hopefully the bigger problems won't happen!

I suppose the point of school uniforms, apart from identifying with your school, is that it is a 'leveller'. As Ana points out, the rivalry and the nastiness that can occur if a child is not wearing the 'right' clothes, the 'right' trainers can amount to bullying.

Clothes should be of insignificant importance to a school pupil.

I am not a big fan of strict school uniforms though I know many parents find them helpful.
If the bows breach a school uniform colour ie multicoloured when uniform is e.g. navy I see why a school may ask for them not to be worn. Banning them completely seems a bit OTT if they are in a school colour.

Some schools use uniform rules in the same way as the uniformed services do: to get control, discipline and unquestioning responses from their personnel. I can see that is absolutely necessary when working in life/death situations.
Schools are not like that and I feel discipline should focus more on developing personal responsibility and rules kept to a minimum to ensure safety for all and a good environment for learning. If a hairbow is not endangering anyone, upsetting another pupil or interfering with learning I don't see a major problem!