Oh Tamworth, Tamworth, it's not still going on, is it?
There's more at the Northern 'Tamworth gets' Daily Weirder by the minute, here.
Mrs Sollars said while it may seem like a trivial issue to some, for Dylan, who is living with Asperger’s, it was anything but.
Say what? They're persecuting a kid with Asperger's for wanting to wear a bow tie, in the school colours?
“We don’t feel Dylan wearing a bow tie is stopping him or any other student,” Mrs Sollars said. “He chooses to wear it rather than a traditional tie and he’s worn it for six months.
“It would be a massive change for him to have to take it off – it would be quite traumatic.”
She said many other students at the school had minor alterations to the uniform.
While under the school’s rules Dylan cannot be suspended for a uniform breach, he has been told he can be suspended for “disobedience relating to the uniform”.
NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli said it would not be appropriate for him to intervene. “Uniform decisions are made by the principal, in consultation with the PandC,” Mr Piccoli said. “It’s not appropriate for the minister to start intervening.”
In a Northern Daily Leader online poll, 52.67 per cent (247 votes) readers said students should not be suspended for wearing incorrect school uniform, while 47.33 per cent (222 votes) said they should.
Say what? The town's got that many mindless, mind-numbing dullard conformists in its midst?
So inflexible they can't even find it in their hearts to allow a snappy dresser to indulge in a little snappy dressing?
What if he wanted to wear spats in honour of Jimmy Cagney?
How about braces, in the school colours, in honour of his great grandfather? What if it was in honour of a snappy dresser who went to Gallipoli and also wore a bow tie?
What about a nice Akubra made from rabbit pelt?
What's happened to the great countryside?
Yes the pond had a great uncle who always wore a bow tie. He was mocked for it by his lumpenproletariat relatives but he liked a little style ... and he was, in passing, hard as nails, and able to deal with rascals ...
How did this come to pass, oh you heartbreak town ... ?
What's that you say?
Barnaby Joyce is your federal member, and Adrian Piccoli speaks for the state government?
Say no more. All is understood, if not forgiven ...
On the Sabbath too! Look, fair is fair, and PM Tony Abbott himself religiously wears a uniform tie, and you just don't know where this sort of thing at school might lead to. Next thing there'll be a High Court comprised of persons disinterested in receiving honours for time served, or, worse, that also don't hold allegiance to an imperial honours bestowing Anglican head of both church and state, or fail to see the significance of a conjunction and a comma inserted into S. 116 to so radically alter it from the US First Amendment it was lifted from. Let this sort of thing in and next you'll find that a minority god-bothering government funded 'counsellor' approving body cannot dictate who gets to play with the kiddies and tell them what's what at school. Then next, oh dear, we'll be updated to 1905 and France - with neither comma, nor conjunction to save us!
ReplyDeleteOn what might go down at school, I found this an interesting observation in the article the pond linked to earlier this day:
France on Fire
Laicity, in the French understanding, is not the equivalent of “secularism” in English. It means, in principle, freedom of belief and religious practice in society, but the strict neutrality of the state in relation to those beliefs and practices. In effect, it has until recently entailed the obligation of teachers and students to divest themselves of their religion while in the schools.
Laicity does not require or even imply toleration in society at large. And the idea of republicanism has historically been suspicious of it. Nearly everyone in France today declares himself and herself to be republican, but originally the term was used to describe a very specific kind of democratic ideal. It is one that guarantees rights but also envisages a strong state to provide for the public welfare and control the economy, and is proudly national—and therefore hostile to outside influences like Catholicism, international communism, the United States, and now the global economy and Islamism. Classic republicanism is not libertarian or communitarian; it presumes that rights come with public obligations, and that fraternity must be built through a common, quasi-sacred education in those rights and duties. One is not born a French republican citizen, one becomes one in school by being initiated into the republican ideal.
Laicity does not require or even imply toleration in society at large. And the idea of republicanism has historically been suspicious of it. Nearly everyone in France today declares himself and herself to be republican, but originally the term was used to describe a very specific kind of democratic ideal. It is one that guarantees rights but also envisages a strong state to provide for the public welfare and control the economy, and is proudly national—and therefore hostile to outside influences like Catholicism, international communism, the United States, and now the global economy and Islamism. Classic republicanism is not libertarian or communitarian; it presumes that rights come with public obligations, and that fraternity must be built through a common, quasi-sacred education in those rights and duties. One is not born a French republican citizen, one becomes one in school by being initiated into the republican ideal.
Remember, DP, this is the Big T, and a bow-tie is viewed as something...well, a bit suss. A big-city, sorta poofy, type of thing. An affectation, though that's not a word you'll hear too often along Peel Street or in Wests Leagues. You might get away with wearing one to a wedding, but that's about it - and you'd better have doffed it by the time the speeches are over! Think about it - would Barnaby wear one? Would whatever Nat drone who's the current State MP wear one? Would the late Noel Park have known how to tie one (Sinkers probably would have, but he was basically a Pitt St farmer blow-in)? No, as Jack Nicholson would have heard if he'd been in town - "It's Tamworth, Jake."
ReplyDeleteOh fair go, DP....it IS Tamworth...I mean, it IS the yodeling capital of Oz. !..and half the thrill of watching a good yodler is seeing those throat muscles all a flutter and a flapper......Have you no respect for tradition?
ReplyDeleteI suggest a visit to Sydney, that den of iniquity, where you can find this wickedness -
ReplyDeletehttp://lenoeudpapillon.com/
Excellent suggestion. The pond loves the look of the plump velvets
DeleteI was searching for a nice Kyrie to listen to, when all I got was this -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nba.com/cavaliers/releases/status-update-irving-150228