Can you remember a rule from grade school/High School that made no sense to you now? Mine--girls were forbidden to wear

[debm55]

slacks. What about you?

[biophile]

1. Yeah, same here- no pants allowed

Eventually they let us wear some under our skirts when the weather was freezing cold at recess.

[debm55]

14. thank you biophile. I hated walking to school in the winter without slacks and sitting on the bus in mini skirts.

[yellowdogintexas]

34. Same here. My sister was 5 years behind me in school and was able to wear pants

to school. Eventually jeans took over

[Deuxcents]

2. I graduated in 1965..never allowed to wear blue jeans, slacks or whatever we called them back then.

We could wear them on Friday night football games, tho 😜

[debm55]

15. Same here. My last year of High school, we were allowed to wear jeans.

[Diamond_Dog]

3. It was the same when I went to school, deb.

About the most idiotic school rule in history!!!

I had a co worker years ago who told me when her daughter was in college, girls were forbidden from wearing pants to FOOTBALL GAMES!!!!!

[debm55]

17. Gee, that is very strange. Thank you Diamond_Dog..

[buzzycrumbhunger]

4. I remember in the mid 60s...

One of my brother’s friends was called into the office for wearing a t-shirt with no pockets—“obviously” an undershirt. They called his mother in to address this heinous infraction and she glared at the principal, made her son stand up, ripped a pocket off his jeans, and safety-pinned it to his shirt, biting out, “Don’t call me in for something this stupid EVER again.”

Shortly after that, my brother took off for the summer to CA (from IA), returned with long hair, and the weird dress code pretty much fell apart—miniskirts and all. *gasp*

[debm55]

18. I was just going to put the length of boys hair. and skirts being measured above the girls knee. Thank you

buzzycrumbhunger.

[dem4decades]

5. Jr high, girls couldn't wear miniskirts, so three girls wore long granny skirts in protest and were expelled.

Did that make any sense?

[debm55]

19. Makes no sense. I would were granny skirts in the winter. But we were never expelled for it.

[BOSSHOG]

6. Maybe on Topic

I went to Catholic School through sixth grade in the early 60s. I don’t recall the class year but boys were told by one of the Parish Priests, you WILL be in the Choir or you WILL be an Altar Boy. Make your choice NOW. Back in the day, nobody made rules like the Catholic Church.

I chose Altar Boy. The Mass was in Latin. We memorized the Latin but didn’t know the English Equivalent. We were Pavlov’s Kennel. When the bell rang the first time you mumbled your memorized Latin and then the next ringing and on and on. If you kept your grades up you got to do Funerals on Wednesday when families were obligated to give us 5 Bucks each. Pardon my rambling. The wave of nostalgia is overwhelming.

[debm55]

20. BOSSHOG, I went to Catholic school too ---grades 1-8, I remember the altar boys and the choir. My biggest problem was

not being allowed to go to the restroom unless it was your class restroom time.

[BOSSHOG]

22. And ya couldn't chew gum at recess

I didn’t, but I saw some classmates severely chastised by the Nuns for that horrible offense. How did we ever survive?

[debm55]

24. No candy either. At 12 the noon bells rang and we all had to stop and with folded hands face the Church and pray the

Angelis. Never knew why on that one too.

[ProfessorGAC]

62. I Was An Altar Boy, Too

But, I went to a big catholic school. (165 in my 8th grade class, so over 1,300 students).
So, being an altar boy, or in the choir required auditions!
It was the Cathedral school, so all the high mucky-muck masses were there.
I was VP in 7th grade & President in 8th grade of Knights of the Altar!
It was a very big deal. We have 50 or so altar boys.
But, this Italian catholic boy decided after 8th grade that I'd been to church enough for a lifetime. So, I quit going, except for weddings & funerals.
My parents, thankfully, knew they couldn't make me. They weren't happy, but they accepted it.
Now, for the kicker: I went to a Catholic HS, a catholic college for undergrad & a catholic college for graduate degrees! Still didn't go to church.

[BOSSHOG]

65. Decades ago

I got really tired of the church not staying in its lane so to speak. Separation of church and state for thee but not for me. My wife and I are fine and dandy without Mass but we still engage in church functions, picnics, breakfasts etc. and in 2022 the Catholic Church of Kansas spent 4 million tax exempt bucks in an effort to outlaw abortion. Their effort failed.

[hlthe2b]

7. Yes.. Unbelievably even in winter snowstorms...

Gen-Z would never believe the silliness that once "reigned" in public schools with re to the girls' clothing. I also recall teachers being assigned to measure girls' dresses/skirts to make sure they came "adequately" close down to the knee.

I'd sound like I was ancient if I suggested that things had swung so far in the other direction (for some) that maybe it was time to find a middle ground...?

[debm55]

25. HAHAHAHAHAHAh. Yes, the measuring of the skirts. And the pants under the dress or skirt.

[ms liberty]

8. In my school, between skirts only time and pants okay time

Was the time when the girls could wear pants, but had to wear a skirt over them. The most ridiculous fashion trend that never took off. We hated it. It lasted about one year, and it was junior high.

[debm55]

26. Yes. Pants under a skirt. Thank you very much ms. liberty. I do remember.

[stopdiggin]

9. shirts tucked in, measuring hemlines, no sandals

(and not 100% - but I'm thinking there were rules about cosmetics and piercings. and, of course - about the only piercing anyone had ever heard of was an ear lobe .. )

[Skittles]

10. 1993 - I took a job at a big IT firm in Texas

I'll never forget my first night of work - I told my boss I assumed a dress code of business casual was OK for night work? Yes, he said, dress or skirt....I said, EXCUSE ME? Yup, it meant no slacks. I literally did not even own such clothes, and had not worn a skirt since I was in the military. I think it was changed in 1996.

[debm55]

30. I agree with you Skittles. I was a slacks person. If you wore a dress or skirt, a slip was required and panty hose.

I lucked out. I wore slacks every day to work.

[Skittles]

35. I worked in a room that looked like NASA with an observation deck

I HATED pantyhose and one nightI had my hand stuck up my skirt trying to smooth it out a bit and I realized there was a group of Boy Scouts.....observing

[efhmc]

43. Were you at TI in Richardson?

When my fellow grads were crying, I was ecstatic to get away from there. It is still as Right wing as ever.

[Nanuke]

11. I started with a private firm in 2003 that would not allow women wearing bare legs or open toed shoes.

[debm55]

27. A school I taught in had the rule of no bare legs, no sandals for the students and teachers.

[chowmama]

12. I'm trying to think of one that did make sense to me.

And we were skirt-only. There was an exception in winter, when it was below zero - then we were allowed to wear pants under our skirts, but only till we got to school. Indoors, we had to remove them.

The skirt length was judged by kneeling on the gymnasium floor. If your skirt didn't touch the ground, it didn't pass the test. Note - this was public school, not parochial.

The only parts of it I didn't loathe were the library and band practice (we started in 4th grade). And I found books in that library that the librarian and parents can't possibly have known were there.

[debm55]

31. Thank you very much chowmama. I loved the part of your post about the books.

[chowmama]

68. Somebody had donated a set of old Grimms' type stories

But in their original forms, translated really accurately. There was no question about what would happen to transgressing children. A lot of it was quite bloody and there were definite sexual implications to some of them, especially Blue Beard. Cinderella's stepsisters amputated parts of their feet to fit into the glass slipper and were detected by the dripping blood in the road. Very descriptive, lots of detail. There were other poor choices as well, but as long as the covers looked sufficiently innocent, nobody looked inside.Just me.

It set me up for the time my father bought my older sister the complete Edgar Allen Poe, just because 'it was a classic'. She never touched it, but I did. I was particularly fond of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue'.

I was goth before goth was cool.

[Squaredeal]

13. Skirts couldn't be shorter than two inches above the knee.

There was an old maid teacher in my high school who would stand in the hallway next to her classroom when classes changed, who would pull any passing female student into her room that she thought had a too-short skirt and measure it. She either had to roll down her skirt or get after school detention.

[debm55]

33. HAHAHAHHAHHAH That is so funny. Thank you Squaredeal

[efhmc]

44. I remember a really creepy teacher who would sit on her desk and cross her legs so she could be ogled at by the boys.

All the girls (and boys of course) knew what she was doing. Still creeps me out. Where were pants when you needed them then?

[debm55]

46. That is gross.

[mobeau69]

16. My sister, an honor student, was sent home from school for wearing colottes in the mid sixties.

I remember my mom and dad were sort of pissed.

[KarenS]

29. I remember those,,,,

got sent home for wearing them

[Diamond_Dog]

39. My sister got sent home for wearing culottes in Jr. high

A teacher pulled her aside in the hallway during class change and sent her to the principal’s office, where an older female teacher stuck a ruler in between her legs to prove they were culottes! My sister was humiliated. My mother was called to bring her a skirt to change into. I recall my mother was pissed about it also because sister’s culottes were very modest and looked very nice on her and looked very much like a skirt. My mother always bought us nice clothes. So …. The moral of the story was, your bottom has to be wide open, no pants, no shorts???? Why??? Utterly Ridiculous! Public school in the late 60s.

[surrealAmerican]

21. That whole morning routine of facing the flag ...

... and reciting the pledge and the creed, and then singing the national anthem struck me as complete nonsense. In elementary school, they never even bothered trying to explain what any of this meant. How are you supposed to make a pledge when you don't even understand all the words? ... and if you've made such a pledge, why would you have to repeat it every single day?

[debm55]

23. Wow you are so right surrealAmerican. Day after Day we made the pledge. As a student in a Catholic Grade School. We made

the Creed. I had no idea what I was saying and what the words even meant. I think it was just part of the "morning routine"

[Diamond_Dog]

40. I remember on special occasions

In elementary school, we would gather round the flagpole out in front of the school and actually raise the flag before stating the pledge. A student was always chosen to do the raising - I don’t know if it was a rule,but the student chosen was always a boy, even when everyone raised their hands to volunteer. I still remember it struck me that it seemed that the school was telling us that girls were not deemed worthy of such important official duties such as flag raising. I always wanted to be a crossing guard too but only boys were crossing guards. You got to wear a cool belt with a badge on it if you were a crossing guard. I guess girls were deemed incapable of crossing younger students across the street. Another sexist attitude.
I know these are small things but I still remember them, being made to feel inferior to boys.

[hunter]

42. I never said the pledge. As a Jehovah's Witness I ignored it.

Usually I'd be reading a book or drawing space ships.

I was already a weird kid and this added greatly to my aura of weirdness and probably made me a greater target for bullies, even more so when one of my elementary school teachers pointed me out as an example of religious freedom in the U.S.A..

When my mom got kicked out of the Witnesses (because she couldn't stay out of politics...) we became Quakers and I continued to ignore the pledge.

The high school I attended was an overcrowded underfunded chaotic mess. I quit when I was sixteen. There were no homerooms and I don't recall first period teachers taking time out for the pledge. Maybe I just tuned it out. There's a lot of stuff that happened to me in high school that I don't want to remember.

[chowmama]

67. Pledge and anthem

and periodically a 'duck and cover' drill.

We didn't have the creed, of course. I doubt we'd have found it comforting, given the 'duck and cover'. I think part of not understanding any of the rules was related to the implication that we were all going to be vaporized anyway. What difference did our outfit make?

But WTH, yay us. Hoo rah!

[surfered]

28. Graduated in '65. The flat top was in fashion.The biggest scandal was the majorettes/twirlers came up with new outfits.

In effect, they were sequined one-piece bathing suits. Because their mothers supported it, they were approved.

It was a big deal

[LogDog75]

32. The length of boy's hair

Late 60s, a couple of guys in our high school started a petition to present to the school board to relax hair standards for boys. They got most of the high school students, including myself, sign the petition. They respectfully presented it to the school board at their next meeting and stated their reasons for the change. After they spoke, on of the male board members, a guy with a flat top haircut, made a motion that imposed more restrictive hair standards on boys including hair cannot touch the ears of the collar of a dress shirt and no parting the hair down the middle of their head. That motion past. In an act of defiance, most guys, including myself (my hair touched the ears and just below the collar but not really long) ignored the hair rules and I don't recall any teacher enforcing it. Future school boards relaxed the standards.

[MIButterfly]

36. I went to high school in Nashville in the early 70s.

Girls could only wear "coordinated pants suits" and skirts could not be shorter than 2" above the knee. They would actually make you kneel on the floor and they would measure the bottom of your skirt to the floor with a yardstick. I always wore cute coordinated outfits but I had a friend who wore tie-dyed bell bottoms and fringe vests and the like and we would trade outfits and guess would be be sitting in the principal's office nearly every day? One day I was sent to the home ec teacher to ask her if what was I was wearing was a coordinated pants suit and she said "No, but it's cute!"

I also liked to wear headbands, but they were frowned upon. The principal actually told me that headbands made me look like a "non-conformist" (which was music to my teen-aged ears!) and that it would go on my permanent record which would follow me my entire life. When I told my mother and the evil step-father about having to take my headband off, they were really to go to the ACLU!

I never did figure out where my permanent record was or who had it; I always wanted to know what was in it.

[Diamond_Dog]

41. Headbands? Made you a non conformist and went on your "permanent record"?

That’s a new one to me! Geez our society was so screwed up, even back then.

[MIButterfly]

45. We had moved from a suburb of Detroit to Nashville in my junior year of high school

and it was like going back at least 20 years in time. Everybody thought I was some kind of "hippie" or stoner or something scandalous. Really, I was so straight in high school. I just liked to dress differently, you know, like we did up north.

Ha! I once wore a long T-shirt as a dress and when I walked into the pep rally in the gym, it seemed like the entire senior class stood up and yelled "your dress is too short!"

[debm55]

48. Thank you for sharing MIButterfly. That was an awful thing for them to do.

[MIButterfly]

52. Actually, they kind of did have a point. It was a T-shirt, after all!

I laughed about it. Now, I'd be mortified. But then again, I wouldn't dare leave the house wearing a T-shirt as a dress these days.

I guess wisdom does come with age (or maybe it's all the extra pounds I'm carrying around these days that stops me from dressing so foolishly!).

[debm55]

50. I agree. Thank you very much Diamond_Dog for sharing.

[CanonRay]

37. We had to do swim class naked

and take an ice cold shower before. I kid you not. It was sick and sadistic.

[debm55]

49. Thank you CanonRay. that is in such poor taste.

[JMCKUSICK]

38. Didn't all us old people have the same rule?

Walked uphill both ways no matter the weather?

[debm55]

47. HAHAHAHAH. so true. Thank you John.

[Ritabert]

51. I hated the no slacks rule.

In winter we'd wear leggings under our dresses and take them off at school. Very annoying.

[yorkster]

55. Leggings! I think they matched the coat and

were woolen. We walked to elementary school in the 50s and you needed them in winter, but when you were a tad late and had to scramble to get them off and be in your seat on time, what a pain..

[Ritabert]

60. Exactly!

[no_hypocrisy]

53. Be home before dark.

What could I do after dark that I couldn’t do before sunset?

[AnnaLee]

54. In the 1960s, at Ole Miss,

My boyfriend's only mode of transportation was a Honda motorcycle. The rules for girls at the University at that time required girls to alway wear dresses when they left the dorm. But, the rule for motorcycles forbade girls from riding them in dresses. Needless to say, I rode on the back of his motorcycle in a dress anyway. I never got in trouble for it. (An exception seemed to exist for athletic events since the sorority girls seem to have teams that always were playing some sport in shorts.)

[debm55]

56. Thank you very much AnnaLee for sharing your post with us.

[Emile]

57. We couldn't wear shorts.

[thucythucy]

58. My senior year of high school I cut many if not most of my classes.

It was a difficult time for my family and I had great trouble focusing on school work or even sitting still in class. Nowadays I'd probably be diagnosed with severe depression and ADHD, which eventually led to a serious attempt at suicide, but back then I was seen simply as a troublemaker.

The penalty for cutting class: being suspended for three days.

I remember asking the assistant principal in charge of discipline. "So let me get this straight. I don't want to go to class, so I cut. And then the punishment for cutting class is: I'm not allowed to attend school for three days?"

He was not amused.

I don't remember how many times we went through this. I cut class, was suspended, returned to school, cut class, rinse and repeat. Eventually the school admin tried to expel me entirely, but as I'd been an honor student until then, and had aced my SATs and won a scholarship for college, the school psychologist worked out a deal where I was no longer allowed on school grounds, but could graduate with my class. Though I was told if I showed up for the graduation ceremony I'd be arrested.

Does any of that make sense, even so many years later?

[dlilafae]

59. Shorts had to be no more than 6" above the knee

But they asked the girls to walk up the 3 sets of sprawling staircases ahead of the boys .. ~ Go figure. 😊

[zeusdogmom]

61. Girls could not wear anything other than dresses or skirts, at least long enough to touch floor when kneeling

Minnesota winters are mighty cold so pants of some type under the skirt for the bus rides and recess.

Onto college in 1966 - home ec major. Guess what - no pants in the Home Ec building. I lasted 2 years 😄. Switched majors to music where there were no dress codes for anything other than performing groups when performing.

Onto teaching in 1970. Again no pants of any kind including the very fashionable coordinated pant suits which truly covered everything neck to feet. It was OK to wear a mini skirt or dress that barely covered my backside - but pantsuits - oh my no. Not professional. 🙄

Silly rules are everywhere

[Niagara]

63. First I want to say that I'm forever grateful that I grew up in a time

where young ladies were allowed to wear pants/slacks/ jeans to school. I'm not much of a fan of wearing skirts and dresses on a regular basis.


My own personal experience at grammar school was morning mandated reciting of the pledge of allegiance. I didn't understand the words or the meaning of it. As an adult, I don't understand flag worship. To me it's just weird.




I remember being in junior high and facing some collective punishment in an afternoon math class. Some knucklehead put their ABC (already been chewed) gum on the bottom of a double student desk. Two students sat at these double desks at a time. We had 7 rotating class periods in an entire school day so the ABC gum offender could have been anyone.


Anyway, the teacher handed out collective punishment and gave everyone an individual toothbrush and had students scrub the bottom of the double student desk with the toothbrush, ABC gum or no ABC gum. I was underneath the desk on my back with my eyes closed. The partner that I shared the double student desk leans over to me and laughs out loud and asks, "Niagara, are you taking a nap?"

I replied, "Yeah, I'm not scrubbing the bottom of the desk. Miss Scott (the teacher) can kiss my ass."


I want to perfectly clear here, I was not a troublemaker in school, but I also wasn't a gum chewer and so I wasn't scrubbing a damn thing for anyone. I also knew that I had backup at home from my mom if it would have become an issue which thankfully it didn't become an issue.

You can still kiss my ass, Miss. Scott.

[LuckyCharms]

70. Miss Scott...

Can kiss my ass too!

[some_of_us_are_sane]

64. Catholic school, taught by nuns

and in high school, if the uniform skirt looked too short, the nuns made the girls kneel on the floor to see if the skirt touched the floor boards. (MANY used to roll the waistband up, hidden by the uniform's gray blazer.) LOL!!!

[Clouds Passing]

66. Girls were finally allowed to wear pants in 5th grade. I hated wearing dresses.

[Mad_Dem_X]

69. In case The Bomb went off...

get under your desk!!!!!