Kristen Gyles | Rules are rules and rules must be sensible

As is not uncommon throughout the school year, another student cries ‘foul’ after he says he was turned out of school because his hair was not properly groomed. The student attends the McGrath High School and took to social media last week, posting several videos detailing how he was turned away from school because his hair was too ‘high’. In the initial video, viewers can see that the boy’s hair was in fact a few centimetres longer than is traditionally permitted.

However, the video went viral, not only because of the issue he raised in the video relating to the school’s position on his hair length but because of his difficulty expressing the very points he tried to make. For example, he kept saying that his hair is his ‘nationality’ and struggled generally to explain himself using actual words.

So, at face value, it appeared that a student, who clearly needs to be in school, had been sent home because of the amount of hair on his head.

The school later claimed that he actually hadn’t been sent away but told to sit in a designated area until his parents arrived. It was at that point, according to the school, that the boy left the school compound despite the instructions of the school’s leadership.

ASSESS THEIR PURPOSE

Schools really need to assess their purpose in society. Incidentally, more of the top-performing Jamaican high schools appear less concerned with some of the ridiculous hair grooming rules that are contended over every year in some schools that struggle academically. Could that be because where schools focus less on academic excellence and more on things like hair length, hairstyles, shoe brands and uniform length, the quality of teaching delivered becomes compromised? The length or height of a boy’s hair in no way determines his ability to assimilate the information he is taught in school, so why is that more important to so many school administrators than the child’s inability to spell basic words or to formulate simple sentences?

In one of the student’s several follow-up videos, he showed himself in what appears to be a barber’s chair getting his hair cut. His hair was trimmed, but certainly not to the usual bald-like standard that pleases most schoolteachers and administrators. According to the student, he returned to the school and was again sent away – this time without any explanation. The boy surmises that he was sent away because of the original video he made complaining about the school.

Clearly, there are discrepancies between the school’s report of what transpired and the student’s, but what is clear is that the school was not pleased with the way the boy’s hair was groomed and this interfered with his ability to attend classes.

It is sad that the best argument many educators can put forward in response to students’ concerns about some school rules is that “Rules are rules”. Such a contribution is so empty, pointless and unhelpful to the actual conversation of hair grooming in schools. Obviously, rules do not fall from the sky but are created by men and women like you and me and can go out of existence just as easily as they come into existence. Yes, rules are rules. What a profound discovery… But is it not possible for one to want to know the reason behind the establishment of certain rules?

MAKING A MOCKERY

Many proponents of the stringent hair grooming policies still being enforced in some schools will put forward the argument that school is intended to prepare students for the world of work and since the world of work has rules, students must be taught how to obey rules while in school. The people who put forward this argument do not realise that they are actually making a mockery of the school system. School should not be about manufacturing thoughtless robots that exist to do whatever they are told without question. The objective of our education system should be to engender brilliance, critical thinking skills and creativity and to encourage thought and rationality.

It is this thought and rationality that makes students question rules sometimes. Yes, the rules should be obeyed, but not blindly. When a student raises a query or an objection to a rule it is an opportunity for those who are more experienced and more educated on the context that necessitated the rule, to engage with the student and to share insight into why the rule is the way it is. Yet, every year when this discussion is resurrected, Jamaican boys are given no sensible explanation as to why it is important for their hair to be kept low (or invisible) while at school. Instead, they are told that in some jobs they will not be able to grow their hair and so they should get used to feeling the wind on their scalp, I suppose, from as early as their high school days.

Further legitimising the concerns of our male students is the fact that the rules surrounding hair grooming are usually not applied equally across races. While African boys must have a cleanly shaven head, boys of other races are often allowed to have their hair long enough to hang from their heads. What this tells black male students is that the real reason behind the ‘two centimetre rule’ as it is called in some schools, is that there is something inappropriate, unprofessional or otherwise unsightly about their negroid hair. This view also accords with the fact that the wearing of afros by female students has, for some time, been another point of controversy in schools.

An individual’s hair is an extension of their person. Rules that make students feel as though they are improperly attired because their natural hair is visible, ought to be questioned. In 2025, rules ought to be rational and ought to have purpose.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com