Iconography in school
So I didn’t grow up in a public school, but from what I hear, many schools are really cracking down on what students can and can’t wear. Why? Iconography. It all has to do with symbols. While you read this post, think about what symbols mean to you. Which ones are important, which ones have “become” the objects they represent in your lives?
In chapter 2 of “Understanding Comics” I read a lot about symbols, symbolism, and what it means to us. (I call things symbols instead of icons)
First, let’s think about the icons of words. Read each word individually and picture it in your head. After you get your own picture in your mind, click the link to see what others see in this word.*note: all these images are ones I found by simply googling the word they represent*
So… what are your perceptions on certain words? As you can see with the last word, there’s probably a huge difference between what you thought and what I linked to. But I can tell you that at 6 or 7 years of age, if you asked me if I wanted to “join the gang” I’d proudly volunteer to be part of the Barney gang. That was what “gang” meant to me.
Think for a moment of this formula that my high school Psychology teacher drilled into my head:
Perception = Sensation + Interpretation
Interpretation of things plays a big part in how we perceive them. So what about symbols? They can mean a more broad variety of things because unlike words, just about any idea can be attached to a symbol.
So what does this all have to do with dress codes? Simple. As I said earlier, schools are becoming strict about what students wear. This is because of the iconography, the symbolism, present in what many students are outfitting themselves in. These symbols send messages to others. There are “gang colors” which promote separation and fighting in schools. There are also symbols meant to send a negative message to other students. While we do have freedom of expression, we can not tread on anyone else’s’ freedoms in our own expression. (Not to mention, prejudicial symbols are just asking for fights to break out.)
There’s a huge problem with all this attire censoring: Abstractivity.
How do we as adults “out of the loop” know what symbols are meaning what? I just don’t think it is possible to. And in our attempts we may be persecuting a large number of innocent students. There’s a great way to make the kids your enemy. So what do we do?
Don’t ask me for answers! Work on solutions yourself. Because like it or not, kids DO wear symbols that hold meanings we do not want in our school. And like it or not, many of these symbols float totally over the heads of faculty and teachers. We never know they exist, or if we do find out, we find out too late.
