Coats cause inequality...

Kindly do not put words on my keyboard. I never said schools should provide shoes, food, or underwear. If some do, or if teachers provide them, that's a good thing that contributes to the recipients being able to come to school and learn.

Sanitary hygiene products are basic necessities. If you don't believe me, ask any female over the age of about 10-12. Or possibly younger.

The only words he put on your keyboard were "deserves the basic necessities", which you did actually say (to be exact, you said "deserve to have the basic necessities", but the difference doesn't seem relevant). He also didn't deny that sanitary hygiene products (lovely bland euphemism there) are a basic necessity, just that other things are also basic necessities to. Are you denying that shoes, food and underwear are also basic necessities?
 
So let me see if I understand this correctly:

Problem: Some students see other students wearing expensive clothes and they want expensive clothes too
Solution: Ban expensive clothes

Ok, that doesn't make any sense to me. If a student has an expensive phone, should those be banned too? If their parents buy season tickets for a local expensive football club, should those not be allowed either? If a student is bringing in a fancy lunch, should those be banned?

Kids are kids, they will want what their peers have, whether their peers are wealthy or have the same socioeconomic background. Deal with your kids! Tell them "No sorry Timmy, we can't buy you a $1,200 winter jacket, what do you think we're made of money?". Geez. Are people so out of touch that they can't even manage their friggin kids?

Doesn't it also suck for all those parents who already bought their kids some of these now banned coats, and.. they now have to spend even more money to buy new coats?

This is the stupidest solution to a problem I've heard of this month.
 
So let me see if I understand this correctly:

Problem: Some students see other students wearing expensive clothes and they want expensive clothes too
Solution: Ban expensive clothes

Ok, that doesn't make any sense to me. If a student has an expensive phone, should those be banned too? If their parents buy season tickets for a local expensive football club, should those not be allowed either? If a student is bringing in a fancy lunch, should those be banned?

Kids are kids, they will want what their peers have, whether their peers are wealthy or have the same socioeconomic background. Deal with your kids! Tell them "No sorry Timmy, we can't buy you a $1,200 winter jacket, what do you think we're made of money?". Geez. Are people so out of touch that they can't even manage their friggin kids?

Doesn't it also suck for all those parents who already bought their kids some of these now banned coats, and.. they now have to spend even more money to buy new coats?

This is the stupidest solution to a problem I've heard of this month.
"When the students of Eton College dress like me, the nation is prosperous. When the students of Birkenhead School dress like me, it's time to raise the taxes," Hypothetical British Royal figure who is far of a jerk than of the real ones publicly are, in a parody of a Louis XVI quote.
 
Overpriced coats are stupid anyway.

A quality coat that's good at -25 is expensive, not necessarily overpriced.

https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/clothing-mens/best-winter-jacket

All I ask is where is the ban on those damned Swedish Fjællræven* backpacks.

Fjallraven is annoyingly trendy, but they've got some niche stuff that isn't available elsewhere. e.g. I'm probably about to order one of their winter hats that has both a sun brim and warm ear protection. Selection of hats that fit that criteria is very small. (Though I welcome any additional quality options that are available for purchase in Canada.)

If a couple dozen sanitary napkins a month increase attendance couple dozen school days a month? Damn, that is return on investment. The school shouldn't have to do it, but if nobody else is, by God, go get the damn pads!

Well, would be more fiscally responsible to provide free menstrual cups.
 
Problem: Some students see other students wearing expensive clothes and they want expensive clothes too
Solution: Ban expensive clothes
If the kids that ARE NOT wearing the expensive clothes are being bullied because of it, then it might make sense to make it harder to choose a target when no one is wearing them. But we all know that if it's not clothes they'll find something as an excuse.

I doubt it will be effective.
 
A quality coat that's good at -25 is expensive, not necessarily overpriced.

It does not get down to -25 in the UK very often and the schools would be closed well before the temperature gets that low.
Paying for something that is of no use does not make it overpriced just an useless vanity purchase.
 
I don't think it's been -25 in this country for a very long time, if ever.
 
I don't think it's been -25 in this country for a very long time, if ever.
I believe Shetland and Orkney (which are integral parts of the UK - not separate Crown Dependencies like the Isle of Man and Channel Islands are) can get that low, at least according to someone I know who lives part time in those areas. But the vast bulk of the UK I'd certainly imagine doesn't get nearly as bitterly cold as winters do here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (where, as I've said a couple of times already, Canada Goose jackets are a lot more affordable - probably due to Canada being "supplyside" for them).
 
But the vast bulk of the UK I'd certainly imagine doesn't get nearly as bitterly cold as winters do here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ...
I was once in a place called Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in winter and they had a cold snap. The temperature was -54 C and the wind chill* made it feel like -85 C. It was so cold that you could not go outside and if you turned off your car it would not start again as the engine would freeze. I wasn't able to fly out because it was too cold for the planes to fly. I ended up driving to Saskatoon, about an hour and a half away, once I found a rental car that had been plugged in overnight and would actually start, and got a plane from there (A balmy -40 C)

I have never been so cold in my entire life and I did my first stint in university in Edmonton. I thought it got cold there. I guess I was mistaken.

* For those that don't understand wind chill, it is the relative temperature that is cause by the wind blowing on you and it makes the ambient temperature colder (It "feels" colder). It is in fact a very real temperature as exposed skin will freeze because of the wind chill.

I hate using Wikipedia, but here is a discussion of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_chill
 
If the kids that ARE NOT wearing the expensive clothes are being bullied because of it, then it might make sense to make it harder to choose a target when no one is wearing them. But we all know that if it's not clothes they'll find something as an excuse.

I doubt it will be effective.

Schools do not nearly do enough to fix the "kids are getting bullied" problem.

Banning friggin coats is not the answer. Go after the motherflippin bullies
 
Schools do not nearly do enough to fix the "kids are getting bullied" problem.

Banning friggin coats is not the answer. Go after the motherflippin bullies
I agree. Banning the coats as a policy that's supposed to be "anti-poverty shaming" and "anti-bullying' is a prime example of a LOT of legislation, policy, rule-making, and decision-making in a VERY MANY governments, corporations, institutions, NGO's, etc. all across the globe in all endeavours (and across the political spectrum, before any of those ridiculous individuals who say big problems are entirely endemic to opposing political points-of-view, and theirs is completely innocent of it - something a large number of people seem to firmly believe or be convinced of today, despite the obvious ludicrosity of such a notion), which is ONLY playing "Whack-a-Mole" with the symptoms of a problem, and declaring and declaring your doing good, productive work in terms of addressing of it, and not really touching, or, in many, acknowledging, the real, core reasons behind the issue - Victorian-era pathology as opposed to modern pathology, if you will.
 
* For those that don't understand wind chill, it is the relative temperature that is cause by the wind blowing on you and it makes the ambient temperature colder (It "feels" colder). It is in fact a very real temperature as exposed skin will freeze because of the wind chill.

It's real in some sense - but realistically, if you're outside for non-trivial amounts of time in significantly cold temperatures, you're not going to have any exposed skin anyway. I've spent full days outside in -40 windchill where I've been overheating due to the combination of exertion and layers I was wearing.
 
There's a difference between "I need it to get to the bus stop" and "I need to accomplish x, y, and z, outside today" and "the house is kept just above the pipes freezing and I need a blanket to exist inisde/do homework. They're all different things. I wouldn't be above going outside with a coat and a blanket to wait for a bus, but I might have a dated opinion on the value of an education.
 
It got down to -26.1 in England on 10/01/1982 which I suppose you youngsters may think is a long time ago.:old:

I was a toddler then, so yes, that was a long time ago. :p
 
I was working in a night club and studying engineering.

Nice bit of ice on the inside of the bedroom window in the morning.:)
 
So let me see if I understand this correctly:

Problem: Some students see other students wearing expensive clothes and they want expensive clothes too
Solution: Ban expensive clothes

No you don't understand it. It's about the poorer students being bullied for not being able to afford the more expensive things (or their parents of course). Presumably you went to school at some point... I thought this was kind of a general experience?
 
No you don't understand it. It's about the poorer students being bullied for not being able to afford the more expensive things (or their parents of course). Presumably you went to school at some point... I thought this was kind of a general experience?

Again, banning clothes is not the answer. This is the stupidest solution to a problem. You're going after the symptom. Go after the bully.

If I'm sexually assaulted at work because I'm wearing slightly tight pants, what should be done to fix the issue? Do we ban tight pants? Or do we punish the person committing the crime?
 
Well:

a) "Both" is always an option.

b) Bullying is notoriously difficult to tackle and even detect in the first place. Unless you force pupils to wear body cams all the time (and in this day and age, have their social media accounts monitored), it's going to come down to he-said she-said 90%+ of the time. This can make it rather difficult to legitimately apply punishments in the first place.

c) School uniforms and dress codes are already a thing anyway.

Honestly can't see how this can be legitimately labelled as "the stupidest solution". I mean, how about these solutions:

1) Force all children to attend school naked.
2) Ban schools.
3) Kill all the current children and start again.
 
I was once in a place called Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in winter and they had a cold snap. The temperature was -54 C and the wind chill* made it feel like -85 C. It was so cold that you could not go outside and if you turned off your car it would not start again as the engine would freeze. I wasn't able to fly out because it was too cold for the planes to fly. I ended up driving to Saskatoon, about an hour and a half away, once I found a rental car that had been plugged in overnight and would actually start, and got a plane from there (A balmy -40 C)
The coldest temperature I ever experienced was in the neighborhood of -57C, and that was when I learned the meaning of "takes your breath away." Lesson: No mail is that important to risk stepping outside in that temperature, particularly when the screen door is determined to freeze shut.

Around here now, any time it gets around -40C there are all kinds of frostbite and hypothermia warnings, reminders to make sure the pipes don't freeze, and advising people to stay off the highway if they don't absolutely have to go somewhere.

As for coats, my winter coat is over 20 years old, and while it's seen better days, it still works. I have a sweater, fleece hoodie, toque, scarf, and both light and heavy gloves. I layer accordingly, and on most winter days I can make do with my fall jacket and either the sweater or hoodie.
 
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