A recent news article about a ban on sexually suggestive dancing at a Hartford, Conn. Middle School gave me a good chuckle.
A young person of the 1990s, I was completely taken by grunge culture. Indie rock bands from Seattle were quickly becoming mainstream and everybody wanted to look, act and sound grunge. I wore baggy overalls and oversized flannel T-shirts. I even let my bangs grow so long they covered my nose. I was the coolest - or so I thought.
I remember going to dances in the gymnasium in the seventh and eighth grade. When a Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins song came on, my classmates and I would all start jumping up and down, franticallyflying into one another. It was a new style of dance called “moshing.”
Moshing is aggressive, and frankly, a little reckless. Basically, you become human bumper cars, forcefully slamming into the people around you. The teachers of course believed this was foolish and dangerous. When things got too intense, a chaperone would turn the lights on. A teacher would usually give us a brief lecture about appropriate conduct and the dance would then resume with a tasteful Boys 2 Men ballad.
When I was 14, I didn't understand why “moshing” was frowned upon. As an adult, I realize that to have a gymnasium full of hormonal adolescents pushing and shoving each other is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Provocative dancing is even riskier, because of the sexual implications.
The young people involved in this debate should recognize that rules and regulations are not imposed for a lack of understanding. In the 1920s, dances like the shimmy and the black bottom were considered scandalous. In the 1960s, Beatles records were burned. To assume that this is the first generation to rage against the establishment is short-sighted.
The teacher-student relationship is different from the parent-child relationship. To maintain equality and fairness, schools need to establish blanket rules; often erring on the side of conservatism. The school has a responsibility to censor any material that could be deemed objectionable by a parent or guardian - not on a parent-by-parent basis.
If the restriction dealt with education, I would always encourage young people to have a voice within the debate. But dances are extracurricular and participation is not mandatory.
Bottom line: if you can't dance the way you want to in the school gym, dance they way you want to at home. Some issues are better left to parents.
Estabrook can be reached at estabrookcarole@yahoo.com
I remember going to dances in the gymnasium in the seventh and eighth grade. When a Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins song came on, my classmates and I would all start jumping up and down, franticallyflying into one another. It was a new style of dance called “moshing.”
Moshing is aggressive, and frankly, a little reckless. Basically, you become human bumper cars, forcefully slamming into the people around you. The teachers of course believed this was foolish and dangerous. When things got too intense, a chaperone would turn the lights on. A teacher would usually give us a brief lecture about appropriate conduct and the dance would then resume with a tasteful Boys 2 Men ballad.
When I was 14, I didn't understand why “moshing” was frowned upon. As an adult, I realize that to have a gymnasium full of hormonal adolescents pushing and shoving each other is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Provocative dancing is even riskier, because of the sexual implications.
The young people involved in this debate should recognize that rules and regulations are not imposed for a lack of understanding. In the 1920s, dances like the shimmy and the black bottom were considered scandalous. In the 1960s, Beatles records were burned. To assume that this is the first generation to rage against the establishment is short-sighted.
The teacher-student relationship is different from the parent-child relationship. To maintain equality and fairness, schools need to establish blanket rules; often erring on the side of conservatism. The school has a responsibility to censor any material that could be deemed objectionable by a parent or guardian - not on a parent-by-parent basis.
If the restriction dealt with education, I would always encourage young people to have a voice within the debate. But dances are extracurricular and participation is not mandatory.
Bottom line: if you can't dance the way you want to in the school gym, dance they way you want to at home. Some issues are better left to parents.
Estabrook can be reached at estabrookcarole@yahoo.com
The Citizens' Say
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brew1234 wrote on Jan 25, 2008 12:54 PM: