What is the difference between UK school and a concentration camp?

School bans boys from wearing shorts, telling them to wear skirts instead - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/chiltern-edge-school-uniform-policy-trousers-skirts-shorts-ban-a8382336.html

Parents complained wearing a blazer in the heat could make their children ill - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/school-uniform-headteacher-hatsdown-academy-matthew-tate-pupils-sent-home-a7232816.html

Nearly 80 pupils turned away from secondary in Kent over supposed dress code violations - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-uniform-row-hartswood-kent-dad-confronts-headmaster-at-gates-new-rules-a7231531.html

Schools refuse to let children take off their blazers during heatwave - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-heatwave-school-stops-children-taking-off-blazers-uniform-policy-temperature-a7801531.html

School sends pupils home for wearing wrong shade of grey trousers -
[quote]Headteacher Nicky Cooper defended the decision, saying: “We are very, very particular about the uniform because we need consistency right across the board.[/quote] Are the teachers there really that incompetent?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/kepier-school-houghton-le-spring-sunderland-a7935596.html

Mother whose child cried daily over school skirt to take legal action against 'discriminatory’ uniform policy - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/roberta-borsotti-skirt-school-uniform-policy-trousers-london-legal-action-department-for-education-a8435271.html

When my own children were at school I challenged the headmaster over clearly unlawful school policies. He told me quite clearly that he didn't care what the law said, he made the rules in [b]his[/b] school. It took legal action to get him to back down and comply with the law.

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SW-User

The hyperbole of calling it a concentration camp takes away from your point.

suzie1960 · 61-69, F

@SW-User Does it? In what way? Some headteachers are no better than petty dictators with no respect for anything or anyone.

SW-User

@suzie1960 well I have inlaws who were murdered in concentration camps when the Germans took Kiev, and my own great uncle was a slave labourer on the Burma Railway.

That's not saying UK schools aren't shitty, they are, but they're not even remotely concentration camps.

suzie1960 · 61-69, F

@SW-User There have been different types of concentration camps. I presume you're referring to Nazi death camps which weren't the same as those we (the English) invented in the Boer Wars.

SW-User

@suzie1960 I can't believe you're defending this, you know you don't have to hold onto it in order to make your point. Dress codes are dumb, I hated it when I was in school in Britain and I was glad for the lack of them in Canada where I wore whatever I felt like.

suzie1960 · 61-69, F

@SW-User I've admitted that UK schools aren't like Nazi death camps. It's not simply dress codes, I wouldn't mind too much if it were. The real problem is that impoverished families sometimes have to go hungry to buy an extortionately priced uniform from the school's "official supplier" in order to claim a supposedly free education for their children.

Children are put in isolation literally for wearing the wrong colour socks or because their parents can't afford the ridiculously expensive blazer. Children are forced to wear blazers in sweltering heat. One school even said they would provide buckets in class for student to vomit in if they feel unwell [quote]If you feel sick we will give you a bucket. If you vomit - no problem! You’ve got your bucket. That’s probably all your body wanted - to vomit.[/quote] https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/phones-confiscated-for-weeks-and-sick-buckets-in-the-classroom-tough-new-rules-at-norfolk-school-1-5188326
Note how the headmaster also tries to dictate students' bedtimes!

Some schools even dictate what students eat for lunch and where they buy it.

SW-User

@suzie1960 Yes, that's idiotic, I have no argument with it. I don't agree with uniforms and I have nothing but bad memories of my time in school in the UK. The teachers and headmaster were abusive and demeaning, the children behaved like animals and the uniforms were soul-destroying tombstone grey. It doesn't surprise me to hear that uniforms are a racket.

The quality of education was much better in the UK, but the quality of life for the children was much worse.

rob19 · M

@SW-User [quote]The quality of education was much better in the UK, but the quality of life for the children was much worse.[/quote]
Much better than what? The quality of school life for UK students certainly hasn't improved in my lifetime, in many ways it's got worse. Our schools could learn a lot from schools in the rest of Europe, particularly Scandinavia.

SW-User

@rob19 Compared to the quality of education in North America