When I volunteered at the public library this past weekend, I was stationed at the face painting table to ~unprofessionally~ try my hand at helping kids look more spooky for the library's Halloween fĂŞte. I interacted with the kids, asking them questions like "what's your favorite candy?" and "what made you decide to be [insert their costume here]?" and "are you having fun so far?"
I was, however, very surprised to learn that the greater majority of kids were not going to be able to dress up at their schools for Halloween. What kind of school administration keeps kids from dressing up in their costumes? When I was younger, the only restrictions we had in school regarding dressing up were: no fake guns, no offensive language on clothing, and no sharp objects. Now, not even a decade later, kids in elementary and middle schools aren't allowed to dress up for Halloween at school? Since when was a princess considered an offensive costume? A pirate? A zombie? A lizard queen? When I asked the kids why they couldn't dress up, they said that their school didn't want anything offensive such as fake blood or anything gory. Well, in my opinion, kids should be exposed to what the world of creativity has to offer.
Why are we sheltering this younger generation? Is helicopter parenting being extended through school administrations? We shouldn't be conditioning kids to accept this. They're kids! They should be dressing up for costume contests at school and having fun with their peers, not being subject to costume censorship. Though, I will say that dressing up in the attire of someone else's culture and depicting it as satyrical is highly frowned upon.
I vote that the students should have a say in this. They should be able to have an input in what is considered appropriate or not for school. Non-derogatory costumes? Appropriate. Offensive and/or demeaning language on clothing? Inappropriate. It's simple! For the sake of the children, I honestly hope the school administrations that don't let the students wear costumes change their mind. Kids deserve to be kids.
