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A public school WIN :)


shinyhappypeople
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I like their motivation, but if I were a girl who wasn't suffering from any particular hangup *at the moment of going into the bathroom* and just wanted to check my hair and makeup like a normal person, I'd be very annoyed at the presumptive commentary replacing the utilitarian mirror.

 

Yeah.  Sometimes you just want to make sure you don't have lunch in your teeth.

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It would have annoyed me when I was in school. 

 

To me when I was in high school it would be saying to me, "We don't feel you are smart/worthy of being able to look in a mirror. Therefore, we will take away that right. Boys, boys can handle mirrors, but not you because you are a girl." and then since I was dealing with out stuff I couldn't / wasn't allowed to do as female it would have added to the list, "You can't join the wrestle team, cause you are a girl. You can't have the same rights to roam the neighborhood. And now you can't even be trusted to look in a mirror. But here are some silly sayings." 

Edited by Julie Smith
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Why couldn't the positive affirmations be written as borders on the mirrors?!

 

So the girls wouldn't look in the mirror. Because (I'm sure this is the theory behind it) whenever a girl looks into a mirror it is to harshly judge herself. So if you don't allow her to look in a mirror and instead have her read some positive words, then she would have more self confidence and self worth. 

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At the middle school my daughter went to, the art classes would glaze tiles and put positive images/statements on them.  They started by bordering the mirror and over the years, they were able  to cover the walls as well.  (small school, so it was a few years project.) 

 

Usually at a school, using the kids bathroom is not something an adult would look forward to.  This school changed that and the bathroom was a place that people would leave, with a smile on their face.

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At the middle school my daughter went to, the art classes would glaze tiles and put positive images/statements on them.  They started by bordering the mirror and over the years, they were able  to cover the walls as well.  (small school, so it was a few years project.) 

 

Usually at a school, using the kids bathroom is not something an adult would look forward to.  This school changed that and the bathroom was a place that people would leave, with a smile on their face.

 Now that is awesome.

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Wow, what an incredibly stupid idea.

 

No mirrors in the girls' room. What brilliant mind thought that one up? :glare:

 

I'm sure the girl who came up with the idea had the loveliest of intentions, but seriously, no mirrors in the bathroom??? That is ridiculous.

 

In my mind, what better way could there possibly be to make girls self-conscious about their appearance than for them to not even be able to look in the bathroom mirror to see if their clothes are straight, if their mascara is running, if their eyeliner smudged, if their lip gloss needs refreshing, or if their hair looks okay.

 

I know the girl meant well when she came up with the concept, but the school administration should have had more sense. Do they think they that the girls are so pathetic that they need to read motivational phrases every time they go into the girls' room? Do they believe that those girls are so lacking in any form of self-confidence that they can't even bear to look at themselves in the mirror without being filled with self-loathing?

 

I don't think this is a positive thing for girls at all. I think it's treating them like they're helpless and weak and saying that they're not strong enough to get through their school day without reading a bunch of uplifting messages plastered all over the girls' room.

 

On a related note.... exactly how has this school remodeled the boys' bathrooms? Or are boys exempt from this foolishness? And if the boys still have mirrors in their bathrooms, what kind of a rotten message is that sending to the girls in that school?

 

Again, I'm sure the girl meant well. The idea of doing kind things is wonderful. But the school administration should have realized how ridiculous an idea it was to remove those mirrors. As others have already said, if they wanted to hang up the posters, why not do that in addition to keeping the mirrors?

Edited by Catwoman
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I like their motivation, but if I were a girl who wasn't suffering from any particular hangup *at the moment of going into the bathroom* and just wanted to check my hair and makeup like a normal person, I'd be very annoyed at the presumptive commentary replacing the utilitarian mirror.

 

The signs could be hung around the mirrors or in other places. Removing the mirrors seems over the top.

It won't change someone's self image just because there is no mirror. Sigh.

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The signs could be hung around the mirrors or in other places. Removing the mirrors seems over the top.

It won't change someone's self image just because there is no mirror. Sigh.

I agree.

 

If anything, having no mirrors will make the girls even more self-conscious about their appearances.

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"We don't feel you are smart/worthy of being able to look in a mirror. Therefore, we will take away that right. Boys, boys can handle mirrors, but not you because you are a girl."

 

If the boy's bathroom has a mirror. I've had to dash into men's bathrooms in my life, sometimes in schools, and not all of them are provided with that luxury.

 

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The signs could be hung around the mirrors or in other places. Removing the mirrors seems over the top.

It won't change someone's self image just because there is no mirror. Sigh.

Did they actually or remove the mirrors? Or did they just scotch tape some signs on them? The fact that it's for a week and the students seem to have done it themselves makes me doubt the mirrors are gone altogether.

 

I think the latter is a good compromise, you can just flip them up and use the mirror, but the message is conveyed.

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Did they actually or remove the mirrors? Or did they just scotch tape some signs on them? The fact that it's for a week and the students seem to have done it themselves makes me doubt the mirrors are gone altogether.

 

I think the latter is a good compromise, you can just flip them up and use the mirror, but the message is conveyed.

 

From the pics, it looks like they actually removed the mirrors. Kinda crazy to remove the mirrors rather than just cover them, IMO.

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Reading the responses reminds me of this scene from

.  

 

I think it's awesome that a girl went out of her way to find a way to encourage her classmates.  The glass is half full.

 

I'm sorry the post didn't get the reaction you were hoping for. :grouphug: I'm sure everyone knows the student's heart was in the right place even if we don't agree that this was a great idea.

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Reading the responses reminds me of this scene from

.

 

I think it's awesome that a girl went out of her way to find a way to encourage her classmates. The glass is half full.

I already posted that I thought the girl meant well and the her intention was lovely, but the idea wasn't practical.

 

I don't blame the girl. She's a sweet 17yo who wants to inspire acts of kindness. I blame the school administration for not thinking this through and realizing that it is not a good idea to remove the mirrors from a high school girls' bathroom.

 

Kindness is wonderful, but common sense is important, too.

Edited by Catwoman
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FWIW, there's a comment from someone claiming to be the girl's mother that says there never were mirrors. Our schools here don't have mirrors in all the bathrooms either. I suspect the girl had the idea to post some signs, which is nice, but probably not worthy of a news story.

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FWIW, there's a comment from someone claiming to be the girl's mother that says there never were mirrors. Our schools here don't have mirrors in all the bathrooms either. I suspect the girl had the idea to post some signs, which is nice, but probably not worthy of a news story.

If that's true and the girl wanted to do something nice for her classmates, she probably should have campaigned for mirrors in the girls' bathrooms. :)

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My daughter belongs to an activity in which the student leaders write secret notes "Sue, you did great today!" "Jane, I love your smile". I love it and my daughter has saved her notes. Generic "you're amazing" feels so fake to me. Like a participation trophy.

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