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Why did My Son Refuse to Wear his Native Attire to a Chicago Elementary School?
We were facing each other. His kaftan was neatly folded between us. My 8 year old son shook his head slowly.
“Never!” he said.
His school was having a week of activities centered on self-expression through dressing. In line with the dress guidelines on the school website, each pupil was expected to come to school on Tuesday of that week wearing home clothes in the school colours — purple and gold. We rummaged through his closet and found nothing with purple or gold in it. Our unconscious leaning towards buying only blues, greys and blacks for him and his 5-year old brother was apparent. Of all the clothes strewn all over their bedroom, there was no purple or gold in sight.
With 1 hour left to get them both ready for school, I found a neatly folded native attire they’d worn for a family event a while back at the bottom pile of their clothes shelf. It was a simple, well-tailored, bronze kaftan with purple piping on the neckpiece. I was overjoyed at this discovery. It was the perfect combination of the dress expectations of their school and their culture.
But my children blatantly refused to wear it.
