Talk about plain dealing. The 14- to 16-year-old girls at Shelley College in West Yorkshire, England have been banned from wearing makeup, and are checked daily for offending eyeliner and rouge. (Teachers are reportedly armed with "makeup removal kits.") Going even further, the school has removed the mirrors in the girls' bathrooms to curb what's perceived as an obsession with vanity. "There comes a point when you need to stop teachers spending half an hour in the day talking to girls about their makeup," says head teacher John McNally. "It is more sensible to say it's not allowed." Is this a good way to help kids focus on learning over looks?
Girls could benefit from restraints: This could be "a good time for girls to learn that they look fine even when their faces aren't coated in makeup," says Judy M. at Care2. I've taught high school classes where appearances were a huge distraction. The girls were "constantly trying to sneak a look at mirrors and fix their makeup" when they should have been learning.
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