Attitudinal Differences

Well, my last couple of posts/pictures have elicited some email comments already which makes me realize I need to explain some of the attitudinal differences when talking about some of the activities here.

First, Clothing:
Teenage girls and women in general dress very provocatively here. It is an accepted way of life. Dresses, shirts and other tops are worn very tight and with cleavage showing - a lot of cleavage showing. I have seen some clothes worn to school that we would only wear for very dressy occasions, such as shirts and sweaters with the neckline off of the shoulders. I think most bras here come with transparent straps, as this is what most girls wear. Again, this is not thought of as pushing the limits, but is just acceptable everyday wear for women. Basically, if they have a figure, they show it off and it is quite acceptable. If some of the girls dressed this way at school in Juneau, they would be sent home. Here, it just is. Their boots and shoes are often high heeled, and usually stiletto type heels. Pointy toes are also common and I've been told, the pointer they are, the sexier the wearer thinks they are. I will try to get some pictures of the boots before winter is over. So, the girl in the very skimpy outfit performing at the Farsang event was nothing out of the ordinary. She walked around like that the rest of the evening.

Second, personal responsibility:
Everyone is responsible for their own safety, etc., and it is not the responsibility of the school or store, or public works. For example, I had a student who had her chair pulled out from under her by another student, and she landed on the floor quite hard. She complained about her tailbone hurting. I reported this to another teacher and asked what I needed to do. The response was if she was hurt enough to see the Dr., she should let her parents know when she went home and they would take her to the Doctor and that it was none of my business!!! If you were to fall on the ice on the sidewalk in front of a store, at the school, etc., well, you should have been more careful. It's no one else's fault but your own. So, the snowball throwing that I allowed my students to do, was no big deal. I noticed and thought about this earlier when we had our first snow. The kids would make snowballs and launch them at each other between classes, and there was no adult out there yelling at them to put the snow down, or to stop throwing snowballs "because someone might get hurt". If you don't want to get hit, don't go where the snowballs are being thrown. And, just don't throw them in the door of a building!