For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 29, 2016

Looks like Michael’s about to go to a country club than grade six if you ask me.

These days, a lot of US schools have uniform requirements for kids. But most of those require dark pants, because they know kids would get lighter ones dirty so fast…

So true, but maybe they are a little older when they start with that behavior?

soounds like dad knows of what he speaks.

In the old days, 6th graders were the “big kids” in school until they becamse 7th graders.

We watched the 16 year old’s in the smoking ring with envy. . .hoping for a puff . . .

control. the name of the game

Uniforms crush individuality,but then kids all try to look,and dress like their peers anyway.Go figure?

The putative value of uniforms is—they are “uniform.” The kids who cannot afford to keep up with the latest fashion fad (in my day it was Gant shirts) are thereby able to fit in, at least in this one area of angst. Alas, the cool kids will always find some other faux pas to ridicule.

My son started 6th grade today. He didn’t care about his clothes (and he is thrilled about never having recess again!) but I just love the echoes of our lives in the strip. Lizzie is the same age as my youngest, too, if they keep things marching in exact real time (i think she did stall at one point, early on?). We live in the US and have a child between these 2, no April, and no dog, but Lynn’s genius is that I enjoyed reading the strip when I was young, connecting with the kids, and now I’m seeing so much of what she portrays as being true in my family <3

Alpha omegaNothing to figure. Uniforms only benefit the uniform merchants. The kids will have their own uniforms regardless, but they chose them, not having them imposed on them. Anyone dressing up would have been bombarded with questions of “what is the assembly about?”. One girl wore green hose and got all sorts of questions about her health and what loathsome disease she might have contracted, Bobby sox and saddle oxfords for the rest of the year. Plus back in the late ‘40s, I suppose there was a general rejection of uniforms and war they symbolized to us. We had a home front in those days..beach004If anyone tried to establish anything brand-name as the standard, there would have been an immediate counter-fad of the opposite. There were even some of us who would move the Jim Crow streetcar signs so that the whites had the smaller area and sit on the back benches of buses so bumps felt like a carnival ride. We weren’t as conformist as made out to be – at least not a lot of us.

Too cool to break a sweat. :-)

@Summerdog, thank you, Thank you!

@Nightgaunt49. I refuse to wear anything with a brand name on it (except a Bomber ball cap of course!)

@Comicsssfan. K-Mart sucks!

@hippogriff. You’re giving away your age,ha ha.

Alpha omegaI am quite apathetic about it, nothing to brag about or be ashamed of, it’s just what is. I also know culture changes and needed to put it in context so no one would jump on me because it was not what they remember 20 or 30 years later. The nearest thing to a brag point is enjoying the expression when some medic asks what medications I take, and I say none, like I am the only 83-year-old they ever saw in that condition.

@hippogriff. 83,no meds,I’m impressed!

The joke about uniforms was done in a later strip where Elizabeth says to Elly how she cannot mismatch her friends. Elly sighs and says she will be glad when the new academic year comes.Elizabeth: How come?Elly: As of next year, the school board elected to impose a uniform dress code.Elizabeth: SCREECH! You mean we will all look the same???!