Back-to-School Shopping August 2025

     I am going back-to-school shopping! Soon, not today! It’s still July, and I refuse to shop for school supplies in July. But as soon as I turn the calendar to August, it’s game on. I love walking up and down the  aisles of school supplies seeing what’s new and what is, for sure, going to get my students to be the best they can be and make it to the end of another school year successfully! Writing supplies of course are my favorites; colorful pens, composition notebooks, pencil cases and of course binders to organize it all. There are other necessities of a new school year that are joyful too; new backpacks, lunch boxes, maybe a new water bottle (don’t forget the stickers!) but I think the most enjoyable aspect of back to school shopping is getting a new outfit or two - certainly new shoes! 

    I am going back to school shopping, but I am not as jubilant this year as in years past. I have been slowly replacing my wardrobe; I have already tossed out all of my high heel shoes and have slowly replaced a few skirts with slacks. I have been dressing for “success” since I was 20 years old, ever since my first job working as a bank teller. When I first became a teacher in 2001, I decided then I was going to dress professionally everyday, and to me that meant dresses or suits, slacks and blouses at the very least. It was funny, and sometimes frustrating, that I had so many professional clothes in my closet;  I didn’t have much in the way of casual clothes to wear on weekends or during vacation. 

    For 20 years I dressed professionally, or what many people have defined as professionally, and I knew I was making an impact on my students because they would often comment on how “put together” I was - students are brutally honest so I took this as a positive. I had many conversations with my students in regards to dressing for the “role you play and the job you want.” At one point in my career, I had a student ask me how many dresses I actually owned, because they never saw me in the same dress twice in one month. I owned 26 dresses. I would just add a new dress every month or two and my collection added up.  

    But in the last few years of my teaching career, I have not purchased new dresses or high heels. I will not even try on a new dress. In fact I gave away several to Goodwill and sold a few at my mom’s garage sale. I am replacing my high heels with comfortable shoes and pencil skirts for slacks; and it’s not for reasons many would think. Yes, I am getting older; however, I have not changed my view on dressing for success or dressing professionally when you work a professional job. It’s because I can not bring myself to wear another dress to school. 45 Minutes is too long. 

    45 minutes of sitting in the dark, tugging and adjusting my pencil skirt and crisp white blouse so that I would not be "inappropriate" in front of my students who were sitting, huddled on the floor with me. 45 minutes of being forgotten because we were in an interior computer room of the building that is not used that often. 45 minutes to think about what I would do if this were NOT a drill; would I be able to get up off the floor and help any of my students, would I be able to get up off the floor and fend off an attacker, would I be able to get up off the floor and run? Yes, it was a drill, and yes we were eventually released and apologized to for being forgotten; however, it was in those 45 minutes that I decided that “dressing for success” also meant that I needed to dress in a way that if I were to be able, in any way, to help my students or myself out of an active shooter situation, the way I was dressed that day, was no longer an option. 

    From the beginning of my teaching career, from Columbine to Parkland, I have been witness to too many school shootings around our state and the nation. I have endured more active shooter drills that I can count and professional development to learn how to deal with the before, during, and after. “Through-n-through & Tourniquet Training” and “Hide, Fight, & Flee” were the latest education in my teacher's combat services. A friend and colleague from Oxford High School, (Shooting Nov. 2023) who was in the room where the active shooting occurred, regaled her tale and her take-a-ways, “You don’t run when there is an active shooter; you RUN!” I cannot emphasize enough the fear invoked when she said, “you RUN!” Again, confirming to me dresses are no longer the way to “professionally” dress as a school teacher. 

    I know there will be teachers and especially administrators who disagree with me, who say that they can hide, fight, and flee dressed up in their professional attire; and that is ok, I am not here to change their minds. Dress however you feel is best for you. Perhaps, I would like for the administrators to understand and allow teachers to be comfortable in their own clothes, dress how they feel they can be their best for their students - I decided that I was no longer an effective teacher if I could not fight for my students while in a dress. I will never not dress like I don’t care. My clothes are clean and neat, they are appropriate for a public high school setting, but they are clothes I can hide, fight, and run in. There has always been a comfortable distance between the schools who have dealt with active shootings and my own, and I hope the end of my career comes without such witness. 

    I am going back to school shopping today, but my cart will not contain any dresses or skirts, and certainly no high heels; but I will be perusing those aisles of the colorful pens, composition notebooks, and binders looking for the newest and best back-to-school supply that will motivate my students to be the best they can be and make it to the end of another school year unscathed.