Some years ago I worked as a temp in the office of a large comprehensive school in Belfast. On this day I puzzled at the smudges on some of the teachers’ foreheads. The sign of the cross gave it away eventually, even to a fool like me.
I can’t remember if we daubed ourselves with ash at my boarding school. We probably did. I know we had palm crosses and hot cross buns.
The public display of religious devotion might appear odd to the heathen horde, but so what? Oddness should be encouraged, not just because diversity is more interesting than monocultures, but it makes us pause and consider things from someone else’s perspective That’s got to be a good thing, even if we do not share their beliefs.
So when should the state interfere with people’s outward appearance? The French take the view that school children at state schools must all wear the same uniforms. Presumably, turbans are banned alongside Muslim attire. I wonder if Christians would get away with a smudge of ash?
My sons’ school enforced the dress code so strictly that a Doctor’s daughter was not allowed to wear a customised blouse with long sleeves as a form of sun protection. The parent felt so strongly about it that she withdrew her child from the school.
We had to wear tweed jackets, separable collars, ties, cufflinks at our boarding school. This was the 1970s. We rebelled by letting our hair grow over our collars. It wasn’t hard to spot us posh boys if we walked into the nearby village.
Let Lent begin. Roll on April 19th.
odespinner 