Mixed Messages.

Whilst waiting for @realtreebivvy you try on some clothes in a shop the other day, I found myself surrounded by school uniforms for the various local schools and a giant poster showing two smiling children in their uniforms. It got me thinking about all the mixed messages we get in our society which we somehow accept despite the contradictory nature of them.

School uniforms have never had an appeal for me.

In the case of school uniform the message is belonging, fitting in, being the same and maybe a touch of ‘you'll need to get used to a work uniform.’ In contrast to this there is now the new ‘nurturing’ side of school where they are told that everyone is different, special and should be accepted for who they are. Don't come to school without your uniform, though, or well have to exclude you!

On one hand we're told you can achieve and be anything you want to be and stories of successful business people who did badly at school are shared. Then you're told you have to do well at school or you won't achieve anything in life. When this is being thrown at you in those transition years as your hormones and body are changing and you're heading into adulthood, there's no wonder that many teenagers struggle. It's an awful time to be under so much pressure to make future life decisions anyway and then you're getting mixed messages coming at you.

~○~

A mother at gymnastics was talking about why her daughter stopped doing the International Development Programme. This girl was a promising gymnast who was invited into the programme, but the hours required meant that she would finish school early some days. She wasn't strong academically and had dyslexia, so the school mandated that she had to stop those extra training hours, for something she was talented at, in order to put more work into something she would never excel at. She would have continued to learn academically anyway, just not necessarily at the pace that the system wanted. I don't know about you, but I've taught myself more since leaving school than I learnt at school.

To me, the message that they gave that girl was that she was only allowed to do something she was good at if she was also good at what they decided was important. So now she's been judged as inadequate and will likely always judge herself that way, when really her strengths just lie elsewhere.

Follow your heart.

Do as we say.
You are unique.
Conform.

Have you ever struggled with mixed messages?