Naughty boys

It is nothing new, really, curious boys trying to figure out what's up a woman's skirt, just like one wonders what's up a Scottish man's kilt. When there were no camera phones, boys used mirrors or just tried to lower themselves enough to take a peek. Good for acrobatic training.

But a recent incident in a Singapore school, some school boys were reported to the police for taking upskirt pictures of their teacher. This had set off a debate whether there should be a dress code for women teachers. Some have even suggested that all teachers wear dress-pants for the ultimate 'protection'. Many disagreed. Count me in. I agree that teachers should not be made to look as if they are the ones who are to blame for upskirt incidents because they wore something that encouraged such behaviour.

No matter how short or long the skirt, you can trust that curious boys will be at their inventive best to achieve their object of satisfying their curiosity. And I stress the word curiosity because I believe boys are just that and not malicious or vulgar. I may be wrong and boys may have changed since the time I was their age. Perhaps the very public and free media channels like blogs and Youtube allow them to bring something essentially private into the public domain. They certainly do not lack examples from adults, who regularly use these media to put up stuff that sometimes border on the pornographic, all in the name of self-expression.

I agree with many that women teachers just have to be one step ahead of their hot-blooded young charges not be to caught unawares. That's the ultimate solution - not imposing a uniform on teachers. I am surprised that some teachers remain so naive about youth. Didn't they learn that from their time in the Institute of Education when they were preparing themselves for the teaching profession? But then, I have known of teachers who dress provocatively, with not much more than many female office workers whom you will encounter in buses and the subways and trains. I am sure you would have encountered these women who hike up their skirt or plunge the neckline, and often both, in their dressing, all of which seduces the opposite sex, but who will scream murder if you looked too closely. To these I say watch out, because boys will be boys and they will do their mischievous best to foil the adult.

Would to it that these same boys had applied the same inventiveness and industry in their school work! Therein lies some lesson for the way we teach students nowadays. I just don't know right now what that may be.


Image source: www.morguefile.com. Author: Mary R. Vogt