Kilted in my classroom

**jumary** · 10th May 16, 06:05 PM

I teach 6th grade English, and I play the pipes. The music teacher at my school asked me to play for the K-5 kids. I showed up in my new 5 yard Air Force (unofficial) tartan kilt from USA Kilts with waistcoat and white shirt with tie. It was my first full day kilted.
My 6th graders had plenty of questions, but only one that I thought was The Question. However, I was relieved when I realized she was just asking if kilts have built in shorts. I just said that it did not have shorts and that was that.
Several girls asked why I was wearing a skirt only to be loudly corrected by the boys with "It's a kilt!"
One boy did ask why I would wear such a thing, and I said because it was comfortable, and also explained the piping connection.
My favorite question came from one student who asked if I would wear it more often, and I plan on doing so at least once a month, and probably more.

**IsaacW** · 10th May 16, 06:42 PM

This is how it starts!!

**Pat Stephens** · 11th May 16, 02:49 PM

Fantastic! I teach at a college and would love a chance to wear a kilt. Regretfully, I do not play the pipes (yet!), so I may have to wait for an International Day as just wearing it to wear it sadly may not go over so well for my coworkers/students.

Nice job on your first day as I enjoyed reading about it!

**tpa** · 11th May 16, 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by Pat Stephens

Fantastic! I teach at a college and would love a chance to wear a kilt. Regretfully, I do not play the pipes (yet!), so I may have to wait for an International Day as just wearing it to wear it sadly may not go over so well for my coworkers/students.

You could always take in a picture of yourself in your kilt and do some canvassing as to whether wearing to college would be appreciated or not. My guess is you are probably worrying unnecessarily.

**NPG** · 11th May 16, 04:37 PM

Originally Posted by Pat Stephens

Fantastic! I teach at a college and would love a chance to wear a kilt. Regretfully, I do not play the pipes (yet!), so I may have to wait for an International Day as just wearing it to wear it sadly may not go over so well for my coworkers/students.

Nice job on your first day as I enjoyed reading about it!

Hello Pat Stephens,

What do you teach? As a history professor I found excuses to wear my kilt, but I know it can be harder in other disciplines. Though the school I teach at seems to be a bit more tolerant, one of my colleagues dresses up as Boudica and Queen Elizabeth I for one her classes. Now I teach almost exclusively online, so I can wear the kilt any time I want and no one is the wiser.

**jumary** · 11th May 16, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by Pat Stephens

Fantastic! I teach at a college and would love a chance to wear a kilt. Regretfully, I do not play the pipes (yet!), so I may have to wait for an International Day as just wearing it to wear it sadly may not go over so well for my coworkers/students.

Nice job on your first day as I enjoyed reading about it!

My boss was completely ok with me wearing my kilt. Maybe your coworkers would surprise you. The students too. I addressed it in each class and took their question in the first few minutes, and they were ok with it. I will add that I definitely did not bring my Sgian Dubh!

**Pat Stephens** · 11th May 16, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by NPG

Hello Pat Stephens,

What do you teach? As a history professor I found excuses to wear my kilt, but I know it can be harder in other disciplines. Though the school I teach at seems to be a bit more tolerant, one of my colleagues dresses up as Boudica and Queen Elizabeth I for one her classes. Now I teach almost exclusively online, so I can wear the kilt any time I want and no one is the wiser.

I am a professor of geobiology thus I would guess it would just be me coming in my kilt and going right into a lecture. I can only imagine the looks on my US deep south students, albeit Florida, be they adults or not (we have students from 15-70+ that take classes)!

As for my co-workers, I am not sure how they would react yet I already seem to have a unique enough reputation that it probably would not matter. My dean is a very nice person, though he is the neat and tidy type (think Disney worker) but I would think he would be okay as long as I am still professional looking (kilt, nice shirt and tie, and nice shoes).

Hmmm, online classes. My dean has interest in developing more of them thus they seem to be in my future. I suppose nobody would be the wiser in that case if I am wearing a kilt from home!

**bdkilted** · 12th May 16, 03:55 PM

I used to teach high school social studies, in a very rural school in East Texas. I would wear my kilt at least once each year and since many in the South are Scots decendents, they eventually accepted it. I used the time to teach about not only the kilt and accessories, but also Scottish culture. Several students over the years asked where they could buy their own kilts.
I now work for the Ferderal government and since I don't identify as a cross dresser, I'm not allowed to wear a kilt. So much for the diversity they are always preaching.

**jumary** · 12th May 16, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by bdkilted

I now work for the Ferderal government and since I don't identify as a cross dresser, I'm not allowed to wear a kilt. So much for the diversity they are always preaching.

I can see where an employer has the right to enforce a dress code, but I hope this isn't true.

**Knight** · 12th May 16, 05:50 PM

If it were a private business, than that would be one thing, but it's the federal government, he mentioned, and banning the kilt strikes me as wrong through a federal agency, unless there was some legitimate safety reason.

I've brought my kilts into the classroom for National Tartan Day, but I haven't yet worn one to the school. My district has no dress code, and my principal has no issue with it, but there's the steep slope of courage that needs to be climbed to make it happen.