OT: Public Schools

[Joey]

No: HPFGUIDX 187829

<sni>
> zfshiruba: 
> Do comprehensive schools wear uniforms then? Speaking of Dudley's uniform, I can understand the Dursleys' blindness but is everyone who goes to school with him blind too? Or does pride in tradition overrule basic embarrassment? Is tradition or going against tradition more common in the books?
>

Joeydebs:
All schools wear uniforms in Britain - I've not encountered a school which does not yet. Personally, my school dress code was a white or navy shirt, black trousers or skirt and a navy jumper. The private schools did have quite old-fashioned uniforms but not quite *that* old-fashioned and yes, tradition is strong. I see it as being especially so in the white middle-class. There was a lot of anger in my area - very white, affluent - when they got rid of the middle schools and we still have our grammar schools partially because of the refusal to budge!

In the books I see tradition is a very strong element - the whole wizarding world seems to be mired in it but how much of that is the magical world and how much of that is the British character which can be very stubbornly unchanging at times?