Here's To Dress Codes!

With school starting in three weeks or so, my thought have turned to Back to School shopping for clothes. I am thinking one new pair of khakis will do for me. Tan, of course.
One of the best days of my career? The announcement that ties were no longer required as a part of my professional dress. For much of my first 15 years in education, I was required to wear a tie and dress slacks and dress shirt in  the classroom with a rare exception of wind pants and a colored shirt. I once had to change twice a day, as I taught, coached, taught, then coached again. I almost developed a resistance to deodorant.  It was quite often a relief to have a game to go  to, as I could stay in one set of clothes. With the advent of a more modern approach and integration into the realities of the professional world, polos, sweater vests, jeans on certain days, and even a t-shirt for a special cause have become normal and acceptable during the work day.
 I believe that it is quite often freeing, makes students and parents who are more often than not,  not dressed in "Sunday clothes" more relaxed and with a sense of connection. It is a branding, also, of a team, when done right, with all dressed in black bonded together, for appearance and for purpose. The relaxation has made for better morale, in my experience, with consistently high professional standards not suffering. Special days for fundraising causes has led to Jeans Days. Now, piercings and tattoos and too much cleavage or tight clothing beyond breathability or even oddly colored hair, that is a generation or two away from being acceptable in my school district and most, I think, but that time will most certainly come. (Parents are leading the way in those areas, as they quite often dress as if they are going to the bar after their academic conference or registration meeting.)
 The key connection will be made, in humble opinion, with the fact that many churches now have youth ministers with tattoos, and "Sunday clothes" does actually mean jeans and boots and a polo or nicely pressed t-shirt. I saw a pallbear with a "gimme cap on not long ago. Church will determine what is acceptable with state in a liberating manner. Some irony there, I think.