I am writing this in advance.

Long time no post. I just got back from LA, Venice beach is awesome! i will write more about that later but when i was making lemonade at 10:30 (i forgot colbert was on, damn time zones)i had the sudden urge to write this. Basically, my school has these things called "formal presentations" where a large amount of your grade (20% i think?) depends on if you are dressed "formally". And that pisses me off....

Why I will not be dressing up for the next “formal presentation”
I will give this to the teacher next time we have a “formal presentation”

Dear future teacher,

First of all I would like to thank you for reading this. A lot of teachers don’t seem to communicate effectively with their students or listen to the suggestions or concerns of their students. I know some teachers probably wouldn’t read something a student wrote explaining why they did not follow a rule. That being said, I am aware that this is a school with no exceptions to the rules. This is a school where a student not doing his or her homework because she or he doesn’t feel like it and a student not doing their homework because their younger sibling got hurt and needs to be taken to a doctor. Do I think that is fair? Of course not, it disgusts me, and if I had been in that situation I would also be attempting to explain it to you. (But luckily I am in a situation where no one I am supposed to be looking out for is in need of immediate medical attention.) Therefore, I do not expect you to give me the points I would have gotten for dressing formally. I just want you to understand that I am not doing this because I am lazy or attempting to be disrespectful, I am doing this because I want to express my views on this. I would also like to inform you that I am writing this in July, before I know who my teachers will be. This is because I find it to be easier for me to write this before I know my teacher, to help avoid feeling guilty, nervous, uncomfortable, or bothersome while writing it. I am not even sure if I will be required to dress formally for a presentation, but I am assuming so because I was told by my freshman English teacher that we will be having formal presentations for all of high school. Now that all of this has been explained I am going to get to the reasons why I didn’t dress up.
The first reason is that it is simply unfair for students who have families that are struggling economically. If students do not own clothing that meet your description of “formal clothes” they will have to buy new clothes. As you probably know we do have a significant amount of families living here that are under the poverty line, and many of the students here are eligible for a free or reduced priced lunch. If students can hardly afford food how do you expect them to be able to gather enough money to buy new clothes? Assignments like formal presentations are a large reason for “the achievement gap.” Students of all economic backgrounds should be given equal opportunity. When I brought this up to a teacher last year I was told if I can afford the clothes then I shouldn’t worry about it, but as someone who personally can afford it I feel like it is unfair for me to be given a better grade because of that.
The second reason I dislike the idea of students being graded on if their clothes are “formal” or not is because you are giving students points based on their appearance. Are teenagers not already too consumed with the way they dress? I understand that students sometimes where clothing that would be distracting. It is reasonable for a teacher to not want his or her students giving a presentation in a shirt with a sexually suggestive image or a gun printed on the shirt. But for us to not even be able to where some non ripped, appropriately fitted jeans is ridicules (I am aware that I do where ripped jeans and unfitted shirts to school, but I was using that as an example.) If students are to concerned about their appearance they will have trouble concentrating on the actual presentation. It also sends out a materialistic message to students. Is society already not materialistic enough?
There are other reasons I dislike the idea of formal presentations, but those are the main two I wanted to express. Once again I am not doing this because I am to lazy to dress up or because I want to be disrespectful. I typically play along with the school system, I normally do my homework, I study for tests, etc. I do this instead of things relevant to my personal interests, which include music, art, social issues, and many other things that go deeper then texting, shopping and cute boys. But I feel like grading kids on the way they dress is just really unnecessary. Anyways, I would like to thank you for reading this.