Lawrence School

Bottle Box
By Allan N.

Have you ever wondered about that arcade game looking box in the cafeteria? That’s the bottle box! It’s a box that’s purpose is to be a giant recycling bin for Mrs. Van Mooy’s 7th grade project.

Her project is on Dale Chihuly and she wants to recreate one of his works with bottles. Why would Mrs. Van Mooy choose what seems to be a 1st grade project of coloring bottles? Mrs. Van Mooy stated, “I did it before, I taught it before, and I liked his story. I think students would be interested in him.”

The 8th grade art teacher, Mrs. Phares, and her classes came up with the idea to reuse a refrigerator box as the bottle box, and it took two days for them to create it.

Are you wondering how they will get the bottles out of the big box? Honestly even Mrs. Van Mooy doesn’t know. “Not sure yet, something weird like a giant fishing pole,” she said.  When interviewed, she showed me a more in depth look of the bottle box. It has a hole on top which could possibly be a way to get the bottles out, this box could be flipped upside down dumping the water bottles.

Now what are they going to do with such a enormous box at the end of the year? They are going to recycle the box, as well as all the bottles that don’t get used. As of the Dale Chihuly project, Mrs. Van Mooy’s thoughts were to give it to the superintendent, recycle the bottles, or give away the project to someone else.

Lawrence School Dress Code - The Students' View of Things

By Mykyla G.

Did you know Lawrence School is the only public school on Cape Cod to have a dress code? The only other schools to have dress codes or a uniform are catholic, or private schools.

Does the dress code really make mornings easier? Would they notice the dress code if they were a school visitor? Well, I asked some people just those questions, and there were definitely different answers for all of them.

The first question I asked people was, ‘Why do we have a dress code?’  One answer that I found interesting was by Matt H. who said, “Because some kids get bullied for the clothes they wear, they wear shirts that have their favorite bands on them and other kids think it is weird, but if we are wearing basically the same thing, nobody can make fun of it.” Matt was implying that because of a person’s personal taste in a band or company, they may be teased about it if it isn’t up to others' standards. Other answers included, “It's easier to get ready in the morning and so the kids with more money don’t flaunt that they have more money by wearing more expensive clothes,” (Conrad J.), or “To stop the inappropriate dress wear that teenagers this age would usually wear, to stop teasing and silent judging that people would usually do,” (Lilli P.) Every single person that stated their opinion mentioned or implied that people would get bullied if they didn’t fit into a certain standard set by other people of their age.

The second question stumped some people: Why is our school the only public school on Cape Cod to have a dress code?  While some people replied with a simple, “I don’t know,” some people had a very thoughtful answer.  Norman R. said, “To stop the bullying, because if everyone wears mostly the same thing, the bullying is harder to do than with other schools without dress codes.”  Brady G. said, “Because this is the age where people get bullied the most,” which isn’t far from the truth. Those were all reasons behind the dress code, but Lilli P. had an answer that implies more towards the physical dress code, she says that “the school would like us to get used to uniforms, such as if you are going to be a nurse they have a dress code they or a doctor they also have a dress code, just prepares you for your future job you might have.” Most jobs have a uniform that their employees have to follow and wear every day. Whether or not we accept it, our school will continue to have this dress code, no matter what our opinions on it are.

The third question I asked people was, ‘What is your opinion on the dress code?’ and this question definitely had a variety of answers, but most of them all taking the same side. Almost every person I asked was against the dress code. Lucy A. said, “It’s terrible, nobody is going to wear it out of our years at school” which I believe is actually fairly true. How many of us are going to go into high school, for most of us FHS, wearing collared shirts and khakis every single day? Allan N. says, “I don’t really like the dress code, the collars are annoying and we might as well just wear suits.” Although Lilli P. has a good reason why we have a dress code, that doesn’t exactly mean that she likes it. She said, “I think it’s hard to find out what you can wear or can't, and it is not comfortable. The skirts are annoying to wear, and the pants are uncomfortable. I wish they would let us wear what I want so I can focus.”  Some people had big, in depth answers while other people like Brady G. or Ryan H. had shorter answers that got the point across, like “it’s stupid” or “it’s garbage.”

Even though almost every person was against the dress code, some weren’t really bothered by it. Norman R. is one of those people. “In my opinion it's fine. I’m fine with the dress code, while others are bothered by it, to me wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, I don’t think about that as something important,” he said.

Teachers claim that the dress code, while it sometimes may be annoying,  makes mornings easier, but let’s see what the students had to say. Some students say it doesn’t really change their mornings because to them, their outfits don’t really matter. One of these people is Livia J. “No,” she says, “because I never actually thought about what I was going to wear.”  Lucy A. said, “it makes it the same because I don’t really care what I wear.”

Some people, like Norman R., said their mornings are significantly easier. “The dress code makes mornings way easier,” he says. “I don’t need to find clothes that match, because the dress code shirts stand out in my closet, and I don’t have to worry about or find other clothes.” Others though, said their mornings are harder, or would be harder if they didn’t plan ahead. “I always set out my clothes for the morning,” Lilli P. told me, “but it is also hard to decide and see what is allowed and what isn’t.” 

I noticed that after going long periods of time of just seeing students my age always dressed up and looking more formal, it looked kind of weird to see people when we had gym dress code days. The fifth question was, ‘When we have dress down days, does it look weird to see everybody out of dress code?’ Lucy A. was one of the firsts to reply with a complete answer of,  “No, because I feel like that is how people should look in school.” Saying that it wasn’t too weird to them was the majority of people’s answers, but Conrad J. and Lilli P. said, “kind of, yeah,” and, “Yeah because you aren’t used to them. You are used to seeing people look nice and dressed up.”

My last question was, ‘If you were a school visitor, would you notice the dress code immediately?’ I remember from last year in 6th grade, and the beginning of this year in 7th, teachers said that you won’t even notice the dress code, since that was what most of our questions and concerns were pertaining to. When I look around the school I think that I would almost immediately notice that kids weren’t in sweatshirts or more comfortable clothing like t-shirts, shorts, and leggings, and it seemed like the people I asked agreed with this. Lucy A. said, “Yes, because we all look formal. When other people go to other schools they look at people and they would have sweatpants on, but our school has khakis and collared shirts.”

Allan N. had a bit more of a reasoning why he would think a school of 7th and 8th graders would have a dress code like we do. He said, “I think I would notice that everyone is wearing collared shirts, but I would look at the teachers and think that the students care about their education.”  Norman R. agreed.  “If I was a visitor to the school I may notice the dress code right away but I wouldn’t think about talking about it because it probably is just to prevent bullying people for what they wear.”

How about you? Do you agree of disagree with the answers of other students? Would you change the dress code if you could? Would you take the students side or the teachers side in reasoning with the dress code?