I remember a teacher in high school, one I never had, who wore different clothes to school every day of the year. I know this because the other kids kept a log of her outfits. She never even repeated a blouse, according to them. For all I know she had new shoes every day as well. There are only 180 days in the school year, so she'd have many less pairs of shoes than some I've heard of.

I didn't care what she wore. I don't care what most people wear. As long as it is clean and somewhat conservative, I'm fine. I don't really want see through tops among kids. If you're at a bar, it's appropriate. Not teaching high school.

But other people really care. This was brought home to me when I was teaching 8th grade in NC. It was the equivalent of an inner city school. Out of 140 kids I had one with two parents in his household. I didn't have a lot of money and I happen to like black and jewel tones. So I owned three emerald green long sleeved blouses. Several of the students took it upon themselves to tell me, privately at least, that I needed to purchase more clothes if I was going to wear the same blouse two days in a row. The shirts were not the same ones, just two of my green ones. And it was actually a Friday and a Monday, but that's “in a row” at school. I didn't have the money for new clothes. And I was too embarrassed to tell anyone about it.

Now, however, I am teaching again. Last year I only taught on Friday and Saturday and it was easy to remember what I wore. Because I only owned four outfits I thought were appropriate for teaching, I rotated them carefully.

This year I am teaching 3 MW classes, 1 TR class, and 1 Sat class. I can barely remember what I wore yesterday, much less what I wore last Saturday. I'm realizing that it's my third day of Saturday class and I can't remember what I wore last week. I do know I wore my brown slacks the first week. But I'm not sure if I wore my purple shirt or the brown one with it. So I am thinking that I need to wear something I am sure I haven't worn to class, which would put me into a dress. Thinking back I think I wore brown with brown the first week and a black skirt and a cream blouse the second. So I could wear my black slacks and a blouse, without repeating. If that's what I really wore. But I just don't remember.

I may have to start keeping a record of what I wore so that I know when I can repeat without being too obvious about it.

I think it's a little crazy that people think what teachers wear is important enough to keep a log about and talk to them. I mean, if it were dirty or torn or something… But they do, so I go with the insanity.