Sunday - June 22, 2008

High school proms take over in UK.  question has become, should they?

This isn’t a particularly newsy item and I was tempted to ignore it till I came to one line in the story.  I then decided to post this.

Not having been a parent I can’t comment from that perspective.  However, there was one line in this story that caught my eye and want to bring the subject up.  Maybe I don’t understand these things too well.

There is a question in one line here where it’s asked and my reading of it says it’s suggested, that these affairs being very expensive may not be enjoyed by the kids of parents who are less well to do.  What about them?

So, I assume from that question that the person asking it is saying that if the less wealthy can not afford it then those who can afford it should do without. ?

Do I understand that correctly?  And if I do, where would that kind of thinking lead? 

By Vikki Miller
Last Updated: 5:21PM BST 21/06/2008

End of year school parties have now become costly and elaborate American-style prom affairs, causing critics to warn that they are spiralling out of control.

The average school leaving bash for sixteen-year-olds now involves stretch limousines, hours in a beauty salon and dresses costing hundreds of pounds.

Venues such as Manchester United’s Old Trafford and luxurious country clubs in the home counties are not uncommon.

But there are concerns that this extravagance, based on demand from a generation who have grown up watching American high-school students at proms, has gone too far.

Professor Cary Cooper, a psychologist at Lancaster University, said it was worrying to see kids growing up so fast.

He said: “They may look great in their expensive dresses and slathered in make-up but they don’t look like kids.

“It’s all very well for some parents to spend hundreds of pounds on their kids but what about the single parents who can’t afford it?”

Gerald Haigh, a former primary school head teacher, warned that “families get railroaded into it when they can’t afford it”.

He has also voiced concern that the prom-style party was spreading to primary schools. He heard of one case where a Year 6 leaving party saw four stretch Lincolns, two stretch Hummers, assorted Jaguars, BMWs and Mercedes all queuing to drop off 11-year-olds.

But Kate Sawyer, who works at a school that was the first in its area to develop a prom tradition, defended the idea.

She said: “The boys look like ushers at a wedding and the girls look like bridesmaids. Outside school you are used to seeing them in their hoodies and jeans round their bottoms. Everyone wants to dress up and look wonderful once in their life.”

http://tinyurl.com/4jc79p

Posted by Drew458     on 06/22/2008 at 08:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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