How Teachers Should Dress

From my manuscript, Mindful Teaching:

When I go to work, I dress up as if I’m attending a corporate board meeting in San Francisco. In other words, I wear slacks and a tie four or five days a week, and if I attend a public event such as Back to School Night or a district board meeting I wear a suit. My outfit radiates professionalism, purposefulness, maturity, wealth, and ambition. Parents mistake me for an administrator or district official and ask me questions, because I look like I am in charge. Students notice this attention, deserved or not.

Would I teach better in jeans and a flannel shirt? My dress does not alter my teaching nor does it change my classroom technique one way or another. However, my outfit does generate more respect from both students and parents than if I wear jeans and a flannel shirt. I feel that as an uber-authority (in the students’ eyes) I will be subject to less acting out than the teacher in jeans and the flannel shirt. I will enjoy less disruptions and more successful lessons. I advise all high school teachers to dress up like business professionals unless they are preparing science labs, art projects, or physical education programs. Unfair as it is, a kid will construct a poor first impression of a teacher that looks like a grounds keeper. He will maintain that impression for a long time, saying to himself, “If he doesn’t have respect for his appearance and his profession, why should I?”

I want a student’s, parent’s and administrator’s first impression and subsequent sentiments to be working for me, not against me. Psychologists state that visual clues are used more than other modalities. Abraham Lincoln bought a new suit so voters would not “judge the peanut by its shell.” You may be subject to some mocking by your teacher peers who dress like fast-food workers. Accept the teasing in good cheer. It’s still worth dressing up.