You wrote a letter to all of the students attending Boca Prep on December 4th. In this letter you state: “If you do not like it, take action….”. While we are not interested in designing our own uniform, we are interested to see if you will allow us some “modifications” to the current uniform policies as well as some other suggestions that we have with regards to our school. The suggestions are as follows: UNIFORM Shoes: We ask to be allowed to wear comfortable, protective shoes, such as athletic sneakers or topsiders, or boots. We ask that there are no restrictions on colors or brands. We will not wear open toes, sling backs, sandals, stacked or elevated heels (no higher than ½ inch). We feel that this gives us some room to express our individuality while at the same time allowing us comfort and safety. Socks: We ask to be allowed to wear any type, color, style of socks as long as they are safe, comfortable, and within reason. Belts: We ask to be able to wear any type, color, style of belt as long as it is safe, comfortable and not a safety issue – no foul language. Blazers – We are against wearing blazers at any time. They are uncomfortable, we live in South Florida and 95% of the time it is very humid and hot here. White Dress Shirt – We ask to only wear the white dress shirt only at assemblies. We do not want to wear the dress uniform on field trips as it is uncomfortable. Hair – We ask that each of us be allowed to express our individuality by wearing our hair in the style which we like and is also dictated by current trends. We will not wear our hair in such a way that is it counterproductive to our studies and we will keep it clean and presentable. Please review the attached four articles which highlight the pros and cons of school uniforms. We have highlighted specifics which we feel help to make our case. HOMEWORK We ask that our current homework policies be evaluated. We feel that we are receiving way too much homework. Homework was originally instituted in such large quantities because of the “space race” when the USA was in competition with Russia. The countries that are currently outranking us in education give little or no homework. Most of the students that attend this school have parents that work. The majority of students in our school are involved in extra curricular activities, be it sports, clubs, volunteer work, etc. By the time students come home it is late and then we need to eat, clean ourselves and then start on homework when we just spent all day at school learning. Are we not allowed to have any downtime, any time to ourselves or to relax? What ends up happening is that we then develop a hatred for learning because we are so overburdened. Teachers are not taught when in college any classes on homework. Homework, when it is assigned, should be engaging, should be productive, not something that is repetitive and we just do over and over. We ask that we no longer be overwhelmed with homework and our current homework policies be adapted to modern day thinking and proven methodologies. Please see the attached articles for your review with highlights made appropriately. As well we suggest the following reading: LUNCHROOM We would like to request that a committee be formed to look at possible other outlets for our food. Perhaps allow food to be delivered from local restaurant’s can be looked at (at the expense of the student and parent)? We are unhappy with the quality of food provided. Often, the bread is stale or hard and there is very little variety.