Blankets Unfold Conflict
STUDENT DEFENDS BLANKET USE
Written by Emilie Ker
Blankets are a hot commodity around the school. Girls and even guys use them during the school day because the temperature in the school is often equivalent to a meat locker. So yeah, I need blankets.
It is insensitive for teachers to ban blankets from their classroom. Every classroom is a different temperature at different times of the day. In World History, it’s as if I am in the Bahamas, but in Chemistry I seem to have traveled all the way to Antarctica. I need to be prepared for any temperature situation when I come into school. Students are constantly complaining about how cold the school is. I think it’s time we do something about it, and that is letting the student body use blankets at our leisure. I’m trying not to offend anyone by using a blanket; I’m just trying to keep warm.
Teachers aren’t concerned about the temperatures outside of their classrooms. That may not sound like a huge issue, but it is. It’s an issue for the students considering we are warm-blooded and need our blankets because they allow us to to stay warm in in these freezing classrooms. Plus, blankets are fun. People bring blankets to school so they can show off their individual style and they keep them warm.
Blankets are fun, and keep us warm, what could get better than that? With the temperatures this cold in the school, blankets are a necessity.
TEACHER BANS BLANKETS IN CLASSROOM
Written by John Minnick
Once a month, I meet friends on Sunday night at the Zona Rosa Buffalo Wild Wings to play trivia. My friends, who are all well over 21 years old, like to sit in the bar section because there are fewer screaming babies and ill-mannered children. This side can be quite chilly, and I froze one Sunday sitting under an air-conditioning vent. The next month I came prepared. However, I left my Nebraska Cornhuskers fleece blanket at home and wore my Staley Falcons hoodie inside, even though it was 95 degrees outside. I knew to dress appropriately for the inside, not the temperature outside.
The same common sense should apply for all of us at school.
Classrooms at Staley vary widely in temperature. Some rooms are meat lockers; others are saunas. I’m lucky. Sides of beef are right at home in my classroom, and I like it that way. I tell students on the first day that it tends to be cool in my room, and they should plan on wearing a hoodie or a sweater to be comfortable. Early this year, some students came to class swaddled in fleece blankets. In response, I declared my classroom a “no-blanket zone.”
I did this for three reasons. Blankets are a health concern. They’re dragged on the floor and taken into the restrooms. Who knows where else these blankets have been? I wouldn’t want to sit at a desk where the student in the previous class bundled himself or herself in a blanket that hadn’t seen the inside of a Maytag washer for months.
Another reason is you’re in high school, not preschool. Toddlers can get away with wrapping themselves up in “bwankies” because it’s cute. Young adults wearing them look silly. It’s hard to take you seriously.
Finally, no one at the law firms downtown or on the Plaza cocoon themselves in blankets at their desks. None of the nurses or doctors at North Kansas City Hospital check on patients that way. Workers on the assembly line at Ford and General Motors don’t. Why? They’re not appropriate for the workplace.
Life is all about trade-offs. One trade-off we all make is dressing appropriately for the circumstances or conditions in which we find ourselves. Wrapping yourself up in a blanket is fine for home, but it’s not OK for school.
Leah • Apr 18, 2024 at 10:16 AM
You are mistaken about whether adults use blankets in professional environments. You don’t drag them to meetings or to see clients, but it is not at all uncommon to keep a blanket at your desk and wrap yourself up while working.
My advice: 1) Stop trying to prepare kids for the “real world” with arbitrary rules. Rules should have a purpose. If they don’t, they should be questioned. 2) Don’t eat off your students’ blankets?
Natalie Nunn • Sep 21, 2023 at 1:43 PM
yass we need blankets, ofc the blankets should be checked to make sure nothing is in it, and if a student wants one and don’t have schools should have some provided and those should be washed duh we don’t want stinky blankets that might have snot on it and I bought a blanket and got away with it cause I all I did was wrap put it on my lap to cover my lags or wrapped it around my shoulder and it wasn’t a distraction.
Nadine • Oct 31, 2019 at 2:11 PM
I think blankets are a danger in the school. Other kids trip over them, some of them stink, teenagers look ridiculous (thats what jackets and sweatshirts are for). Also, You are unable to tell what is under the blanket. Gun, knife, vaping device, etc.
Ethan Vandon • Nov 7, 2018 at 11:40 AM
I think we should be able to have blankets at school is because they are soft, and help us students focus, yet our school won’t allow us to have them. I like my soft blanket, and the 1 day I brought it regardless, I was focused all day with the blanket, and I’ve got ADHD, so that’s a definite sign that blankets help people focus
Tracy Nail • Oct 30, 2018 at 5:16 PM
Wear some clothes. And don’t dress like a homeless. Children think it’s cool but all we are doing is degrading our society. We’ve come to a flat, fuzzy piece of cloth to keep us warm instead of a coat or tie to dress ourselves. Growing up is harder when all we think is what we do… isn’t hurting anyone. Think out of the box. It not all about you.
Trystan • Apr 18, 2018 at 1:20 PM
I understand the concerns of the teachers, but I believe that blankets should be allowed at least to test the policy. If it distracts the students, or ends up being a health concern or is unsafe in a Science classroom, go ahead and ban it. If they have blankets, they most likely have jackets to wear. I suppose it can vary by school. At mine some students bring blankets, and nobody says anything and it’s never an issue. Plus, nothing can be more distracting than being cold in school- that itself can take away from learning, similar to being hungry. We’re passing bills to eat in schools, why can’t we give wearing blankets a try?
jeannette • Dec 8, 2022 at 4:54 PM
If a child is cold, they should wear layers. The teachers are not wearing blankets and they are in the same cold building. One job for a school is to try to show students life in their future. If they are wearing blankets and their pajamas as well to school, it is only teaching them that they can go to their future jobs dressed like that, and that it is okay. But, most jobs have a dress code based on the job requirements. Blankets can bring in bedbugs, lice, etc. It is a safety issue in that sense and in the sense that students can hide objects that have already been banned. Once you let students try something, it is very difficult to go back. Also, there is actually studies shown that cooler rooms keep kids awake, while blankets make them sleepy.
Montie • Sep 13, 2024 at 6:39 PM
I disagree. I am a teacher and keep a blanket in my room and will wear it to the library. Rules serve a purpose. Professionally dressed is a matter of opinion.
Peyton • Nov 3, 2017 at 8:41 AM
I agree with allowing blankets at school because all classrooms are different and when kids are cold it’s hard for them to concentrate on what they need to do.
Carson • Sep 24, 2017 at 10:45 PM
I think that blankets should be aloud at school
And at work specially if someone u work with is gonna wrap it around u and leave u tied to the chair at the end of your shifts