Discipline gone below the knees

Mar 01, 2026 Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists

(Kaieteur News) – Long time, dem boys went to a school where uniform wasn’t fashion. It was doctrine. The holy trinity of trousers was Tetrex, Terylene, and Gaberdine. Anything else was heresy.

One brave soul turn up in drill pants — DRILL, mind you — and before first bell ring good, he get drill straight back home. De headmaster ain’t even blink. “Young man, this is a school, not a construction site.”

Back then, cloth had pedigree. You could swish through the corridor and hear quality. If breeze blow, your pants ripple like national flag. Today? Is like the hardware store sponsor the uniform policy.

Now dem boys showing up in trousers so stiff it could stand up by itself for morning assembly. Some of them pants look like if you drop it on the ground it go bounce twice and ask for overtime pay. One lil fella bend down to tie he lace and the whole classroom hear krrrrrkkk like plywood protesting.

And leh we talk about style. Dem boys wearing pencil-bottom pants so tight, if they put phone in the pocket, Siri does start to complain about poor circulation. One sneeze and the seam negotiating surrender terms. Is like the tailor measure them with a ruler and pure optimism.

As for the girls — remember when skirt had to be two inches below the knee? You could carry ruler and check. Now some of them skirts hovering so high, you wonder if the cloth get shrink in the wash or if inflation affecting fabric too. Soon we might need traffic wardens in the corridor directing hemlines: “Miss, please pull over — that skirt exceed the speed limit.”

Nobody saying we must go back to the days when Gaberdine could cut you if you slide too fast on a bench. But somewhere between holy Terylene and tactical tarp material, we lose balance.

Dem boys seh uniform supposed to make everybody equal — not test the tensile strength of fabric or the patience of teachers. At this rate, the only thing still below the knee is discipline.

Talk half. Leff half.

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Dem Boys Seh, discipline, headmaster, Terylene, trousers

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