Flip-Flops Rule!

People live a fast paced and open minded live in the modern society. Along with more cultural exchanges and innovations, different life styles and habits of living have spread wide and swift. Many people change their old taste of fashion and join this global trend; but still others could not accept the change. Recently, more and more Taiwanese university students like to wear the New Zealand born “flip-flops” to class, and many has been accused as unsuitable due to various reasons such as not respectable, not cultured, or out of place.

In the traditional Chinese idea, the school is a holy temple, and all teachers are holy men. With all respect, the professors in a university are highly regarded in their fields of expertise; perhaps their morals, too. However, universities, as the holy place of scholastic freedom and academic open-mindedness, should impose no bar nor regulations on how people dress; not physically nor ideologically. In the classroom, professors need to dress up in order to match their social status and pay respect to their profession. On the other hand, students does not have to dress up in order to express their seriousness or respect to the instructors, but by means of academic success and positive learning attitude. Flip-flop is not the issue.

Aside from the traditional point of view, many people state that public courtesy should be kept that no flip-flops should be worn by students who are receiving higher education, especially not in the public place. Such a statement seems correct in which it is noble to be a high class student. However, the word “class” represents the faulty idea of the statement because university students should be unprejudiced in order to receive new ideas or innovate. They should not be labeled in an open academic environment because the campus is not a business conference room where dressing up is an important part of professional image. Students are just blank sheets that deriving and perfecting their academic intelligence for challenges lay ahead of them.

Then comes the issue of proper dressing and the question of why flip-flops is regarded inappropriate in the classroom? There might be answers given out like “you should cover your toes in pubic,” or “flip-flops is jut inappropriate in itself.” Such answers are simply based on intolerable judgments. From the camera lens of American college students, flip-flops is everywhere—in or out of classrooms, and on or off campuses. No one regards flip-flops to be inappropriate; in fact, flip-flops become a mainstream outfit that many girls polish their toes and choose different styles to match the color of their toe nails. Four of the members of the Northwestern Women’s Lacrosse team wore flip-flops while taking a picture with former President Bush in the White House. Since showing toes is considered as stylish and beautiful, wearing flip-flops seems to be a good fashion taste rather than inappropriate.

Embracing the global trend does not mean to forget the good values passed down by our ancestors. Students nowadays respect the instructors, and they expressed it through learning attitudes; and the different opinions or choices should be supported, not suppressed under certain set ideas. Flip-flops should not be discriminated on campus nor labeled as unrespectable and inappropriate dressing style. In fact, flip-flops are everywhere on campus, and no one can stop the trend. Flip-flops rule!