Quote Originally Posted by kiltedsawyer View Post
Alan, please don't take this the wrong way, but when you say that you figured that adults had it "more together," you are admitting to a certain amount of naivete. Please....., jerks come in all ages, sizes, shapes, and colors, (just look at my in-laws.) Just wear the kilt proudly, know who you are, and let the negative stuff roll off your back. It's not our job to educate the world, (although I gather by your post that you are a school teacher,) ("our" meaning the kilted ones.) If you want tolerance, then tolerate others, even in their ignorance. You won't change a thing by staring down or confronting every negative remark or whistle. These guys weren't interested in learning about kilts or your scottish heritage, they just wanted to get under your skin, and you let them. I'm sure they all had a big laugh once you were out of earshot. If you're wearing a kilt, you're bigger than that.
Respectfully,
Actually, the looks I got from the eyes I caught were kind of embarrassed, so I don't think they had a laugh. The more I think about it, it really was an odd encounter.

Also, I currently work in IT, but I did some substitute teaching last year when I was between jobs. I really enjoyed the teaching I got to do, and I wrote about it on X-Marks quite a bit at the time. I wore my kilts to school every day, and while some kids didn't like it, I'll say this.....I never got "dismissed"... You know "Oh, it's just the sub, we don't have to care".. Nope, the kids may have liked me or may not have liked me...they may have thought the kilt was cool, or they may have thought it was wierd but they didn't DISMISS me. There were questions in every class, and those questions were a doorway into getting them to learn something, even if what it was that they learned wasn't necessarily on the lesson plan for the day. I wasn't the kind of sub that came in, turned on a movie and sat and read the newspaper. All in all, it was a positive experience, though I learned that I really don't want to be a High School teacher for my profession. I look at it this way...there's now a Celtic Heritage Club at Woodside High School, with 22 kids in it, and that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't showed up in a kilt. Carlmont High School kids, whose mascot is "The Scots" now have seen a kilt worn to school, not just on the schools paper for football games. Because I wore a kilt to school, two other teachers started wearing theirs on Game Fridays, and half a dozen guys in in the school spirit club started wearing kilts on Game Fridays.

Works for me!

However, you are entirely right about this...jerks comes in all sizes, colors, shapes and locations! You bet!