Nobody seems to think about the opportunity costs. To prevent sneaking a listen to IPODs and possible crimes of a more nefarious nature, my school bans hoodies. Many schools do. Others just ban wearing the hoods, which hide earbuds and occasional faces.

The problem is the time sucked by disciplinary issues created by the No-Hoodie Policy. We are reporting kids to Deans, sometimes throwing kids out for insubordination when they refuse to remove the offending garment, talking to them about the need to follow rules, even calling parents to explain the dress code, despite the fact that the code is provided to families at the beginning of the year. How many hours have I lost to hoodies so far this year?

Eduhonesty: I’d let the Battle of the Hoods go. If a few students heard a few more songs, I still suspect we might net out ahead in the fight for educational minutes. Also, these are high school students. At some point we might try trusting them. If we can’t trust at least most of them now, this country’s in a world of hurt.