KEY POINTS:
I'm not big on mos. Whether they're the Merv Hughes bush-bandit type, or trimmed works of art that look like strippers' patooties, hair's best on the head. Or the chest. Or under the arms if you're a bloke.
However, I support the Movember initiative. It's great to see the boys being proactive in relation to their health, and Movember's a fun way of raising awareness of issues such as prostate cancer and depression. For November, men sport sponsored moustaches and their women sport razor rash and count the days until December.
But one young man who attends a plutey private school in Wellington has been told to shave or he won't be able to sit exams. The principal of Scots College says rules are rules, and when the young man and his parents signed the school's code of conduct, there were dress and appearance standards they agreed to.
I don't imagine there was a codicil saying no facial hair except during November.
And so the pupil and parents are hoist by their own petard. They agreed to abide by the rules and now they complain because the rules are being enforced.
It does seem a bit rough and not terribly flexible - after all, senior school's pretty much broken up now for study leave - but that's why parents pay through the nose to send their kids to private schools. So rules are obeyed, and flexible relativism and political correctness and embracing of diversity prevalent in state schools won't infect their kids.
Parents of the Movember man should be grateful they're getting what they paid for.
