Female students slam school for lessons teaching them how to walk in high heels

As many women (and men!) can appreciate walking in high heels can be a tricky skill to master, but being taught it in school could be a step too far.

Which might explain why a group of students have complained after being offered “modern etiquette classes” involving learning how to work in high heels.

The etiquette lesson was part of a weekly workshop for the students to help get them ready for post-school life, but following the class some female students at Girton Grammar School slammed the girls-only session for being “sexist”.

“On the one hand, we are being expected to excel at STEM subjects alongside the boys,” some of the pupils wrote in a letter to the Herald Sun. “On the other, we are being asked to bring in high heels so that we can learn to work in them.”

“It is demeaning and sexist.”

The students also complained that the inclusion of a lesson on high-heels was outdated. “This is not 1950, this is 2017,” they wrote.

Following the upset, the school scrapped the high heel class and Headmaster Matthew Maruff explained that the workshops had been designed with the best intentions to arm students with information about “self-conduct in social and work environments.”

“At all times, we encourage our students to speak out respectfully on any issue that concerns them,” he told the Herald Sun.

“In this instance, we were very glad that two students let us know that they felt uncomfortable being asked to bring high heels to school as part of the modern etiquette session. Several students did elect to seek advice related to wearing high heels after the session and the school was happy to support these students in that choice.”

There has been much controversy surrounding the subject of behaviour and appropriate clothing in schools of late. Just yesterday, Yahoo Style UK reported on the mum who turned to the Internet for advice when her daughter was told not to ‘pull up’ her tights in front of male teachers.

And boys at Exeter’s ISCA Academy recently wore skirts to protest the school’s no-shorts rule during a heatwave, while a four-year-old boy’s mum was shocked to have him sent home for his long hair in Texas.

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