TGS Dress Code

Within these pages, you will find important information about Geneva’s dress code for students. This includes information about the school’s uniform requirements for regular and chapel days as well as requirements for special events such as field trips.

Most private schools have a dress code. And most private schools experience conflict with students over the dress code. This is not too dissimilar to the conflicts parents may have in determining what their child can and cannot wear. These conflicts often arise from children having rules and expectations placed on them that they have little say in creating and that feel stifling and burdensome. And yet most children eagerly wear with pride the uniform of their favorite sports team or the team on which they have earned a place.

In the same way, the school hopes each Geneva student values being a member of the student body and wears the school’s uniform with pride. Being a Geneva student is a privilege. As such, students are expected to know the uniform guidelines and attend to their dress each day so faculty and staff don’t have to. This keeps teachers from having to be the “police” and thus allows the student-teacher relationship to flourish.

The requirements of a school dress code go against the desires of many students, who want freedom to wear what they like and to express themselves through their dress. While acknowledging this reality, the school also embraces the role that a uniform code of dress provides in helping students become part of a larger entity, the student body of their school. The dress code, when approached properly, goes a long way toward helping students see the virtue of self-denial for the sake of a larger good. Uniforms require a daily commitment to a set of standards that at times may be unwelcome or burdensome. In working through these struggles, children can move in the direction of maturity and even wisdom.