Over the past few days I've noticed a bunch of my students had new haircuts. It clicked after a while that they were all kids who were set to start Middle school very soon, in fact I think most of mine started on Tuesday.
The boys with haircuts all looked like fresh military recruits while the girls who all had long hair had theirs snipped to a much shorter length all because their school requires them to have shorter hair. I don't know if this is nationwide or just a Daegu thing. None of them like it and a few boys had their hoods covering their heads which kind of made it worse because everyone knew what was going on and it made them look a bit soft.
Over the years several of my students who are girls have complained to me that they have to have shorter (though not short) hair. They feel it's unfair. My first thought is to feel sorry for them and have a bit of sympathy. I asked my wife for her opinion and she just said she was "used to it," and I taker this as meaning she doesn't care. For the boys it is perhaps a bit over the top. The kids who now have very short hair didn't exactly look like Billy Ray Cyrus.
Your hairstyle forms part of your personality and helps define your individuality and thus must represents a loss them. Perhaps it is their school's way of making them know that they all equal but also must all act the same way. It's probably just because it's something that has been there for a while and they just don't want to change.
The haircut is not the only change they'll have. From my experience several of them are in danger of losing some of their personality for the next six years as they have to cope with a stream of exams and flow of pressure from school/parents/social expectations. From being carefree children they may now turn into zombies whose only joy comes from the PC room or their phone. I wish them all well and hope they will enjoy growing their hair back as soon as possible
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