KatiePie:
To return to the original post on this thread, while I have no wish to go back to school, one thing which I concur with Brosse6's friend was that school was a time when you could do deliberately ridiculous things without (much) fear of the consequences. I mean in the workplace you could lose your job or be embarrassed forever but at school there was a certain pleasure to be had in protesting some rules.
I agree. We wound up with a far cooler principal my senior year than the previous one. The first day of classes a bunch of seniors arranged a walk-out during school to complain about the dress code. We were in the South and it was hot as hell in our school because of the stupid design. Rather than going ballistic and suspending all the participants, like the old guy would have done, he arranged a sit-down meeting with the ringleaders and then said he'd announce his decision in the commons area first thing the next morning.
So the next morning a good percentage of the 3000+ students were all crammed in to await his decision. He came in wearing his coat and tie, strode to the middle of the commons and then climbed up onto a table so everyone could see and hear him. Without a word, he took off his pants, reveling a pair of Bermuda shorts on underneath, climbed down, slung his pants over his shoulder and walked out. Needless to say he gained instant rapport with the student body as a result, but if the ringleaders hadn't taken the chance and convinced us to participate in the walkout then things might not have changed (and we would have certainly missed a sight I can still remember vividly 40+ years later).