The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

The Khaki Pants: A Story of a YES Prep Parent and her daughter’s new school uniform

August 31, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

My daughter spent the last five years of school with no uniform dress code.  She has never really been “into” clothes. Things don’t have to match or be trendy or even be clean for that matter. I feel like I have dodged a bullet for the last five years. It didn’t even hit me that I would have to worry about her putting up a fight to wear a YES Prep uniform.

Khaki pants and a collared shirt. What was so bad about that? Ok, the button-down shirt. I knew I had to come up with something pretty good for that one to get past her. Who wants to wear a dress shirt in the summer heat?

The first day of summer school approached and she started getting nervous and thinking about reasons not to go to school. Her last ditch effort-- the “boring uniform”

What could I say about the uniform? How could I convince her that it was not about the uniform, but what the uniform represents? As I ironed her khaki pants I began to think about my strategy.  I would tell her what khaki pants have represented to my family. I would teach her to look back before she could move forward. 

To my mom, growing up in Houston’s Second Ward, khaki pants represented the things she didn’t have, money and choices. She had to wear my uncles pants—no skirts or dresses. There was not enough money to go around and if she wanted an education she had to go to school—she had no choice but to put on her brother’s khaki pants, torn and over-sized and go to Rusk elementary. She didn’t make it out, she dropped out and her brother’s, my uncles, ended up in prison, where they continued to wear their khaki pants. To them, the khaki pants continued to represent no money, no choices and for them, no freedom.

For my dad, growing up in Houston’s 6^thward, khaki pants also represented the things he didn’t have, money and choices. My dad graduated from Jeff Davis High School in 1961.  With his high school diploma in hand, but no money or college acceptance, he took the only ticket he knew to a better life and on the last day of school, he walked into the army recruiters office and signed up for the Vietnam War. He got his green khaki uniform and went off to Vietnam with hopes he would make it home one day to get a college education.

After my mom and dad got married, my mom eventually got her GED and my dad came back from Vietnam to take some college classes with the GI bill he earned. He became a civil servant, a postal worker for 30 years.  Their struggle was not unique. Their circumstances were not an excuse to give up. They continued to fight for what they knew was the way to a better life.  They fought for their education and eventually would fight for mine.

I look back now and realize that I never saw my mom or dad wear khaki pants. I didn’t own a pair of khaki pants until I went to college. I proudly wore my khaki pants as part of my sorority uniform.  To me, khaki pants represented choice and opportunity. Though money was very limited, I was still in a better position than both my parents. I was living on campus at the University of Texas and living the dream they had for themselves and for me. I was getting a college education. I had choices and opportunities.

So I create a legacy for my child to take with her. I tell her the khaki pants she puts on every day represent our family’s struggles and successes, our hopes and dreams.  I’m passing on a khaki torch to her. The khaki pants she puts on every day now represents her legacy of excellence. She will blaze a trail of excellence in her khaki pants for herself and for our family.

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