can my kids go barefoot in school?

[Dell]

I grew up barefoot in NZ and swear this is the reason my feet are so healthy. I'm happy to see my 5 year old grand daughter without shoes at school. My 14 and 12 year old grandkids are at Mahurangi College (Rodney) where they have to wear shoes but they don't wear shoes for PE or track.

My 5 year old grand daughter has to take her shoes off at the door of her classroom. No one is allowed to wear shoes in class, including visitors. I knew she was becoming a Kiwi when I picked her up from school, pouring rain on a cold winter day and she refused to put her shoes on. I didn't make her but I do remember painful, itchy chilblains from doing the same thing.

[newzealand11]

I grew up barefoot in NZ and swear this is the reason my feet are so healthy. I'm happy to see my 5 year old grand daughter without shoes at school. My 14 and 12 year old grandkids are at Mahurangi College (Rodney) where they have to wear shoes but they don't wear shoes for PE or track.

My 5 year old grand daughter has to take her shoes off at the door of her classroom. No one is allowed to wear shoes in class, including visitors. I knew she was becoming a Kiwi when I picked her up from school, pouring rain on a cold winter day and she refused to put her shoes on. I didn't make her but I do remember painful, itchy chilblains from doing the same thing.

thats great, thanks for the information,

i want to do the same with my kids

after seeing this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoo...h_implications
and this

i learned how modern shoes destroys feets health, thats the reason i want to go to NZ, your tradition with the shoes is very intelligent compared to the rest of the world

[72andsunny]

A couple of thoughts:

1) Upon first arriving in New Zealand, I noticed many, many adults with gait abnormalities; mainly pigeon toe. I was pigeon toed as a toddler, treated, and grew out of it and/or recovered. I wanted to have my daughters evaluated when she started walking, but we were told she'd grow out of it. Also, there's really nobody out this way that could have looked at her anyway. We bought her the best German shoes money could by, and she seems to be okay. Her walking is worse when barefoot.

2) I'm told by my Kiwi coworkers that going barefoot vs. wearing shoes is a definite class issue...or at least it was when they were children. Being an American, I am impervious to class standing...maybe some Kiwis (or Brits) on the forum could comment.

[kiwieagle]

2) I'm told by my Kiwi coworkers that going barefoot vs. wearing shoes is a definite class issue...or at least it was when they were children. Being an American, I am impervious to class standing...maybe some Kiwis (or Brits) on the forum could comment.

I've never ever heard it as a class issue. From Andrew Mehrtens to my mother-in-law, I've only heard Kiwis mention going barefoot as a good solid quality.
I am quite suprised that a person from Southern California would be impervious to class standing!

I'm a big fan of bare feet and I think whether or not bare feet are better depends on individual skeleton structure and feet. People with high arches often find it uncomfortable to walk without shoes. I can walk for miles on my hobbit feet. I don't think there is just one way.

[72andsunny]

I am quite suprised that a person from Southern California would be impervious to class standing!

Really? In SoCal there is money and there is no money (as in, you have it or you don't). Nobody cares about who your parents were or how you talk; I'd propose where (and if) you were educated doesn't even matter. I've a cousin in the entertainment industry. He never graduated highschool...I'm not even sure he can read, and yet he mingles with movie stars and other Hollywood elite.

Here, on the contrary, I have employees making $18 an hour living in modest accommodations talking about how they never get picked for juries because "It is so obvious we are not their peers".

[kiwieagle]

Here, on the contrary, I have employees making $18 an hour living in modest accommodations talking about how they never get picked for juries because "It is so obvious we are not their peers".

Jury selection is also contentious in the US. Lawyers work really hard to have certain classes and races excluded or included based on their perceived bias towards the accused. That it's possibly no better here, isn't that surprising to me. I don't really find that much of a difference in the kind of "class" system that exists in NZ to the one that exists in SoCal. The positives and negatives are really similar to me. I'm not saying it's not here in NZ, I just found it strange to claim that Americans are impervious to class standing.

But this is a topic about feet. My experience is that people of a variety of backgrounds, ethnic heritage, social class, and financial rank let their children go barefoot. Of course, that's just my experience. My children go to school with some kids who have very wealthy parents and come from old NZ families and their children kick off their $200 trainers as easily as mine do their duct taped $20 Kmart shoes.

[Dell]

I've never ever heard it as a class issue. From Andrew Mehrtens to my mother-in-law, I've only heard Kiwis mention going barefoot as a good solid quality.
I am quite suprised that a person from Southern California would be impervious to class standing!

I'm a big fan of bare feet and I think whether or not bare feet are better depends on individual skeleton structure and feet. People with high arches often find it uncomfortable to walk without shoes. I can walk for miles on my hobbit feet. I don't think there is just one way.

I agree.

[Dell]

My children go to school with some kids who have very wealthy parents and come from old NZ families and their children kick off their $200 trainers as easily as mine do their duct taped $20 Kmart shoes.

Yep!

[Dell]

p.s. My American daughter in law did not like the idea of her kids going barefoot yet less than a year after arriving in NZ, the five year old seldom wears shoes. But IMHO, there's a big difference. Walking across a parking lot in the U.S. the asphalt is spattered with spit yet is is rare to see someone spit on the ground in NZ. amen.

[newzealand11]

Jury selection is also contentious in the US. Lawyers work really hard to have certain classes and races excluded or included based on their perceived bias towards the accused. That it's possibly no better here, isn't that surprising to me. I don't really find that much of a difference in the kind of "class" system that exists in NZ to the one that exists in SoCal. The positives and negatives are really similar to me. I'm not saying it's not here in NZ, I just found it strange to claim that Americans are impervious to class standing.

But this is a topic about feet. My experience is that people of a variety of backgrounds, ethnic heritage, social class, and financial rank let their children go barefoot. Of course, that's just my experience. My children go to school with some kids who have very wealthy parents and come from old NZ families and their children kick off their $200 trainers as easily as mine do their duct taped $20 Kmart shoes.

very wise kids then,

those expensive trainers don't math with human foot anatomy so they deforms the feet, i don't know how such and extremely stupid thing is so widespread, almost all shoes in the world deforms the human foot