ABSTRACT
Clothes are inevitable. They are nothing less than the furniture of the mind made visible. (James Laver)
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. (Henry David Thoreau)
If I were able to choose one book from among the many that will be published during the 100 years after my death, do you know which one I would choose? No, I would not select a novel from this library of the future, nor a history book (when a history book is of interest, it is also a novel). No, my friend, I would select a fashion magazine to see how women will dress a century after my demise. And those bits of fabric will tell me more about the future of humanity than all the philosophers, novelists, commentators, scientists, and scholars. (Anatole France)
Tomorrow is your first day of teaching at an inner city school where you have never taught before. Or perhaps your posting is in some unfamiliar posh public school (‘private school’ in North America). What question races at least once through your mind?
