Many teachers and students think of Fridays as a chance to relax and wear a pair of jeans for a change, but not math teacher Paul Reynolds. Reynolds believes in keeping things even more professional on Friday, calling them “Fancy Fridays.”
Reynolds wears a collared shirt, suit jacket and khaki pants every Friday to keep fancy Fridays alive. He tells each of his classes to dress nice and hopes to one day get the whole school on board with this fun tradition.
Reynolds has been a teacher at Fauquier High School (FHS) for 38 years and has seen many fashion trends come and go. He feels that teachers have a professional image to uphold. Reynolds has also seen a decline in students’ appearances over the years. “In the past, when I started here, gentlemen would wear sports jackets and ties and ladies would wear dresses and suits. I know that’s old school but we have regressed so far the other way,” commented Reynolds. He feels that the tradition of casual Fridays has gone way too far. “If you look around the building on a given Friday, people have taken casual Friday to look like crap Friday.” Reynolds also likes to spread the importance of professional dress around the school. “I think there’s a certain pride associated with how you present yourself.”
Reynolds has noticed that other schools have started doing dress-up days as well. “[There was] a whole big thing in the news where there’s a young man, he’s in the third grade, and all of a sudden one Wednesday he decided to wear his Sunday suit to school,” Reynolds continues, “He wasn’t wealthy or anything. He just decided to wear a suit to school and his mom humored him. So then he got all kinds of compliments. He liked that, so then the following Wednesday he dressed up again.” Reynolds finished and explained that Wednesdays became a dress nice day at that school all because one student consistently dressed nice for fun.
COVID-19 was hard to recover from, and Reynolds thinks that it was the reason people don’t dress nicely anymore. “Nobody dressed the way you guys dressed prior to COVID. If a student came to school in pajama bottoms, they were in the office and their parents were coming to get them. We had a strict dress code, and it was followed,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds has stayed strong in his tradition of “Fancy Fridays.” Many students even look forward to these days and enjoy seeing everyone dressed up. Reynolds represents the importance of representing oneself professionally and has set a great example for students all around the school to not be afraid to dress up.
