Mar
Skip reading the blogs and papers a couple of days, and I almost miss this:
Minnesota Lawmaker Campaigns for Scent Hazard Awareness.
Having lived in Minnesota for over a decade, this tells me that somebody’s wealthy kid had to sit next to somebody else who was not so considerate with the perfume application. In public schools, where kids are required to sit in close quarters for hours and hours, the recipe for misery and allergic reaction is obvious.
Representative Karen Clark tried for a ban, but “school authorities” are arguing against the ban. By authorities, this probably means principals and superintendents who do not spend as much time with students as the possibly allergic teachers do.
High school in particular is an awkward time for hygiene, and it often makes me think that along with those carefully worded health classes, a revisit to the old tradition of charm school would go a long way in solving these problems. If students are made aware of how much they communicate with smell and what that communication may do to others, they just might tone it down. Then again, we are talking about teenagers - there’s a certain point in life where all things must be learned the hard way.
Perfume is an essence and art form. When people just slap it on, it just becomes one more form of silly paint, and it becomes olfactory graffiti when it’s so overdone it triggers and asthma attack.
