No make-up at school - yes or no?

The teacher of a sixth-form class asks parents to forbid their daughters to wear make-up to school. Unworldly or justified? That's what our team of experts says.

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One question - three opinions

Our daughter is in sixth grade. At the last parents' evening, her teacher pointed out to us that many girls come to class wearing a lot of make-up. She asked us parents to forbid our daughters to wear make-up to school. What do you think of such a ban?

Urs, 39 and Madeleine, 41, Bern

This is what our team of experts says:


Annette Cina
Trying things out and discovering yourself is a meaningful development process. How do I want to appear, how do I want to come across? But it's also a fact that your daughter can't show herself the way she wants to everywhere. We have all learnt to adhere to rules and norms in certain areas, even if we don't always share them. Agree with your daughter not to wear make-up at school (yet). In her free time, she can do as she pleases.
Peter Schneider
Nothing. It's simply outrageous and stupid. Such a ban turns a behaviour that would disappear by itself within a short time into a) a serious pedagogical problem that b) you now have to solve. Let the teacher ban the pupils herself and explain this ban (which she will probably find difficult) and not declare you to be the guardians who have no control over the appropriate appearance of their daughters.
Nicole Althaus
I assume that you are referring to the sixth form of primary school and therefore to girls who are still children or are only at the beginning of puberty and wear make-up. Not that I would find make-up reprehensible, after all, tinkering with the self is part of the metamorphosis of teenagers. Make-up for a party? Of course. But every day? I would forbid my daughter to do it. But I doubt that the teacher will be successful with an appeal for a ban. I think it would make more sense to have a discussion in class and at home about the signals that make-up can send out and how it changes your own perception.


The team of experts:

  • Annette Cina, 51, works at the Institute for Family Research and Counselling at the University of Freiburg. In her own practice, the psychologist, psychotherapist and mother of three counsels young people and adults. Her research focuses on the prevention of child behavioural disorders, couple conflicts, parenting and stress.
  • Peter Schneider, 62, is a columnist, satirist, psychoanalyst, private lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Zurich and visiting professor for the history and scientific theory of psychoanalysis in Berlin.
  • Nicole Althaus, 51, is editor-in-chief of magazines and member of the editorial board of «NZZ am Sonntag», columnist and author. She initiated and managed the mum blog on tagesanzeiger.ch and was editor-in-chief of «wir eltern». Nicole Althaus is the mother of two children aged 20 and 16.
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