--- In b_phobia@yahoogroups.com, "wilks286" <wilks286@h...> wrote:
>
> > Did anybody else have parents unsympathetic to button phobia?

No my deepening revulsion was very mild as a child but incresed through my
twenties and
thirties. I'm now an art teacher in his mid forties who finds Buttons and those
things I
associate inextricably with buttons, like formal shirts, disgusting in the way
you might find
being dished up a plate of fresh green mucus for the soup course disgusting.
For twenty years I've worked for a series of headmasters who have taken a
similar line
towards creative departments as those in industry do, which is to allow them to
express
their individuallity. Who wants their art teacher to look like a sales rep.
anyway.
The new head at our school is not of that ilk however and requires all male
staff to wear a
shirt and tie. I've explained the situation of my phobia to him but he is
unsympathetic and
has threatenen me with formal disciplinary proceedings unless I can assure him I
will wear
a shirt and tie within ten days. At present my union feel there may be grounds
for protest
as he has not required formal dress from female staff. But there are plenty of
Employment
tribunal cases which have not gone favourably as precedents so it looks possible
I may
have to look for another job and leave a school I've loved teaching at for
twenty years.