Some people believe that children today simply grow up accustomed to more privacy. Years ago, when bigger families lived in smaller houses with fewer bathrooms and bedrooms, it was the rare child who could maintain a sense of modesty.

Students who dreaded showering at school got a lift two years ago after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to file a lawsuit in Federal court over a mandatory shower policy in Hollidaysburg, Pa.

"Unless a student is drawing flies," said David Millstein, the lawyer in the case, who represented a shy, overweight girl who felt humiliated in the showers, "it's none of the school's business."

The school district dropped its policy. But in the meantime, Mr. Millstein was deluged with calls and letters of support from people who remembered their own feelings of shame and embarrassment in the public showers.

"In 25 years of doing A.C.L.U. work -- cases on prayer in the school, you name it -- I had never had any response like this," he said. "People remembered their own humiliation. I myself remember moving from my little country school to the city school, and being mortified about having to take showers. But in those days, you did what the schools said, you did what the teachers said."

Mandatory showers and teachers on shower patrol are virtually a thing of the past now, and rinsing off after gym is the student's option. In fact, some schools are considering removing showers because they are not used.

Modesty among young people today seems, in some ways, out of step in a culture that sells and celebrates the uncovered body in advertisements, on television and in movies.