School Uniforms
Days like today I wish my kids had to wear school uniforms! When my daughter laid her clothes out last night, I figured today would be a good day. Boy, was I wrong! She wasted 45 minutes trying to decide what to wear. She went through multiple outfits and did she bother to hang them back up? No!
There are plenty of other reasons why parents and school administrators love the idea of uniforms, including:
PROS
- Reduces the incident of inappropriate fashion statements (short shorts, inappropriate statements on tshirts, spaghetti straps, etc.)
- School uniforms generally cost less than designer fashions and reduce the pressure on kids and families to be wearing the latest trends and designer brands.
- Helps decrease the development of cliques based on who’s wearing the cool clothes.
- Reduces crime related to stealing designer clothes
- Uniforms emphasize membership and group identity, fostering a community spirit.
- When students are similarly dressed it makes it easier to detect a school intruder or identify students on school outings.
- Helps kids realize that you are more than your clothes.
CONS:
- Hampers self expression and promotes conformity.
- Uniforms can be expensive.
- Uniforms do not entirely prevent the formation of cliques or gangs.
- Inappropriate views by students can still be expressed in other ways.
So what is your view? Are school uniforms good or bad? Take a moment and vote, then leave a comment and let us know! Joe at Thinking Forward is talking about this, too.
{democracy:13}
i definitely want my kids in schools that require uniforms. It almost seems like a mindset, you know? Adults might get dressed up to go to the office. In those clothes, they do their job and are professional. It’s an outfit for success, if you will. i don’t know if people would be as productive or focused in the same clothes they wear out to the mall or around the house.
i think kids, once they are used to uniforms, would probably start unconsciously thinking that uniform=time to focus on learning. We’ll see how it actually turns out for me in 5 or so years:)
Cleveland Catholic school kids get vouchers to pay their tuition, so income does not effect who can go to private school. Cleveland Catholic school kids continually outperform Cleveland Municipal School kids on NOT only standardized tests, but the SATs, which are generally a better indicator of success in the future endeavors of college and work. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I’m all for uniforms, but my kid goes to a Catholic school too. (We live in the burbs, so unfortunately we have to pay tuition.)
My daughter does the same thing, tries on tons of outfits & never puts them away. Then wonders why she is cleaning stacks of clothes every couple days. Even when I get her to pick the night before, she changes her mind by morning. I wish we had school uniforms, so much less stress. Plus no dealing with nasty comments from kids in school. When I was younger kids got mean in 7th grade, now it starts in 3rd & 4th!
I’m on the fence with this issue. I can see both sides. When my daughter was in elementary school (public), they sent home a survey, asking parents if they wanted the school to implement a uniform policy. 85% voted yes, so they put in in the next year. That was fine with me, but the only problem was, it wasn’t enforced at all. Apparently public schools can only encourage, but not enforce, uniforms. So after I spent a lot of money on her uniforms, she only wore them for the first month or two of school because it go to the point where she was the only kid in her class wearing them. Kind of pointless. I was pretty annoyed at the parents who were apparently all for uniforms when the survey came out, but couldn’t bring themselves to make their kids actually WEAR them. Yes, I am one of the parents who let my daughter stop wearing them, but only because it didn’t make sense to have her be the only one. At that point, it’s not so much a uniform as my kid wearing the same clothes every day.
Well this is what i think about school uniforms.We as parents dont have to go to school for 12 even 13 years wearing the same colors[blue,white.and,green].To my child an i we belive that a child should have free dress going to school.Now when i say free dress i mean like a nice shrit and some jeans. Yes i know some kids take use of this word [free dress].But you have to let them know what you aer talking about when you use the word.Would you like it if the mayor made a law saying every body as to wear uniforms for ever.I bet you would not,think about how the kids fell. They spen most of there time in school so why not let them wear WHAT THEY WANT? And as parents why are you saying that they should hae school uniforms. Every year you byu new clothes for school and then yuo have to byu summer clothes.Now understand that if there was now uniforms you would just buy cloths once that your child could wear for school and summer.