School Uniforms.

[City17]

What do you guys think about school uniforms, especially from people currently in schools that require them? When I was going to school, I did not have much of an opinion, but now into adulthood, I cannot see what the bloody problem is.

1) They give students the opportunity to parade their identity to the school outside of school hours.
2) They allow emergency services and people who are helping them if they get into trouble (say, on an excursion) identify them. My school did not have uniforms, but rather a dress code. That said, by the time they arrived, many of the students in my school were no longer minors.
3) They teach children about discipline and the nature of rules.

In relation to my first point, if students do not have the motivation or the pride in their school to represent it on the street, then that is a problem between the student and the school, not in the very concept of the uniform. Police have died in the uniform, their kit means everything to some officers. In sport, uniforms can define your entire career.

Students should frankly embrace it.

[Starseeker]

Hey,
as a person attending a school with a strict dress code (at least strict for my country), I've got mixed feelings about this.
First I'll describe what is obligatory to wear and what's not allowed. So we have to wear white shirts every day and a tie with an ID (tie is required for both boys and girls). Jackets with hoods are not allowed. The rest should be either trousers covering ankles or skirts covering knees and tights. We can't add any accessories such as bracelets/necklaces/earrings and we're not allowed anything so-called 'related to subcultures'.

As for the pros of the dress code, I believe the biggest one is that you don't have to waste time thinking what to wear. Honestly, that's huge (after three years at this school I have no idea how to dress when I'm free to choose, during holidays for example). I just grab a shirt every morning. The only thing is that I have to iron them, ew. I definitely won't miss that.
What teachers also mention is that thanks to dress code pupils don't look at each other through the prism of clothes. But I think that if pupils wanted, they would always find a way to decide whether someone wears expensive stuff or not. Fortunately students at my school aren't usually like that.

Now, cons. Cons in my opinion mostly concern accessories and hair (and trousers/skirts) rather than shirts themselves. So:
1. Accessories. I believe not letting kids wear jewellery (to a sensible extent, obviously) is an exaggeration. I mean - come on, even bandanas aren't allowed.
2. Hair. I love dying my hair. I don't even want to dye all of it, only the endings, but I can't. Does dying my hair blue or violet mean I'm a depraved teen or what?
3. Trousers and skirts. This point is slightly more complicated, because it only concerns one particular teacher. Dress code says our garments should be neat and tidy, so alright, I won't wear my ripped jeans. But that one teacher reprimands us for more and more ridiculous things every day. The colour of my trousers - light jeans, not some vivid red or yellow (!) - is only one of the examples.
I believe my third point shows how the dress code might be abused and used by teachers/school employees to raise - I don't even know what - their self-esteem?

To summarise, I believe dress code is perfectly fine as long as it's not exaggerated.

[Everglow.]

I have mixed views on this. My school had a uniform and I never had too much of a problem with it, but I did always prefer mufti days. I think they have pro's and con's.

Pro's:
- It stops potential bullying based on income. If some students have less than others, for example tattered shoes or fewer clothing choices, it stops this being noticeable and therefore allows a less divided school environment. As a person who doesn't come from a lot of money, I felt relatively the same as everyone else at school because of my uniform and the fact I didn't have to worry about wearing the same shirt for two days in a week.

- Uniforms encourage a certain behavioural expectation. If you're in your uniform, you are representing an institution and so a certain level of behaviour is expected. Compared to mufti days, school was more controlled when we were in uniform. We were students rather than kids, which I guess has it's pros and cons too but it made learning a lot easier as people were in the correct mindset.

- It prepares us for the real world. As soon as I started work it was uniforms and dress codes. If we have to wear them at school it makes wearing them in the working world easier to understand and accept. It makes you a member of a group of people who are similar to you in at least one way. And, practically, it identifies you so that if something goes wrong, such as bad behaviour in public, there is someone the public can complain to. I know my school had plenty of public complaints! But, when there was something students were doing well, the public also wrote to the school to commend us too. So it works both ways.

Cons:
- It takes away the students identity and self expression. With really strict dress codes in particular, it prevents students from being able to discover their own look which makes them feel comfortable. If five days a week are spent wearng a uniform, it limits how much time they have to understand themselves.

- It could be seen as a way of depersonalising students. They're made into members of such a school and not kids with their own personalities and identities. That being said, some schools have housing systems which gives kids a sense of belonging which, I think, it better than having a school full of the same kid a thousand times over!


All in all, I'm not opposed to uniforms. I think they're a good idea now that I'm a retail worker who has to wear one every day anyway. At school it was something I was both proud of an ashamed of. I wore my tie half way down my chest in a big old wide knot which was, when I look back at it now, really ugly. But, my mum took a picture of me when my uniform arrived and it made her proud, and when I became a house captain and got a new special tie which was different to everyone elses, I started to wear it like a tie should be worn because I was proud. I liked my house colours and it gave me a sense of identity within the school as well as something to belong to which was more than just a bit old building. Mufti days seemed to bring out the worst in some people and I always felt sligtly out of place because I was a bit worse off than other people, but I know that this may be less of an issue for others. I don't think uniforms are necessary as such, and if they weren't enforced, perhaps it wouldn't be so different. But, I don't think they're a bad idea. I think they work and as long as they're not really uncomfortable and there's still room for personality (i.e. hair accessories, maybe nail paint), they're fine and I have no issue with them.