School Uniforms?

Question

In studies that have been done, having students wear uniforms has raised achievement scores and lowered discipline problems. Yet, they go right ahead, after each study, and let the kids continue to dress like Bangladesh refugees. Do you think uniforms are a good idea for public schools?

Answer 1

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I do think there are a lot of benefits to school uniforms. Uniforms help eliminate competition in clothing, and discourage materialism. They take away one of the important indicators of relative wealth -- everyone dresses the same, whether they are poor or better off. Also, they save money, which can then be spent on other things. And with a uniform, there is less tendency for students to dress overly sexy.

Some arguments against uniforms: You take away freedom of expression if you impose uniforms. You do take away one means of expression, but if kids can't express themselves whrough what they wear, they will develop more creative ways to show who they are... like with humor, intelligence, art, etc. Another point is that kids won't learn to dress well. That one is probably true.

Years after I graduated, the head of my school told me that uniforms have an unexpected benefit: When some kids want to rebel a little, they will do so by wearing pink socks or a tie that's in terrible shape. If there were no uniform, they would have to find more harmful ways to act out.

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Answer 2

UNIFORMS ARE GOOD FOR ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS. BUT NOT FOR HIGH SCHOOL. When little kids wear uniforms there's little chance of someone making fun of them because they will be equal. There's no reason why teachers should worry about what their students are wearing. Uniforms make kids look clean but they should never be worn by high school students.

Answer 3

when i was in middle school, we were required to wear uniforms. it didn't do anything when it came to discipline problems. the idea was to avoid distraction and to "equalize" everyone's wealth as opposed to having some rank with kids and what they wore. however, since it wasn't strict enough, you could still tell who was more poor than someone else. basically nothing changed. i feel like if there was only one standard to the skirts, pants, shirts that you could wear instead of color restriction and style restrictions, it would work much better.

Answer 4

I'm not sure if wearing uniforms really does improve students' achievements. If you actually compare the academic records of all schools before & after they have uniforms, the results are often mixed or sometimes worse. Also, when the schools adopted uniform policies, they made other changes to the learning environments as well. There can be stricter rules, new curriculum, and tighter securities, etc. So how can we be sure that uniforms is the reason why students were able to improve their grades as well as behaviors?