Arguments on school uniforms?

I used to live on Long Island where our public school had no uniforms. I now (for 5 years) live in a county in Florida where all schools have some form of uniforms. Most schools here require tan, navy or brown bottoms and a solid polo shirt tucked in w/ a belt. It is a neat, clean look and you get the impression when you see the kids in large groups that they are gathered to learn and not just for socializing.

I am the parent of a 2nd and 6th grader. I personally like the uniforms for several reasons. I spend much less money overall on clothing. There is not that pressure every fall to come up with 4 or 5 fantastic outfits comprised of many specific (and expensive) items that my daughter (especially) would want. You don't have to worry about hearing "I don't like those pants anymore - I don't want to wear them - I want these instead" because they don't have that option. They do not care at all about just reusing any uniform components that still fit from year to year because new ones will be the same anyway! It is very easy to get dressed in the morning...... Before uniforms it could take 20 minutes to decide what to wear! Sometimes there might even be an outfit change.

The school my children are attending this year is a charter school where they require tan or navy uniform bottoms of your choice but you must purchase polo shirts with their logo embroidered on them from 1 specific source and it is mail order. This was a little bit of a hassle and I do wish the tops were easier to acquire.

Besides the ease and financial benefits there is something more important. When I was in high school you could just look around the lunch room and see the very distinct groups. The jocks, stoners, preppies, etc were so identifiable and separate from each other but the uniform code just knocks that all away and there is a sense of everyone belonging to one big community......... the school.

My daughter has a friend who goes to a school with a more lax dress code (polos can have stripes!) and she is envious of this fact. When I let her pick out something special to wear outside of school I think it is more precious to her now because of the uniforms. She values it a little more.

As you can tell I am a proponent of uniforms. All I can say is I've seen it done both ways and uniforms are beneficial to me in several ways and most importantly to my children in the long run. If you asked my kids now I bet they would tell you they wish they didn't have to wear uniforms. I'll bet if you check back in with them in 20 years they will tell you it was a good thing.

The above explanation in favor of school uniforms is quite good. Other good reasons include maintaining appropriate clothing sizes, which helps keep pants up, and interrupts the ability to hide weapons in clothing. Also gang colors are not allowed. Additionally, school uniforms can level the economic playing fields that might vary greatly on a campus. Still, I thought I would add the other side of the argument just to present that side.

People who are against school uniforms feel that it destroys one of the students' ways of expressing their individualism and personality. It does not allow the generations to develop a point of view. There are few ways for minors to exercise or practice exercising the rights they will enjoy as adults, and letting them dress themselves and make themselves up as they wish, within limits, would be a good way of giving them some leeway in this regard. It is a good idea to give young people some responsibility and liberty while they are at home and at school so they can learn to handle it well.

Personally, I would have hated a school uniform, and if my school district decided to enforce it, I would have went to a different school.

Pro uniforms - Less distractions in class, unified school colors, less clothes for parents to buy, no real choice in what you will wear today so you will pick out your clothes quickly (according to some people this is a good thing), and you can order them from one place.

Con uniforms - No individuality, conforming the school body, seeing a "sea" of tan and navy blue during change of classes (or whatever the colors are), no choosing what you will wear today, and giving money to a company who was pushing uniforms to your school in the first place in order to get extra profit.

I am a college graduate, so I'm way past the age of being a bratty kid and saying, "School uniforms suck!" But I will still say it. School uniforms suck!

The only place around where I went to school with that had uniforms was a Catholic school, and not only were they ridiculed by students of other schools (we all went in the bus together), but they weren't any smarter than any of us in public schools, they just looked like it.

It was funny to see the groups of them in the bus, sitting together like they called each other last night to see what the other was going to wear. Everyone else was wearing what we wanted, and we all liked it a lot! The discussions of wearing a school uniform were quickly ended with an agreement with everyone, including the children wearing the uniforms themselves, that wearing what you wanted was such a better choice. When those children got into high school (the Catholic school went until 8th grade), all of them were so happy to be able to wear something they were proud of, and that they picked out.

Its fun to go school clothes shopping before school. Let's put it in a quick perspective:

1. Cool! We get to go school shopping. I wonder which clothes and colors I'm going to pick out for this year! I know I have the whole store to pick through. I'm going to pick out what I like.

2. Oh joy... school shopping. Let's see... nope, not tan. Nope, not navy blue. Oh wow... stripes... I "love" stripes. That is so unique: stripes. So, let me get this straight: half of what I will wear will be picked out for me and bought from a catalog, right? Wow.. so I get to pick out pants... whoopee!

I think that some parents have a problem with something way more serious if their main argument with school uniforms is that they won't have to hear their kids complain about the clothes they picked out themselves. Spoiled kids weren't just born that way, they were taught that way. Also, expensive taste is also the same way, and the lack of knowledge in where to shop for the best deals on clothes shouldn't be a viable excuse for turning children into conforming, colorless zombies in school.

I would say the advantage of uniforms is the fact that children do have several growth spurts, and clothes could be worn for only a few months before they are already too small. However, doesn't this mean you would have to purchase new school uniforms, also?

I went to an art school for college that was in a very boring building. There was no character, the building designer had no imagination, and it was just too office-y. Needless to say, everyone complained about the school's choice in design, and went elsewhere for inspiration. Most of us didn't really know about design before the school, and once taught, we realized that we were sitting in a building that was exactly the opposite of how we should be thinking.

I say allow children to express themselves. I guess it's a bad thing that you could see different groups of kids, from the nerds, to the jocks, the cheerleaders, the druggies, the popular kids, the wanna-be kids, the feminists, the alternatives, the goths, the emos, the punks, the band students, the different ethnic groups, and finally the ones that don't fit a category really. I guess all these years, identifying those groups through dress was a mass failure in our school systems, and everyone should have just been: students.

That's it, nothing else. Just regular students. You're wearing the same colors as the person to your right, the person to your left, behind you, in front of you. Heck, I bet you can't even have your hair in dreadlocks and dye them blue like I did. If that honestly sounds appealing, I am so very sorry for whatever happened to you in your life to hate individuality, but please don't make others, especially children, suffer because of that.

This answer was edited by vrpoc 60 days ago.

Reason: Changed to be less acusative towards other users.