Uniforms in School

[TehCookie]

I would hate uniforms. First of all, they seem a lot more expensive than the cloths I buy. People say it would be good for the poor kids so they don't look poor, but I'm not poor I just hate spending money on cloths since I want to spend it on other things. Not to mention I only do laundry twice a month and I'm not wasting water and detergent to wash one outfit everyday. Also if you have to wear a uniform how do you dress for the weather? It can be anywhere from -10 to 100 (-23.33 to 37.77 Celsius) and it changes quickly.

Also if everyone looks the same how do you know which one did something bad? That just seems a lot easier to do something bad and slip into the crowd.

 

[Plinglebob]

I've been one of those odd people who enjoy wearing a suit and tie so I never had a problem with my school uniform unlike most of my classmates. My biggest fear when it comes to dress code is "Smart Casual" as I really have no idea what they mean.

 

[FamoFunk]

I liked having a uniform, no worrying about what to wear or making sure clothes were clean and ready.

They also make people equal, everyone is dressed the same so people from a poor background won't feel shitty compared to those of a wealthy background regarding their clothes. Plus there's no pressure for people to wear something different everyday, not everyone can do that and some people will pick on those for it.

 

[Henkie36]

I guess they do in a sense. The basic point of them is of course to improve relations by not being able to tell from what class someone is. But whether they influnce your own personality, I wouldn't know.We used to have uniforms in gymnastics, if one can call it that: blue shirt with the school logo on it and blue or white shorts underneath. It didn't make me feel different.

 

[Hollyday]

I wore a uniform in school (in the UK) until the age of 16, and now I teach in schools with no uniform and I do see a (albeit small) difference.

I really liked the uniform when I was at school, because I never had particularly nice clothes/trainers etc and the uniform was a bit of protection from being laughed at on that score.

So the point I'm making is, maybe uniforms have a weird social effect on some people?

I think it had the same effect as it did on you - making you feel different - but in a positive way. In school I knew what I was doing, and the uniform kind of reflected that. Out of it I was a mess, and I never felt comfortable on non-uniform days. It also gave a nice feeling of distinction between school and free-time. I agree, however, that it does make kids more rebellious, since we had to show our personality in different ways (in my case that was multicoloured nail varnish and enough hippy jewellery to sink a battleship). We used to delight in the small ways we could undermine the uniform rules, like folding the bottom of our shirts over instead of tucking them in. One good point on that score though is that while we were taken up with petty stuff like that we weren't doing anything more serious.

At the schools I teach at now the kids can wear whatever they like, and that's great for showing their individuality. However, I think it takes something away from the discipline - the line between pupil and teacher is a little bit less concrete (especially in Finland, where we wore really casual stuff to teach in). I have also witnessed some pretty nasty clothes-focused bullying, though of course bullies will find anything to differentiate people and clothes are just an easy 'in'.

Ultimately, like everything in the education system, it works for some and not for others. Your experiences show that it really didn't work for you and that's sad, but I feel that it did work for me. As one of three kids I think my Mum was thankful for it as well, since it was hand-me-down heaven and a lot less washing

EDIT: I forgot to mention that working in a non-uniform school does create some hilarious situations, like when half my class started copying the 'cool girl' who dresses like a hooker from the 80s. Or the time where one of the little shi.... *ahem* more difficult students came in wearing the same top as me and spent the whole two hour lesson scowling while the others ripped the piss. MWAH HA HA petty revenge is sweet.

 

[Kasawd]

I've always been of the mind that wearing a uniform, doesn't stymy the development of a healthy personality, but, in fact, fosters one.

When one is deprived of their outward display of personal preference through use of clothing, the mode of distinguishing one person from another is how they behave and react. Exploration of personal reaction to external stimuli seems a perfect way to develop the drive to refine the self.

Even then, the way a person wears their uniform can be indicative of their personality. Having went through a high school with a uniform, I always went out of my way to keep everything on my uniform neat and tidy; crisp and clean.

 

[The Funslinger]

but in fact it's the "Poor kids" who were the top dogs, the judging rude cases, and the ones that kind of made it difficult for me to socialize.

Oh, I get this so much. My family is fairly well off. Not rich, exactly, but certainly comfortable. Unfortunately, I always got labelled the "rich boy" at school. My family are all what you'd call the educated sort. Even my mum, who no longer works, and whose dad wanted her to have an easy life due to all his struggles managed to fight that, go to university and all that crap. My dad just has a bogstandard university degree, and by dint of skill is now bossing around people from Oxford and Cambridge.

Anyway, I suppose all of that has rubbed off on me. I'm better spoken, have a larger vocabulary and don't have the accent that everyone from the urban places tend to. My accent is closer to "typical British accent". It got me labelled as posh for years. It was really annoying instantly receiving less default respect than others from those in my year because of what I was born into. I remember once I was getting into an argument with this one hugely hypocritical guy in my year.

He seems to basically come from the poorest background, single mum on benefits and with tons of medical bills due to things that aren't covered by the NHS, and yet he was more spoilt than most actual well off people I knew. Owned at least 2 of each console from the two most recent generations, bought games all the time and got something like £10 snack money a day. When he was going on about financial difficulties at home, and I suggested he cut down on this unessential stuff, he said his mum didn't want him to. Bullshit. And he was one of the worst when it came to giving me shit for being "posh".

Edit: The nub of that point is actually that he called me rich because my family lived in a house that wasn't council owned. He didn't get that "not poor" doesn't equal rich.

 

[Optiluiz]

The whole point of the uniform is to make people all the same. Not just in appearance, but there's a whole subconscious idea of acting as a whole when you wear one. Personally, I hate them, but had to use them from 7th grade to the end of high school. It was awful. Then again, there were many awful things going on in that school.

Isn't there this whole scientific experiment where people were supposed to role-play as guards and prisoners and eventually things got out of hand with people abusing authority and what-not? I think uniforms do in fact change your way of thinking, if only slightly.

Fun Fact: I had a one-of-a-kind jacket as a part of my uniform in high school, though. It was custom-made but they couldn't complaing because of the colours and the school logo on it. I wore that thing all year. Summer and winter.

 

[Vanilla_Druid]

I must say I have gained a newfound liking of uniforms. I used to hate wearing uniforms (it did not help that my uniform was not one of those good-looking ones), but once I started going to schools without them, I started to miss them. I takes me so long to decide on which clothes to wear in the morning. Uniforms are also great for school settings in fictional works for it makes designing characters much easier. On a related note, it would be awesome if kilts were part of the male uniform in some schools (they are the most comfortable male garment ever made).

 

[Powereaver]

Uniforms as such are not annoying.. its multiple uniforms that are annoying! Sports and Formal and so on.. but as for the uniform in general its so the school can get a bit of advertising done also.. if someone sees one of their students in the street before or after school.. they can go.. oh so thats the school of that person i always see.

 

[manic_depressive13]

I liked having a uniform in school. As many people have said, it means you don't have to worry about what to wear, what it will say about you and so on. I went to camp in high school for a week and we were allowed to wear our own clothes. Some girls started making fun of me saying that I never change my shirt when in reality I had about five of the same plain black shirt. I was never very fashion conscious. The last thing I would have wanted was to have to deal with that crap every day at school. Being a girl who dresses shabbily amongst fashion-minded teenagers is really alienating.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I've never attended a school with uniforms, or even a strict dress code.

I can honestly say I never felt like I had problems fitting in, and to the best of my recollection I don't remember any instances of classmates giving each other a hard time over the clothing that they wear.

Frankly, I don't like the idea of imposing uniforms/strict dress codes in schools unless it's voluntary. Kids really only have so long to actually be kids. The argument that "they'll have to wear uniforms sometime" just seems shallow to me. I can't speak for other countries, but in the United States there's already a lot in our culture that forces kids to grow up faster than they should. We really don't need to force another thing upon them to shorten their already short childhoods. And for what? To reduce bullying? Bullying is going to happen, and there's really not much anyone can do about that. If it's not because of clothing, it'll be because of something else. And really, I think we're being pretty naive to think that kids can't tell who is rich and who is poor if you force them to wear uniforms. Instead of trying to eliminate bullying (not going to happen), we should instead focus on helping kids learn how to appropriately handle bullying.

Now, in places where gang violence is a factor, I can't comment. There's never really been any threat of that where I grew up. Maybe in places where gang affiliation is closely tied to what clothing is worn, a uniform or strict dress code makes sense. I don't know. But I do think there are far better approaches that can be taken to curbing that behavior.

 

[Valdus]

It's hard for me to see the cons of uniforms. Whenever my school had an "own clothes day" (i.e, no uniform for that day) everyone still came in wearing the exact same thing...it was just tracksuits instead of shirts and ties.

When teenagers actually...you know, have something unique to express I'll consider arguing against uniforms.

 

[ElPatron]

I already mix up a lot of people I know, I don't need another factor to cause more confusion.

It's hard for me to see the cons of uniforms.

It's also hard to think of any pros.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Okay, after reading through this (and the fact this is the internet) Would someone that never cared about what to wear please chime in? I know I'm not the only one. Simple solution to that is to buy jeans and t-shirts, it's rather difficult to fuck that up.

I've never had to wear uniforms, but it'd probably annoy me. As mentioned above, I wear jeans and a shirt, so having to go through the hassle of keeping up with one specific set of clothes just for school would irk me. Oh, as for the rich vs poor thing, that bit evaporated when everyone started buying phones and things like Ipods. It really wouldn't take long before the realized you were 'poor,' and then you'd just be the poor kid in an uniform.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

I'm fine with a uniform yes. But, when teachers (only really female ones) become hypocritical bastards about them they become enraging. For example, we've had a heat spell in England. All the women teachers came in with a top, a cardigan and a free flowing skirt. Then because they're not hot they don't open their bloody windows, keeping the heat in and when the students come in from the heat outside they have to sit in a boiling hot room looking at a teacher who's got a full bottle of water, actualy summer clothes. This is all personal experience, so your opinions may differ.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

It's hard for me to see the cons of uniforms. Whenever my school had an "own clothes day" (i.e, no uniform for that day) everyone still came in wearing the exact same thing...it was just tracksuits instead of shirts and ties.

When teenagers actually...you know, have something unique to express I'll consider arguing against uniforms.

I think the only con I've seen with Uniforms is the fact that in some schools in EVERY weather you have to be wearing a shirt with the top button done up, a jersey and black trousers. The amount of rage I feel when I'm boiling hot in a lesson, nearly getting heat stroke and when I undo my top button to get a little bit of air to my body the teacher who's probably wearing something light and summery tells me to do it up again! Seriously, one of these days the combined factors of heat, annoying teacher and the uniform will make me punch someone in the face.