Uniforms in School

[BENZOOKA]

Uniforms, and certain kind of clothing in general can, or will, change how one thinks of themselves/others, can concentrate... It can have huge effects.

There are no uniforms in schools here. Works well. It's impossible to know what it would be like if things were the other way around.

 

[Mark Chipperfield]

Coming from England, of course I wear uniform. I think they're great. I like to look smart and I even think that the skirts look hot on the girlies, pardon my perv. A major benefit is for the poor, they don't have to worry about wearing cheap clothes in comparison to more popular pupils since everyone wears the same thing. It makes my school look better and on school trips it's easier to tell the pupils apart. A common thought is that a uniform puts you in the mood to work/learn aswell.

There is this non school uniform school very close to mine and they are often though as hippies, spiritualists and weirdos; i would say how scruffy they look pays a part in this.

Overall I'm happy with a uniform, I would not mind wearing one in a full time job either.

 

[Lawllerskater]

I've been to both a school with uniforms and one without. I don't give a hoot if I have to wear a uniform or not. It's not imposing on my creativity. It's not restricting anything mentally from me either. Honestly, I feel like uniforms somewhat help stop kids from wearing inappropriate clothes for school. Plus, it'll prepare them for the future, when "uniforms" are worn on a daily basis. I use quotes, because uniforms can consist of having to wear business attire to actual copied uniforms.

Myeh. Potato.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

I usually just throw on whatever is clean and nearest to me so having uniforms in high school didn't bother me all that much. It wasn't till a year went by when I started to realize that all my cloths were starting to be replaced by the uniform, then it kind of bothered me.

 

[Starnerf]

I never saw any bullying related to clothing when I was in school, and we didn't require uniforms. Maybe it's just the demographic of my school districts, but I never really noticed any differences between the ways the rich and poor kids dressed. Guys all wore t-shirts, polos, casual button-down shirts and jeans. Girls all wore t-shirts, blouses, tank tops and jeans. If it was a cool day, they'd wear a sweatshirt or a fleece. In my experience, the only difference between an expensive shirt and a cheap shirt is the logo on the front, if it even has one. And the jeans would be even harder to tell, since many of the expensive ones have a "distressed" look from the factory anyway. I thought the "weathered" look was "in" these days.

 

[DrgoFx]

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.

I know exactly what you mean. Everyone looks at me and goes "He's spoiled." I have a 36" wide screen TV, a 360, a PS3 [First version, so that was damn expensive] and a pretty decent laptop. Not to mention the first car I have is a 2008 BMW Coupe. So yeah, you look at all that and you think "Damn you're spoiled."

I was never given what I wanted because I asked for it. Everytime I asked, the answer was "Do YOU have the money to pay for it?" If I answered no, they'd tell me to go make myself money. I eventually got a job as an assistant director for a local acting club. Aside from that, I worked hard on my schooling. I graduated highschool a year early, All my highschool grades are an 80 or higher. And that car? I've been paying that damn thing's insurance since we bought it in '08. That thing is mine. Aside from that, I don't own many games...Partially because I personally didn't have the money, or I didn't have the reach to buy it. In foreign Countries, games be expensive.

 

[applesandoranges]

edit

 

[Vault101]

I like them

because when your a teenage girl it takes the stress out of knowing what to wear, I dont give a shit but

Being a girl who dresses shabbily amongst fashion-minded teenagers is really alienating.

what she said

Ive had to wear 2 kinds

the first being a standard "public school" kind, yellow polo shirt with black pants/shorts/whatever (and those ugly yellow jumpers..god I hated them)

this often came uner "flexibility" usually from highscool students (jeans and hoodies, even though technically against the rules)

the second kind was your full on private school monstrosity....stockings, plaid skirt, jumpter shirt tie and blazer red and dark green (at least ours weren't made up of hideous colurs liek the other private school...I mean sky blue and grey? SKY FUCKING BLUE AND GREY?)

that was winter..summer was just those stupid one peice green dresses often seen in alot of schools I think)

 

[The Funslinger]

snip

The funny thing is even though they that see me as stuffy, delicate and posh, they wouldn't last a week down in the shit. If you gave them a knife and the clothes on their back and tossed them into wilderness, they'd just die. They can't hunt, skin, make weapons, build shelter or handle harsh climate like I can, and they call me snobbish.

 

[theLadyBugg]

I loved my uniform in high school. Our school originally introduced them a year or two before I started because the kids who were there on scholarship were getting bullied like crazy for being from less well-off families, but by the time I was a student, there was virtually no sign of that animosity.

I loved being able to roll out of bed and grab one of two different shirts and either a pair of pants or a skirt, and be fully dressed in under five minutes. Worst case scenario, you grabbed the navy shirt and the black plaid skirt, or your socks didn't match, and even that wasn't so bad. Shirts were big on me? They were big on everybody else, too. It was a Catholic school, the uniforms intentionally ran large - very few of us looked better in uniform than in our weekend clothes. Seeing and knowing that made me less self-conscious and more sociable, basically the opposite of your experience, OP.

 

[Matthew Kjonaas]

I feel that a uniform would make me feel least in my element than I would be when I where the clothes I feel good in. ( I like soft shirts)

 

[Supertegwyn]

I loved my school uniform.

Helped keep the plebs in line.

 

[malestrithe]

As long as it's something everyone has to do, it should be fine.

As for expression, there is no debate. The Supreme Court, through 9 separate lawsuits, that schools do have the right to limit freedoms to provide for a safe environment.

 

[justnotcricket]

I don't have a problem with school uniforms - I wore one my entire sub-tertiary school life. It's one less thing to think about in the morning and your personal clothes last longer because you're not wearing them out every day.

Having said that, not all the uniforms were exactly *nice*, but since everyone's wearing one, it doesn't really matter. If you're all in frumpy dresses you're all in frumpy dresses. Everyone finds their own way to make the thing a bit more comfortable or personal.

Mostly the schools say it's to minimise competition between students for brands and special or inappropriate clothing items, and I agree with that. Even within those bounds, there was still room for originality. I think sometimes people forge that originality shouldn't have to come just from being allowed to wear, say, crazy clothes. Who you are as a person can still shine through and make an impression - if you're all dressed the same, that's what counts anyway.

I'm glad my uniform-wearing days are over, but I don't feel bad about having had to wear them. Some things just aren't a big deal.

 

[RedLister]

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.

Gotta qoute this because it was like that at my school. Except all the women did that (both students and teathers). They got away with a thin shirt and tiny skirt. While blokes like me were stuck sweating bucketloads in full suit and blazer the lot.

 

[jbm1986]

snip

I didn't find it very beneficial. Every instance I had it, there was no mixing. People found their cliques easily. And except for one of the three schools, I was pretty much left on my own. Honestly, I had more mixed groups in the schools without uniforms, but then again those were international schools. Two of my uniform schools stated they were international, but they didn't feel like it. Who were my friends in South Africa? An African American, a South African, a Japanese boy, a Spanish boy, a Welshman, and then Myself and two other Americans. In both uniform schools, you either had kids from North America [American, Canadian], the United Kingdoms, or from the local country.
[...]

Seems like people usually stick to what they know because it brings them comfort.

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

Did anyone here go to an American public school?
I'm a little amazed at how many people here had to wear a uniform.

I mean, I had to in preschool, and that's it. I remember my parents being in a bad mood that year because of how expensive buying the uniform was.
They look ugly and they cost more. Plus, at least where I'm from, if you're wearing a uniform, you go to a private or Catholic school, and at those schools the kids are pretty asinine regardless, so dressing the same as everyone else might help, but not by much.

 

[DrgoFx]

Seems like people usually stick to what they know because it brings them comfort.

But the thing is, they shouldn't be in an international school if they're going to stick to what they know. And it's not even an international school if you just have two nationalities. But it's just something that bugs me. It's not like the international school is the ONLY school you can go to. If you don't want to mix with other cultures, don't go to a school like that.

 

[DrgoFx]

Did anyone here go to an American public school?
I'm a little amazed at how many people here had to wear a uniform.

I mean, I had to in preschool, and that's it. I remember my parents being in a bad mood that year because of how expensive buying the uniform was.
They look ugly and they cost more. Plus, at least where I'm from, if you're wearing a uniform, you go to a private or Catholic school, and at those schools the kids are pretty asinine regardless, so dressing the same as everyone else might help, but not by much.

In some schools, like the school I went to in Greece, most of their funding is from the uniforms. Aside from that, and the blur the line in public schools, I see no reason for a uniform. I mean, private schools are just filled with self-centered, spoiled brats. Uniform or not, there's no hope for these kids to be brought together in harmony.