Are you for or against school uniforms? What physiological effects of uniforms might ...?

Question

Are you for or against school uniforms? What physiological effects of uniforms might improve student behavior and academic performance? What are the drawbacks to school uniforms?

Answer 1

I'm against uniforms. Having once been a student who wore a school uniform, the only benefit I experienced was not having to decide what to wear in the morning. I went to private school until the end of fifth grade and wore uniforms until that time. Contrary to the popular belief that uniforms make everyone equal, they most certainly did not. The students used other things as status symbols such as sneakers, jackets, and watches. Also their social climbing mothers knew whose family lived where and encouraged their kids to play with certain children.

I have heard that inner city schools do have success with uniforms, but their student dynamics are different from the suburbans.

Answer 2

I'm against school uniforms, but not by much.

For arguments:
Sense of pride and belonging for their school: Eh, whoever brought up this point must have been a student in a age lonnnggg past coz i'm pretty certain it does not have this effect.

Fashion Equality: Again, wtf? People who want to will always find a way to show how fashionable they are. Bags, watches, bracelets, heck even spectacles. Making them all wear school uniforms isn't going to change that.

Make students dress modestly: Again, same thing, when theres a will theres a way. In my junior college days, girls often wore the skirt short and guys tucked out whenever they could. It does not solve the problem. Besides, restrictions on normal clothes could still be placed (like skirts must reach your knees etc).

Against:
Restricts students: It promotes the idea that students should all be the same. Wheres the individuality? the freedom?

well.. actually thats about it.

Answer 3

As someone who wore school uniforms from 4-16 (good old catholic school....nothing like it) i am for uniforms. They take alot of social pressure off of kids in an extremely difficult period of life (adolescence), especially in this country where money and status is everything. Kids are mean, and if you don't have the money to be able to afford the best of the best, the teasing can be unbearable.

When I have children, i will make sure they attend schools with uniforms so that they learn to appreciate human integrity instead of learning at a young age that clothes and what you look like are what makes you.

Answer 4

Im for. They wont stop differentiation, but they will enforce modesty, and they will provide a strong cognitive cue that being in school is different than being in their normal life. If the school also has excellent academic rigor, the cognitive cue can help students mentally transition from a non-school play-mode to an in-school work-mode. By enforcing a reasonable degree of modesty, depending on the ages of the students, it can reduce (some) the visual stimulation of the males by the females, and lead to less male-student focus on mating, and reduced (somewhat) testosterone-induced violence.

It is also a brand, for marketing the school. If the uniform is professional, then when the student is coming to or going from school, they are a walking billboard for the school. How they look makes people think of the school. How they act affects what people think of the school.

Im for very sharp, very consistent, modest, but non-constraining, affordable uniform enforcement at schools. Im also one of those people who thinks children who learn only to play and never how to work hard, and commit deep, and learn things that arent easy to learn are less prepared to be great leaders, and highly functional adults. Most teens dont have the capacity to ask themselves what is required to be a great leader, and answer self discipline, or any restraint on fun. Their parents should do more than prepare them for the party on their 21st birthday, they should also prepare them for life between 21 and 65, and maybe even set them on the right road for after 65.

Answer 5

I'm against school uniforms. Many kids feel uncomfortable in them.

Answer 6

I think school uniforms are a great idea. It puts all kids on equal footing, as far as clothes are concerned. Clothes, shoes, and looks, have become way too important in the minds of kids today. And we made them that way. We've got to turn it around, if we can. There's many kids who can't keep up with the fashion trends because their families just can't afford it. They are ridiculed. This is ridiculous.

Answer 7

As a parent, I am against them. I think they militarize the schools even more than they already are.