author_by_night (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
author_by_night) wrote2010-08-06 09:27 am
author_by_night) wrote2010-08-06 09:27 am
Entry tags:
School Uniforms
What do you guys think of school uniforms?
I used to be very much against them, perhaps partly because I went to private school and was forced to spend winter shivering in my skirt because leggings didn't do one thing to warm me up. However, I do wonder if I would have minded had we been allowed to wear pants more often.
Now I'm very conflicted.
-: It might inhibit self expression.
+: Of course, I speak as someone who rarely wore nice clothing to school until college. Meanwhile, a close friend of mine who was one of those people who'd shop at the same store for hours missed wearing a uniform and not having to worry about what she was going to wear. (Maybe she would have gotten better grades? Seriously, maybe she would have.)
+: School is a place where you're supposed to be learning.
-: School is also a place where you learn to interact with your peers, and that includes peers who might be wearing clothing you find distracting, that's more expensive or less expensive than your own clothing, or outfits that express beliefs and/or ideas you disagree with.
-: Skirts make for cold legs in the winter.
+: Schools wouldn't have to require skirts.
Where do you guys stand?
I used to be very much against them, perhaps partly because I went to private school and was forced to spend winter shivering in my skirt because leggings didn't do one thing to warm me up. However, I do wonder if I would have minded had we been allowed to wear pants more often.
Now I'm very conflicted.
-: It might inhibit self expression.
+: Of course, I speak as someone who rarely wore nice clothing to school until college. Meanwhile, a close friend of mine who was one of those people who'd shop at the same store for hours missed wearing a uniform and not having to worry about what she was going to wear. (Maybe she would have gotten better grades? Seriously, maybe she would have.)
+: School is a place where you're supposed to be learning.
-: School is also a place where you learn to interact with your peers, and that includes peers who might be wearing clothing you find distracting, that's more expensive or less expensive than your own clothing, or outfits that express beliefs and/or ideas you disagree with.
-: Skirts make for cold legs in the winter.
+: Schools wouldn't have to require skirts.
Where do you guys stand?
no subject
When I went to hippy school it was the thing I missed the most. You never had to worry about what you were wearing, it was decided for you, and we could all bond over hating various parts of it. I once debated a chap at university who posited that school uniforms were nothing more than badges of class and status, my rebuttal that was that schools which signified status all had scholarships, which could be not be spotted at a distance, while his alternative would see students delineated by both taste and the expense of their clothing labels.
A friend and I were talking today about how wonderfully ghastly it was having to make sure you had your gloves and the right hat, and even sports bloomers when we were little ... happy days! (And we had thick wool tights, on cold days you could wear two pairs. Now they can often just wear trousers, lucky young women!)
uniform
Although I was able to identify the poorer kids because their white dress shirts are not as crisply white as mine (I have half a dozen new shirts each year. They probably only had two or three.)
It was so nice to not worry about what to wear (except to make sure I'm wearing the right-colored ties and skirts on the right days). Saturday afternoons my cousin and I would give ourselves manicures and wear pretty clothes for that day and Sunday. With matching jewelry, shoes/sandals, handbags/backpacks, etc.
Once I moved to the U.S. for college, I quickly lost all motivations to wear pretty clothes. Because I have to make clothes decision every. single. day.
(Plus people are really sloppy/laid back about their appearance in this particular city.)