School Uniforms

[author_by_night]

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? 

Comments

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

I'm English and live in Sydney, Australia now, so I've always lived where all the kids have uniforms. I didn't like having to wear a tie and would have preferred trousers but never minded wearing a uniform, just the one I had! Now, anti-discrimination laws mean that if trousers are on the school uniform list for boys, it's illegal to force girls to wear a skirt in co-ed schools, so that's an improvement. Of course, all the high schools round my area are single sex (private and state) so that doesn't really work.

As a mother, I'm absolutely delighted about school uniforms. It makes life so much easier. No arguments about clothing, jewellery and make up for those parents of girls who care about such things. And as a mother of a teenage girl with Asperger's, I don't have to worry about her being bullied because of her weird dress sense or try to make her wear clothes and would enable her to fit in better.