Poll: "Uniforms" in public school

[Eisenfaust]

we had something similar... (k-10 at least, 11-12 was far more relaxed) except we also had the "ponytail for girls, shirt hair that CANNOT touch the collar for boys" etc, etc... we all also had rediculous hats

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

The fuck? Ok i can understand dress code to the point of "No coming to school looking like you're in a porno movie and no offensive shirts" and I could even understand a full on dress code at some condescendingly prestigious private or catholic school, but at a standard public school? What is the point? I think the parents should get together and complain, because as you said, that means they have to buy more clothes for their kids, and on top of that, there's no reason for rules like "khaki pants only" and "no brand logos"

 

[Cazza]

I'm all for uniforms in schools. They should have just made a uniform it would be easier.

No hats allowed

Thats ones got me. I can understand no cap etc. If thats what it means but thats not a very sun safe idea. Unless you get like zero UV light over there.

Are you allowed broad brim hats?

 

[WOPR]

*snip*

I feel a dress code should be in order; but not an out and out uniform, espcially when they don't make kakis that can fit you belt or not... that are affordable to boot

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Stop whining. I guess you're from America *checks profile*, uhuh. Let me tell you something, every other country in the fucking world has uniforms. It's not about destroying individuality, it's to stop exclusion of students who can't afford nice clothes. Now do what you're fucking told or change schools.

 

[Nouw]

Get used to it.

Why not try to fight it?

I already added a more in-depth answer in another reply but anyway fighting it is stupid. Why? Because posting an inquiry about it is the most you can do to to try and stop the behemoth known as school uniforms.

Ask that question to every single school rule.

 

[Zyphonee]

It would be great if schools would set an obligatory, accessible and comfortable uniform for the students. I've been to a private school all of my life and they seemed to use uniforms as more of a sign of oppression than a practical rule. Instead, if uniforms are applied sensitively, it would make kids with a lower acquisitive power far less segregated. Clothing is in some way a mean of expression, but it's taken to such disgusting extremes of shallowness that I'd rather have kids wear uniforms to school instead of using frivolous garments as a way to mask their insecurities (Look at my avatar... oh irony)

 

[TheLaofKazi]

Granted, it's a tricky issue. From my experience, schools would be a much better learning environment without the students.

*Bum-dum-tish*

The way I see it, uniforms are a socially acceptable form of conditioning for later life. One which I fail to see any big deal about. Then again, I've come through the system, so maybe it's the brainwashing at work?

I think it's absurd. But then again, I don't think school public school should be compulsory, in the highly idealistic sense that wouldn't be compatible with our current society. All of my opinions are absurd.

I wouldn't call it brainwashing, that's too hysterical, and the way it all works is far more subtle. We are all socially conditioned in some way, our perspectives are created by a variety of social and biological factors. I've never been forced to wear a certain type of clothing in or out of school, except for certain events. Marching band, weddings, funerals, ect. and in those cases, I certainly don't object to wearing that type of clothing. Why? That's the social conditioning. I know it would be considered disrespectful to other people if I, for example, wore a clown costume to someone's funeral and shouted "Wa-zooks! what a fun-eral!"

But take someone from a tribal community, where there is no marching band, and their weddings and funerals are completely different, and he will probably have a similar objection to those things as I have to school uniforms.

There are so many things that we look at as just "common sense" because we're used to it. And it's not until we take a step back that we realize what we're actually doing, and how grossly illogical many of our assumptions are, and how many of them can actually be harmful to people.

I mean, think about it. For the first 12 years of their life, our society forces children to spend a major percentage of their life at school, which are designed, in many ways, like factories, because the original purpose of them was to produce factory workers, to produce the next working generation. Our schools are no different today, their purpose is to produce what the current working world demands, which, in the grand scheme of things, is obedient, skilled workers. Essentially what schools do is fulfill what the working, corporate world wants.

Am I the only one that sees that as completely fucked up, even immoral? Instead of pursuing an approach with the goal in mind of developing people to their full capacity, so they can achieve happiness and fulfillment, something based on psychology, sociology, biology, and basically everything else we know about how humans work, we are listening to corporations and businesses. I think it should be the other way around.

So, apply that my perspective to school uniforms: In short, fuck what the working, corporate world wants, they don't know what's best for the world. I say instead we design a school system based on what humanism instead.

 

[TheLaofKazi]

It would be great if schools would set an obligatory, accessible and comfortable uniform for the students. I've been to a private school all of my life and they seemed to use uniforms as more of a sign of oppression than a practical rule. Instead, if uniforms are applied sensitively, it would make kids with a lower acquisitive power far less segregated. Clothing is in some way a mean of expression, but it's taken to such disgusting extremes of shallowness that I'd rather have kids wear uniforms to school instead of using frivolous garments as a way to mask their insecurities (Look at my avatar... oh irony)

Forcing students to wear a uniform won't get rid of that shallowness, social tension, insecureness, and generally other shit traits of people. All of it will do is cover up that particular medium for expressing it.

Trust me, students will find another way to be shallow, violent and insecure assholes. If that's the issue, and it is, then the focus should be on those core issues, not the way it's expressed.

 

[Bruin]

As a passionate individualist, I think the very concept of a dress code is ridiculous, and especially hair.

Sure, school is for learning, not for making fashion statements, but dress codes have nothing to do with learning. I've yet to hear one single good argument FOR dress codes.

-Promotes school order
-Negates social status via clothing. Just another thing kids don't have to be self-conscious about.
-Teaches kids that 90% of them will be wearing a suit and tie, or a blazer and slacks or khakis or something like that for the rest of their working lives--why not get a head start on that treadmill of social and economic efficiency and conformity? Blunt and not so very eloquently-put on my part, but it's entirely true.
-Don't have to bother buying your whiny brat new school clothes all the time.
-Helps differentiate between "school-time" and "free-time" by dividing those times with different wardrobes.

I don't really care about this issue. Suck it up and wear the monkey suit or do something about it. It's not that harsh, firstly, and secondly, what you wear to school should be one of the lesser of your concerns when you're in school, preparing to cement the foundation for the rest of your life--upon which your entire financial and social status will be determined in the form of a SAT score and a name.

Unless you're one of those emo freaks who wear seatless pants to school, have rips that cover 50% of your jeans or something ridiculously stupid like that, you have nothing to worry about anyway.

I went to a Catholic school and I think that uniforms are a great thing. No one was jealous of anyone's things and fashion didn't matter, and all the girls had to were skirts. It was great!

I've had friends who went to Catholic schools, none of them described it as a paradise, and the skirts, they said, were almost always below the knee unless a girl just hiked them up. In which point, Nun wrath was incurred. Met a man who had scars on his hands from a ruler, actually. The ruler was metal on one side, and the teacher didn't seem to realize it, and when she snapped it down it drew blood.

 

[Grounogeos]

Uniforms in school is a shitty idea.

For one, it destroys individuality, which is something that is pretty much limited to a select number of jobs and the military.

Second, having a strict uniform removes a major thing that kids can get bullied about (how expensive/"cool" their clothes are). And unless you're a girl (not intended to be sexist or anything), you're not likely to get that upset over people making fun of how limited your wardrobe is. Getting rid of the chance to make fun of a kid's clothes is just giving people a reason to go after things that are going to really upset them.

 

[TheTaco007]

Wear everything inside out and refuse to acknowledge it. DO IT.

 

[Dys]

Their school, their rules. You may not like having to wear a work uniform but it is part of life and you really have no say in it other than go somewhere else.

Go somewhere else? It may be different in other countries, but where I'm from it's a legal requirement that everyone under the age of 15 attend school, and many state schools exist purely because poorer kids have no way of going to other, more expensive schools. Quite often if you're at a state school, it's because you have no alternative.

It's one thing to have a strict uniform at an expensive private school, or to have a general (easy+cheap) uniform at a disadvantaged state school, but it's quite another to let those running disadvantaged schools have a power trip and set a standard. Anything more specific than "black pants and a white shirt" needs to have government funding backing it so that poor families have access to adequate, appropriate clothing for their kids, which is obviously a chore and an unnecessary burden on the tax payer.

So yeah, I'm obviously against uniforms in state schools, but from what the OP said I don't think the standard set by his school is unreasonable, except for the no hats thing. When outside during lunch, or playing sport, it's stupid to disallow hats (however in the classroom it's reasonable).

 

[Madara XIII]

if you shirt came untucked from bending over you could get an office referal.

Rundown of the Code:
-Collared or turtleneck shirts
-Shirts tucked in plus belts
-kahki pants only
-no hair that can obstruct vision ie. bangs that cover an eye, ect.
-only top button allowed undone
-skirts are allowed, and jumpers
-No hoodies or jackets inside school or referal
-1 warning for dress code violation
-No hats allowed
-No clothing with a logo of any kind outside of the school logo are permited on any clothing


Do you think public schools should follow our towns example or do you think that no school should have a dress code this strict?

Holy Dresscode Nazis Batman!!! No they shouldn't. I'm all for uniforms in public schools but...that...WTF is the name of your school man!? George Orwell Academy!?

 

[Bruin]

Uniforms in school is a shitty idea.

For one, it destroys individuality, which is something that is pretty much limited to a select number of jobs and the military.

Second, having a strict uniform removes a major thing that kids can get bullied about (how expensive/"cool" their clothes are). And unless you're a girl (not intended to be sexist or anything), you're not likely to get that upset over people making fun of how limited your wardrobe is. Getting rid of the chance to make fun of a kid's clothes is just giving people a reason to go after things that are going to really upset them.

It doesn't destroy individuality.

What destroys individuality is making kids think being different even matters when they're only reduced to a test score and a name on a college application. And you can still be an individual. That's where your personality comes in. You don't have to look cool, edgy and unique to actually be all of those things.

Tell it to the self-conscious, Gossip-girl, Gleek-freak wannabe who wants to fit into those size 0's, starves herself and pukes into the toilet after meals, that her clothes don't matter.

You don't want to be sexist? Then consider these things. Things like bulimia are growing more prevalent in teenage boys. The need and urge to fit in is just as intense as with females. Men care about their appearance just as much as women do.

Also, looks are a big part of first impressions. If one kid is a genuinely good goat and has shitty clothes, nobody is going to bat an eyelash at him in the hallway. Because he doesn't look like a genuinely good goat, he looks like a genuinely, utterly poor goat. Give him a uniform, which all the other kids are wearing, and you've only got your personality to speak for you. The good goat now looks like an average goat but his personality sets him apart from the other mutzes in the flock. Is this not your precious individuality?

 

[InnerRebellion]

The only dress code my high school has is:
-No short shorts
-No graphic tees depicting adult activities (smoking, drinking, sex and the like)
-Pants CANNOT be below your waist (yknow, the dumbasses who think having their pants below their ass is cool)
-No chains

That's it. As a non-conformist, I hate the idea of uniforms in public schools, because it takes away the individuality public schools constantly preach about.

 

[Theninja'skatana]

And adults wonder why we get "punky" around high school.

 

[Antitonic]

I wouldn't call it brainwashing, that's too hysterical, and the way it all works is far more subtle.

Yeah, I know. It was meant to lighten the mood in here a little.

*juggles kittens*

 

[kouriichi]

I see no problem with it, as long as the outfits are free, and you get several of them to help cut back on laundry costs at home.

The last time i heard about a dress code, the uniforms themselfs cost almost $200 a peice. And thats complete crap.

 

[agentironman]

Don't have a problem with it as it would eliminate the worry of gangs. It would also cut down on harassment and hazing. May seem harsh but in the current world people are pissed off about any and every little thing and this would cut down on lawsuits.