A thought about school uniforms

A few months back we all had a debate over school dress code and uniforms and a lot of people are in favor of uniforms because apparently that's going to train kids for the real world when they grow up or something.

Well I was thinking about this the other night and I found it interesting:


In prison, both the guards AND the inmates wear uniforms
In hospitals, doctors and nurses have their uniforms, the patients have their paper hospital gowns, even the orderlies have their scrub uniforms
In a courthouse, bailiffs have uniforms, judges have their uniforms, and the lawyers are going to have their suits which is there much difference in them?
On a sport team, the members of the team have their uniforms, and the coaches and referees have their uniforms

But in school, the kids may have to wear uniforms, but the teachers DON'T. Now the teachers may have a dress code, but if you're going to tell all the kids wear the exact same regulated uniform or be punished, the teachers should be issued the same ultimatum of everybody wear the same clothes or be fired. I mean after all, wearing the exact same uniform like a prisoner is going to teach the children how to function in the real world, but the teacher is NOT wearing a uniform, so does the teacher not know anything about the real world, or does this 'real world' just not apply to them after all so wearing uniforms in youth is an exercise in futility?

I think schools SHOULD impose a uniform code. Doesn't have to be anything posh or uptight, take for instance some jobs will let employees wear jeans so long as they're black and requires shirts to be of a certain color, or stripe. I see no problem with imposing a dress code or uniform on school kids, even if it's a public school.

I'm alright with a dress CODE, you know, don't come to school with your ass hanging out, girl or guy, no low jeans so everybody can see your thong, that kind of stuff, I'm fine with that, but they're kids, they're coming to school, they're not walking a beat, they're not putting out fires, they're not fixing telephone lines, they're not even making coffee and donuts for people, I don't think a school should be imposing a uniform regulation on them unless they're prepared to do the same for the staff who are the example-setting adults.

I don't think it's necessary for teachers to have to wear a uniform. For them a professional dress code is fine.

stonestatic wrote:I think schools SHOULD impose a uniform code. Doesn't have to be anything posh or uptight, take for instance some jobs will let employees wear jeans so long as they're black and requires shirts to be of a certain color, or stripe. I see no problem with imposing a dress code or uniform on school kids, even if it's a public school.

I agree 100%.

I'm completely in favor of school uniforms. In my generation (I'm 23), even if you let kids at school wear whatever they want, they all wear exactly the same thing anyway because teenagers in particular are hot on conformity and want to wear "the cool stuff." Allowing kids to wear whatever they want only divides the kids between social status - the rich kids get the cool clothes, the poor kids get the ratty clothes, etc. Uniforms break down those barriers. And if kids in uniforms don't like that teacher's can wear whatever they want, I just got one word: tough.

My kids have to wear uniforms and I love it. For one thing, my daughter can spend hours picking out what tights and longsleeved shirt she is going to wear under her uniform, so I can't even imagine how much of a pain it would be in the morning if she had MORE freedom. The other advantages I see are that there's no "gang" stuff when it comes to clothing, and every one is on an even playing field...No one knows who can't afford designer clothes and who can.

They attend a public school and have to wear tan or navy pants, skirts, capris or shorts and either navy, light blue or white shirts with a collar.

The teachers don't have a uniform and I don't think that any of the kids have ever had a problem with it.

The part I've never been able to understand is HOW can a child spend so much time trying to figure out what to wear? Now I was homeschooled so I didn't have any classmates to compare how I looked to anyone else, but I wouldn't have anyway because I gave as minimum a thought to my clothes as possible. I never spent the school day thinking 'oh I love this shirt, it goes so great with these pants', if I gave it any thought at all it was more like 'oh these shoes are hot, I'm going to take them off'.

Clothes were absolutely no priority to me as a child, and that might be because we had to do the God awful family portraits where everybody gets dressed up 10 times, tries different this, different that, I HATED that as a child so always hated being dressed up so once I was old enough to pick my own clothes, I would just pick something, usually whatever took a bare minimum of time to put on, and wear it, and if I didn't like it, change it after school. Because we ran on the clock, like students in public school do, you had to be downstairs by a certain time, had to be at the desk by 8 o' clock, there was no time to be lollygagging about 'which of my outfits am I going to wear today?' Pick something and wear it, that's how I always was.

School uniforms are a parents blessing; particularly if they're basic, and don't need to be special ordered.

Supernova wrote:The part I've never been able to understand is HOW can a child spend so much time trying to figure out what to wear? Now I was homeschooled so I didn't have any classmates to compare how I looked to anyone else, but I wouldn't have anyway because I gave as minimum a thought to my clothes as possible. I never spent the school day thinking 'oh I love this shirt, it goes so great with these pants', if I gave it any thought at all it was more like 'oh these shoes are hot, I'm going to take them off'.

Clothes were absolutely no priority to me as a child, and that might be because we had to do the God awful family portraits where everybody gets dressed up 10 times, tries different this, different that, I HATED that as a child so always hated being dressed up so once I was old enough to pick my own clothes, I would just pick something, usually whatever took a bare minimum of time to put on, and wear it, and if I didn't like it, change it after school. Because we ran on the clock, like students in public school do, you had to be downstairs by a certain time, had to be at the desk by 8 o' clock, there was no time to be lollygagging about 'which of my outfits am I going to wear today?' Pick something and wear it, that's how I always was.

That's how my oldest son is, he's wearing a school uniform today and he doesn't even have school.

im just glad i never had to wear a school uniform...

cheaps wrote:im just glad i never had to wear a school uniform...

Me too. I had a close second though, when I was 7 my mother made these dresses for me to wear during school, and I hated them, couldn't wait till 3 o' clock, run upstairs, get out of them and put on my regular clothes. That as my memory serves was an idea short lived.

Supernova wrote:

cheaps wrote:im just glad i never had to wear a school uniform...

Me too. I had a close second though, when I was 7 my mother made these dresses for me to wear during school, and I hated them, couldn't wait till 3 o' clock, run upstairs, get out of them and put on my regular clothes. That as my memory serves was an idea short lived.

oooh im sorry, im glad my ma was never good wit needle and thread..