Today, I am going to be looking at the whole ideas of School Uniforms and what effect they have on the students. Will uniforms cut down on violence? Will they raise grade levels? Will a uniforms actually make a difference in what happens in, and relating, to schools? I plan on looking at both sides of this, but in my opinion, I do not think that a school uniform will drastically change anything. Most arguments for enforcing a law that would force public schools to use uniforms is the idea that it will bring down school violence, they will help grades, and it will help with discrimination and other issues at school. The arguments against the uniforms are that they really wont solve any of the problems that were mentioned above and they take away the creativity of the students.
The main arguments for the installment of uniforms in public schools are mainly focused on the issue of violence and grade levels in schools. Parents and teachers think that by making kids wear uniforms, that it will help decrease the number of violent acts in and around school. The driving idea behind uniforms cutting down on school violence is that it will take away from the gangs. Uniforms will mean that no one has to worry about wearing a certain gangs colors and risk getting attacked for it. People are also saying that uniforms will cut down the number of places you can conceal a weapon if you were to take it into school. Some people believe that if the Columbine students had been forced to wear uniforms, that the attack would not have happened.
‘The disaster at Columbine High School in Colorado a year ago revealed a dress code where students were permitted to wear trench coats, excessive jewelry and make-up, and eccentric hair styles and clothing. The Columbine incident alone stimulates argument that the lack of a dress code may affect the level of safety in a school. If students were not permitted to wear coats, it would be more difficult to conceal weapons. ‘
Another point for the uniforms is that it will raise up grades and help students. I, personally, do not understand this point. Why does what we wear have any effect on our grades? Some people think that if we all wear the same thing, our outfits won’t distract us from our work. I think that the idea of uniforms raising grades is ridiculous. I am with the people that say that uniforms will take away our freedom to express ourselves. That is wrong because in the public schools, that is one of the only things we have left. Our rights in schools are all ready limited and being able to wear what we want is our last thing that prolongs our individuality in our schools. What uniforms does is take a group of people and make them the same. You must dress the same, you must act the same, you are all forced to become just like your neighbor. That is not right. We were all made different and we should all be allowed to express that difference. The only way that we can do that in schools is by what we wear because the schools have all ready taken away our right to say what we want, they have taken away our right to do what we want, write what we want, and so on. As for the issue of violence being solved with uniforms, I don’t think that it will help. If you are in a gang and have an issue with another gang, a uniform is not going to stop you from using violence. This is a great example of a counter to the argument above about the Columbine shooting:
However, a statement could also be made that the incident at Columbine High would have happened anyway, with or without a mandatory dress code for its students.
This just illustrates the point that you don’t really know what is going to happen. If someone really wanted to commit an act of violence in a school, uniform or not, they would find a way. Uniforms won’t stop the violence, they will only cause a slight change in how the acts of violence are committed. So once again, I stand strong with the idea that students on public schools should not be forced to wear uniforms because they won’t raise grades, they won’t stop the violence, and they take away a students right to free expression.
http://muse.widener.edu/~egrozyck/EDControversy/Eppinger.html
http://712educators.about.com/cs/schoolviolence/a/uniforms.htm
http://www.adherents.com/misc/uniforms.html
http://www.gate.net/~rwms/UniformRay.html
http://life.familyeducation.com/violence/education-administration/41077.html
You are right. getting kids to wear them will not change anything.
you hear about the non-public schools having shooting and kids getting killed and the same things happen in public school.
It doesnt matter what you were the same things will happen in every school!
the bullying, grades, the gang vilonce, EVERYTHING!
i go to a school of 500 & all of these things happen. I see kids being bullied, people failing classes. everything that you talked about and we dont wear uniforms & i dont think it would make a difference. I guess you could say that kids wouldnt get picked on because of what they are wearing because everyone would be wearing the same thing.
But end the end you are right nothing is going to change.
Wow. Great point, and it matches my opinion almost exactly. Educators, and those who think they are “in the know,” are now throwing the idea of making us homologous as the cure-all for society’s problems. Reducing drug use? Uniforms! Raising student participation and grades in school? Uniforms! Decreasing violence and student shootings? Uniforms! Putting everyone in a white shirt and navy pants will, suddenly, cause everyone to forget the problems that are occurring at home that are driving them to commit these acts, or the bullying they are receiving because of their personality traits, and everyone will be happy and smiling and life will be perfect. Furthermore, the argument that uniforms will cause us not to be distracted from our work is absolutely preposterous. Pinning someone’s D minus in algebra, for example, on the fact that they were wearing a black hoodie instead of a white polo is just evading the actuality of the situation, trying to take the problems involved with our faulty educational system and pin them back on the student’s clothes, of all the possible venues. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.