Why do schools have uniforms

As students grow and develop their identities, they often use clothing as a way to express who they are and what they believe. Both of the researchers believed that having school uniforms would increase self esteem. Results for both studies showed that school uniforms did have a significant effect on self esteem.

School uniforms were shown to increase self esteem. A study from Oxford Brookes University among year 7 and year 9 students found students reported heightened feelings of anxiety on non-uniform days. One of the main arguments against wearing school uniforms is that students will lose their identity, individualism, and self-expression if they are made to wear the same clothes as everyone else.

Education Schools Teachers Universities Students. Blogging students Students. What's the point of school uniform? You might hate your school uniform, but I think it's there for good reason, says year-old Chloe Spencer. Why wear a school uniform? It reduces the individuality of the student population within a school district. Students who are in a district with a strict uniform policy lose their ability to express their individuality through fashion.

In some regards, school uniforms teach students that it is more important to think and act like a group instead of thinking and acting like an individual. Although there are many influences that can shape mob thinking patterns, this type of policy can be a foundational element of it if the uniform policies are not carefully introduced and monitored. Uniforms do not prevent students from expressing themselves. Students will always find a way of rebelling against the rules.

They will look for any gap in the codes or regulations that govern school uniforms and exploit them. That might mean wearing expensive jewelry, wearing certain shoes, or styling their hair in a way that allows them to express their own personality. The school uniform might create a fashion balance, but it also creates a natural rebellion against group thinking.

It may limit the concept of diversity to the student body. School uniforms, by design, limit diversity within the learning environment. Instead of pretending to be equal by creating an outward visual aesthetic, it would be more effective to emphasize true equality within the society at large.

If diversity is established in the classroom, students can learn how to interact with other groups and then innovate ways to establish future policies that can lead to real equality. New school uniforms can be more expensive than traditional clothing. Many families who live near the poverty line find themselves shopping at thrift stores, discount stores, and other low-cost locations.

For families that must purchase multiple uniform sets for their children, the cost could be several hundred dollars higher. Public schools that require student uniforms could use taxpayer funds to purchase them.

There is already a debate in the US involving the fact that property taxes help to pay for public schooling costs. Some households which do not have children wonder why they need to pay taxes in the first place. When the cost of school uniforms is added to that conversation, it can be easy to wonder why taxpayers should subsidize the cost of uniforms.

Removing students from class because of an inability to afford a school uniform reinforces socioeconomic stereotypes. Despite community involvement, charitable giving, and other forms of economic balancing, there are always families which struggle to put their children into school uniforms.

Punishing a student by removing them from a school because of an inability to afford a uniform goes against the principals of equal learning opportunities.

Even if charitable outreach can provide students with uniforms, a negative stigma can be placed on that student or family because they had to have their uniforms given to them.

Another school may simply require that all shirts have collars. In Toledo, Ohio, elementary school students have a limited palette of colors that they can wear: white, light blue, dark blue or yellow on the top half and dark blue, navy, khaki or tan on the bottom half.

Toledo girls are allowed a fairly wide range of dress items, however: blouses, polo shirts with collars, turtlenecks, skirts, jumpers, slacks, and knee-length shorts and skirts.

Boys have almost as many choices: dress shirts, turtlenecks, polo or button-down shirts, pants or knee-length shorts. Virginia Draa, assistant professor at Youngstown State University, reviewed attendance, graduation and proficiency pass rates at 64 public high schools in Ohio.

At least at these schools, they do. I was absolutely floored. She was unable to connect uniforms with academic improvement because of such complicating factors as changing instructional methods and curriculum. University of Missouri assistant professor, David Brunsma reached a different conclusion. He also conducted his own analysis of two enormous databases, the National Educational Longitudinal Study and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.

Brunsma concluded that there is no positive correlation between uniforms and school safety or academic achievement. Meanwhile, the movement toward uniforms in public schools has spread to about a quarter of all elementary schools. Experts say that the number of middle and high schools with uniforms is about half the number of elementary schools.

If uniforms are intended to curb school violence and improve academics, why are they not more prevalent in middle and high schools, where these goals are just as important as in elementary schools?

In fact, most of the litigation resulting from uniforms has been located at levels of K that are higher than elementary schools. Of course, this uniform debate is also one regarding whether children have rights, too!