Welcome to the School Uniforms group

[Deborah]

Welcome to the School Uniforms group at Google!

School uniforms - are they good or bad? What are the arguments in favor
of introducing school uniforms? What are the arguments against them?
What research is available on the topic? What are the legal rights of
students and their parents? Which legal precedents apply?

There are many issues that need closer examination. If you have any
question, views, concerns, experiences, background knowledge or other
relevant information, please post a message here. This group welcomes
your opinion on school uniforms, feel encouraged to express it here!
Deborah

[rdd...@aol.com]

I am a new member to this group and I was wondering if anybody could
give me statistics on school uniforms before I take any sides. If you
get statistics, please send it to rdd...@aol.com. THANK YOU

[Deborah]

There's been little research into the effects of school uniforms, but
there are some links at:
http://www.geocities.com/school_uniforms/

[DrBill0001]

Among the supporters of introdcing school uniforms, the argument goes
like this.

1. Uniforms make people feel differently. Citing the decline of
civivlty in cultlure and how much more casual the culture is than it
used to be, supporters claim that making students wear uniforms help
them to conceptualize school as a special, distinctly different place
and remind them to act accordingly. Like dresing for a wedding,
funeral, job interview, etc., you dress in a special way which projects
a special environment.

2. The most elite, private schools do this. Uniforms, supporters say,
help schools emulate the best, most exclusive schools in the world.

3. The foreign countries that we admire do this. Not all of them, but
Japan and Scotland, for a couple of examples, have great schools. They
wear uniforms.

4. They somewhat level the social playing field. When all students
have to wear the same thing, this somewhat diminishes class
distinctions (although people with experiences with uniforms say
students find various ways to personalize their appearence and maintain
individuality).

That's how I understand the main arguments. There are a number of
minor arguments (maost parents like them; virtually all studens hate
them; most teachers like them for students but would never tolerate
them for teachers, and more).

The legal position mostly supports no uniforms (and no dress codes,
either, with some execptions when schools can show some clear saftey or
security issue).

What do you think?

[Deborah]

Thanks for that contribution to the ongoing debate about school
uniforms. I'll add some of the comments that I've seen on the points
you made.

Do we really admire uniforms, per se? Do we admire people who are
dressed in prison clothes, just because they wear a uniform? Do we
admire security guards, uniformed police and military more than
guerilla fighters, spies and undercover agents?

Isn't the social thing also an ambiguous argument, because at first the
expensive private schools had uniforms, to distinguish themselves as
elite. Also, isn't class inherent in school, where students are grouped
according to age as well as (sometimes) gender and ability? Doesn't
school reflect the wealth of poverty of the respective suburb? And what
about the argument that uniforms make students focus on differences in
physical appearance (that could be hidden to more extent with other
clothes)?

[disgrac...@yahoo.com]

kids will make fun of other kids with uniforms or without them
it wont stop
(i know cuzz im 13)
most of it is just laughing and joking
the only places where bullies are serious is well....no where
if you got bullied...i feel for you but uniforms just might add to the
seriousness of the situation

[disgrac...@yahoo.com]

im in 8yth grade
uniforms suck
theyd make kids look like poop
we have our own sense of style
we wish to wear what we want
the more unique the better
scotland and japan arent america
u can base america on scotland and japan when u want to raise a bunch
of comies (and i can say comies cuzz im russian)

[Whispers in the Storm]

Actually, neither Scotland nor Japan are communist countries.