5 Reasons Public School Uniforms Are Bad for Elementary School Students
From Stifling Creative Questions to Instilling Fear in Children
5 Reasons Back to School Uniforms in Public School are Bad
#1- Stifling Creativity and Creating Drones: Students express themselves by the clothing they wear. A young girl student might have an affinity for the color purple, a boy student might like the color blue, with uniforms (unless they are those colors) those students will not be able to wear their favorite colors. Nor will students be able to wear the latest comic book character, movie character or book characters. This stifles what could become creative discussion among the students by halting questions they are likely to ask each other such as, "Who is that?", "What movie is he/she/it from?", "Did you read the latest Harry Potter book?".
#2- Unemployment Rates: How could unemployment rates have anything to do with back to school uniforms in public school? Consider this, Unemployment rates are at the highest they have ever been which means that the students attending public school may have one or more parent who is jobless and barely able to make ends meet. Now, those parents have to buy brand new uniforms because the school is not providing the uniform nor are they providing vouchers to buy the uniform. Many parents already struggle with buying back to school clothing and have had friends give hand-me-downs or visited stores like the Salvation Army to buy cheap clothing for their kids. Now parents will have to figure out a way to scrape money together to buy the public school uniform.
#3- What is Good for the Goose isn't Good for the Gander: One example of this comes from Jim Thorpe Elementary School in Jim Thorpe, Pa where students for the 2010-2011 school year are being subject to public school uniforms for the first time. Guess who is not? The teachers, administration and principals. The adults of the school do not have to wear a uniform yet their subjects (the students) do. Beyond being unfair, especially to an elementary school students eyes, this teaches children the mentality of "Do as I say, Not as I do".
#4- Instilling Fear: Children who are subject to public school uniforms have a new fear to deal with beyond making new friends, getting lost in a new school, and meeting new teachers for the first time. Now students will being dealing with a fear of not wearing the correct uniform or wearing the uniform wrong because if they wear it wrong or do not wear the correct clothing on the uniform guidelines they will be punished.
#5- Punishment Emphasizes Public School Uniform and Not Education: Students are in the school to learn. Yet, if they wear inappropriate attire (not the school uniform) their education will be punished. Using Jim Thorpe Elementary School's new uniform policy as an example again, students of the school that do not wear the uniform or wear the wrong colors in their uniform will be sent to the principals office where they will remain until they change the inappropriate article of clothing and a phone call to parents is made. A second offense, will include the same discipline and also a detention. A third offense, In School Suspension plus the above. Four or more offenses will be treated as disruptive behaviour (source). Students will be taken away from learning and punished. This places more emphasis on the power of the uniform than it does on the power of education.
Published by Linda StCyr
Linda St.Cyr has been a featured contributor for Associated Content from Yahoo!, she is the author of several short stories including the story "Leaving" published in the anthology collection, Elements of Ti... View profile
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9 Comments
Post a Commentihate schools uniforms. i mean their so boring and so unfashionable.
I liked wearing a uniform in elem. school. It was comfy and there wasn't any status stuff going on the way it was later when we wore regular clothing and it cost $$ to get the cool stuff.
An interesting thing here in Houston, my Elementary and Middle school age girls have to wear uniforms to public school but High school students do not. This is odd to me since the reason the school board gives for them is to curb gang activity. Shouldn't the ages be reversed since it is only logical high school students would be the ones more prone to being involved in gangs? Makes you wonder!
For full discosure, I am writing this while wearing pajamas--but I earned the ability to work at home after years of following other people's rules!
If the uniform is generic, e.g. khaki pants, it doesn't have to be too expensive--although any expense is too much when you are out of work. I certainly don't think children should be punished for being poor. There should be restrictions on clothing, e.g. guidelines for modesty, and children should not come to school in pajamas--unless they expect to find jobs where they can wear their pajamas. Just my opinion from observation of local school kids. My kids wear uniforms to their private school and simply channel their creativity into their music, writing, art, and non-school clothing.
You brought out some interesting points, Linda. I experienced both in school. I spent half of my school life wearing my own clothes (primary school and the last two years of upper school) and the other half wearing school uniform. When you wear school uniform, everyone looks the same and there is less bullying based on the clothes you wear. My teachers dressed formally, so I can actually say that they did have their own uniform.
Sophie
I don't know about elementary students,but I used to wish high school students (whom I taught) would have to wear uniforns.
Interesting topic. Well done!
On the other hand, I've heard many parents say that that uniforms are cheaper than the full wardrobe they were used to buying. You've brought up some good points here. Never thought about the staff wearing uniforms.