School Uniforms: Pros and Cons

According to Edwin C. Darden of the American School Board Journal, “Attire can provoke—like gang colors—and be provocative—like hip-hugging shorts.” While Holly Charlonne of Lifescript.com says, “Advocates on behalf of students who do not want to wear uniforms in school say that this is a negative aspect of uniforms, stifling a world where we should be celebrating diversity and culture.” While both sources agree that there wouldn’t be a large amount of gang-related violence in schools, they differ when it comes to being comfortable and to the overall effect of wearing uniforms in school which means some students may not be able to afford the new school uniforms and would have to resort to the used, less comfortable uniforms. This could cause a lack of self-esteem resulting in a loss of concentration in the classroom.

            Some clothing that students wear can definitely be a distraction in the classrooms. They wear shirts with obscene language or pictures, or clothes in general that are colored according to gang relation, bandanas, pants with writing on the back side, and even revealing clothing. There are some students that cannot afford to get real nice, name brand clothing, so they wear hand-me-down clothing or even clothes from thrift stores. Then there are the students that can afford the name brand clothing that go around bragging about how they have all the expensive brands of clothing and most of them are constantly ridiculing the less fortunate students. It looks like school uniforms are a good idea to have in schools; however, some experts do not agree.

            Charlonne of Lifescript.com says, “Students also like to express themselves as individuals and uniforms take away their right to do this.” If they cannot wear what they want to wear, how are they going to be able to express themselves individually? Self expression is mostly through what you wear. Wearing uniforms forces the students to look like everyone else that goes to the same school. Where is the individuality in wearing the same clothes as everyone else? This has its negative points while also having an evenhanded amount of positive points.

            One of the negative points about the school uniforms is that the less fortunate students would probably not be able to afford the new uniforms, so they would have to get the used uniforms, which are similar to the hand-me-down clothing. This would mean that they would still be singled out. The students would still have their cliques, picking and choosing with whom they want to socialize. Another negative point is that wearing uniforms just doesn’t let students express themselves. They cannot show others who they really are. One of the positive points of having school uniforms is that the students that cannot afford expensive clothing would not have to worry about getting ridiculed because they would be wearing the same thing as everyone else. They would also not have to worry about having to look for clothes every morning. This would give them more time to eat breakfast, study for a test, finish up some homework, or even rest a while longer before getting out of the bed. Another positive point is that just because they would have to wear the same clothes as everyone else does not mean that they cannot have different hairstyles and even jewelry as the other students. This means that they are still free to express themselves in certain ways. Sometimes it does not only matter what clothes someone is wearing, but the way that they are wearing their clothes matters as well.