Are School Uniforms?

"’School uniforms are one step that may help break the cycle of violence, truancy and disorder by helping young students understand what really counts is what kind of people they are,’ President Clinton said. It didn 't take much more than this presidential nod of approval to get the uniform ball rolling in many school districts across the country” (Bowen). Are school uniforms really the answer to the public schools’ problems? Although having a school uniform policy is mostly beneficial to schools, there are some drawbacks to having one. While uniforms provide less cost to the parent and less chance of bullying in schools, they also limit a student’s freedom of expression and can decrease the student’s comfort level. One benefit to having

All children express themselves differently. Clothing choice is a major part of their expression. Whether the child is wearing colorful shoes, an all black tuxedo, or religious T-shirt, he/she is sending a direct message. This form of expression can help teachers get to know the student individually. This is beneficial when engaging in conversation with the student. The student will in turn find the classroom setting more enjoyable. When children are required to wear uniforms, their freedom of expression is limited. There is no variation between what the students are wearing each day, and there are no clues to what the students’ personalities are. All of the children are seen as the same and having the same personality. Without the ability to express themselves through clothing, children may choose a more disruptive way in doing so such as verbally and/or physically. As long as the clothing children decide to wear is not disrupting others, it is better for students to express themselves that way. Ultimately, uniforms prohibit students from expressing themselves in a non-disruptive

School uniform designs are set by the school district and students are required to wear them. Although wearing uniforms in The United States of America are slowly gaining support, almost all schools in foreign countries already require their students to wear uniforms. For instance, in Japan “boys wear black pants and jacket with gold buttons down the front and a white shirt inside, or sometimes a sort of suit- like thing. Girls, wear a “kon” (a kind of dark blue) or gray skirt, with either a sailor top or a white shirt and matching vest” (Chen). I have also witnessed children wearing uniforms in places that I have traveled to. A couple of years ago, I traveled to various islands in the Caribbean. All of the islands that I have traveled to require all school aged children to wear uniforms to school. This started as soon as they began kindergarten and continued until they graduated from high school. Even though the colors varied between each different uniform, one thing always remained the same, the boys wore pants and the girls wore skirts. Not all girls are comfortable wearing skirts. Wearing a skirt as part of a school uniform also harms the minority of some schools, one of which being transsexuals. With Caitlyn Jenner’s story of being a transgender person becoming so popular, many people are beginning to take notice of many transgender