Effects of Wearing a School Uniform
Clear and practical advantages for wearing uniforms include the important issues of safety, cost and behavioral impact, while arguments against uniforms are based on the idea that it limits freedom of expression, leading to misbehavior, disruption and rebellion.
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Safety
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One of the central issues and arguments in favor of mandatory school uniforms is the positive impact upon student safety. If every student is wearing the same distinctive outfit, then people who are not wearing a uniform are easy to spot. The ability to pick out potentially harmful people from a crowd of students makes wearing uniforms a common sense idea. Furthermore, if you are taking students off school grounds or on a field trip, uniforms can help with organization and informs members of public that children are in an coordinated group.
Leveling The Social Field
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Uniforms also serve an important purpose in acting as a social leveler. When students are allowed to determine their own attire it leads to social hierarchies forming based upon the clothes students are wearing. Students who cannot afford to keep pace with rapidly changing and expensive trends are not penalized or singled-out based on their clothes.
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Cost and Financial Assistance
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Modern day school uniforms are inexpensive and easily assembled from accessible local stores or schools themselves. Financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education or local school boards is available to families that cannot afford uniforms, so no student is left without appropriate clothing. Maintaining a consistent uniform over a number of years also means that older siblings can pass their used clothes down to their younger brothers or sisters, allowing for further savings.
Positive Behavioral Impacts
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The wearing of school uniforms has a number of positive impacts on behavior. It breeds a sense of school spirit and pride, and many students are proud when they have their first opportunity to put on a new school uniform. Students receive a self-esteem boost when wearing their uniform as they feel more professional, which has a positive effect on work rate and achievement. Uniforms also help negate misbehavior, as they generate obedience and conformity. Wearing uniforms encourages students to form well-rounded personalities, as they are not defined by the clothes they wear but for the person they are.
Avoids Distractions
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Wearing school uniforms also allows educators to avoid difficult situations caused when students can choose their own attire. For example, controversies over the length of skirts or necklines of blouses often occur when girls are allowed to determine their own clothing.
Disadvantages
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There are not many disadvantages to wearing school uniforms, but it is believed that not allowing children to wear the clothes they want is a limit to their freedom of expression, as protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A limit to this freedom leads to uniformity in schools, rather than encouraging students to form well-rounded characteristics.
Another argument against school uniforms is the issue of uniforms being used as a tool of selection. Some schools still insist that a uniform from only one supplier is used, which means the supplier is free to charge high prices for their clothing. As such, middle class parents will be attracted to this school for their children, while working class families will develop a negative view because of the high uniform prices.
Safety Disadvantage
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Although wearing of uniforms has clear benefits to student safety, there is an isolated issue of occasional harm as a result of boys wearing neck ties. There have been instances of neck ties used in bullying that have led to dangerous situations.
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References
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