School Uniforms

There are a few positives of having uniforms. For example, there wouldn’t be as much inappropriate clothing, kids wouldn’t have trouble finding outfits in the mornings and people couldn’t really talk bad about the way other students were dressing because they would look similar. Even though these ideas seem great, I don’t agree. Here’s the way I see it. Uniforms would eliminate originality, it would start to cause more separation in school and the standards of the schools dress code would still be violated. I’ll expand on these ideas.

Originality is a huge deal to teens. We don’t feel like we’re understood in general, so clothing is just an expression. How you dress represents how you feel. To give a personal example, when I feel sad, I usually dress in sweats or comfy clothes to make me feel better. If I had to dress in an outfit I disliked and I was having a bad morning, it would just add onto everything that seemed to be going wrong. A lot of people tend to follow trends, but there are select few that strive to be different in the world. You don’t want to take that away, do you?

Let’s talk about separation. Kids want to be popular, have a lot of friends and be liked and admired by as many peers as possible. What is popular? Expensive, high end clothes, rich, nice houses? Yes. Exactly. Even if you decided to go through with putting uniforms into schools, it would definitely not even begin to solve this problem. Parents would buy their kids the highest end brand clothes they could get so their children would still look good in their uniforms and be confident that they do. Tan pants with a polo. You can buy that at the DI, and the kids with the nicer clothes would notice and let you know they noticed.

There are many violations of dress code everyday, and I know you think uniforms might solve this problem. You’re wrong. Girls can still pull up their skirts a little higher and higher each day. Students will alter and add accessories to these uniforms and it will be just as inappropriate as if it was normal dress. The administration needs to be stricter on what they allow, not try to change the dress policy.

I know it seems like adding uniforms would be a good addition, but it would take away all that the high school students have. We don’t have control over how we’re supposed to behave, homework or what teachers we have. Please let us choose what we’re able to wear and how we express ourselves.