School Uniforms example essay topic

After several not-so-great experiences I have had in the school district, I think I have come up with a long-term solution to increasing amounts of disrespect and subordination both among the students and the faculty. I grew up in a parochial school in New York City. In St. Andrews we had to wear school uniforms. The memories of my childhood aren't filled with unforgivable actions towards me, and people picking on each other about what clothes they are wearing. The most trouble I ever remember getting myself into was during the first or second grade when I lost one of my phonetics books. Never do I remember fights in school or any threat of violence.

Considering the fact that this was a different time, it was only a few years ago. I personally feel that uniforms can help to create a more structured environment. Throughout the State of Florida, numerous school boards have been attempting to standardize the clothing that students wear. The school superintendents who are in favor of uniforms argue that the children who wear them will experience many benefits.

Critics feel that the use of uniforms will strip identity, stifle creativity, and unnecessarily burden the families that cannot afford them. They argue that the use of uniforms has already been implemented in several long-standing social environments. The penal system uses uniforms to brand those persons who are incarcerated. Likewise, the military also uses them to separate and remove the individualism inside of the soldier. In both cases, "individual identity is stripped away and the subject is forced to conform to the same outward appearance as every other subject". Another problem that may surface due to the implementation of school uniforms is the suppression of the individual's creativity and expression.

Many students' express who they are through the way they dress. If a teenager wants to show the rest of the world that he loves Jesus, then he or she might wear a T-shirt that states a positive view on the subject. Similarly, a student might want to wear green colored clothing to show his or her support for St. Patrick's Day. It is believed that uniforms may end these practices. I disagree. In elementary school, we always had the options of wearing sweaters, hair ribbons, etc.

Of course, as long as we followed the color code, we could wear practically any kind of shoe (although penny loafers were recommended) or sweater. The last issue that critics address is the unnecessary burden that may be placed upon those families of limited resources. Many low-income families do not have the money available to furnish uniforms to their children. In several schools in Florida, the school boards are trying to pass legislation that a child cannot attend school unless they have on the proper uniform. An education is supposed to be available to all children, not just the ones whose parents can afford to buy the government ordered attire.

The overall integration helps the students realize that although people may look similar, the idea that everyone exhibits will be greatly different. These different ideas are present in everyone, and the dress restrictions help illustrate the idea that just because someone looks the same, they do not think the same. When the students get jobs or find careers in their future, it will be helpful to know that even though all their co-workers seem similar, they are in actuality very different. This approach to future jobs and careers will give the students an advantage in being open minded with people.

I have a very different opinion to the matter. I think that school uniforms can drastically reduce school violence and help a student to focus on school work. In 1996, President Clinton endorsed public school uniforms in his State of the Union Address. This created a rage among some education critics across the country. Critics complain that uniforms will lessen children's individualism and creativity, infringing students' rights and hint of racism.

While proponents believe, uniforms will put the students emphasis on schoolwork instead of dressing coolly, and they will help to lower school violence. The idea comes from a Californian elementary school in Long Beach. 'In 1994, Long Beach became the country's first public school district to institute a mandatory uniform policy". The results were so promising that they lead to the President's endorsement.

The school saw a fifty-one percent drop in physical fights, a thirty-four percent drop in assaults and batteries, a fifty percent drop in weapons offenses, and a thirty-two percent drop in school suspensions. All of this occurred in a time span of only one year, essentially proving that a child's clothes do make a difference in school violence. In a time when school children are getting killed for designer jackets and shoes, uniforms are exactly what our children need. Critics say that school uniform inhibit self expression.

If you take away a child's self expression through clothing, you force that child to express his or herself in other ways. This might even force a child to resort to even more violent forms of expression, like through writing and art. In today's society, students are fighting each other in schools, because of other students that wear rival gangs colors and clothing. Uniforms eliminate gang clothing like baggy pants, belts with initials on the buckles, halter tops, or certain gang colored clothing items. The uniforms can also help to identify outsiders within a school.

Drug dealers would have wear uniforms in order to be able to roam our courtyard without being spotted. The uniforms can also help parents save money. A parent can pay anywhere from sixty to a hundred dollars for a pair of pants, forty to sixty dollars on a single shirt, and eighty to one hundred-fifty dollars for a pair of shoes. A student would need to have at least five to six different outfits to wear to school. Where as a child wearing a uniform only would need two sets of clothes for class. The uniforms may vary, but most uniforms consist of basic colored slacks and a basic colored collared shirt.

They can be purchased for as little as forty dollars at discount stores and the most expensive being around a hundred dollar. Besides saving parents hundreds of dollars, school uniforms also help to erase lines between the social classes. Since all students will be dressed alike, it will be impossible to tell the difference from students from low income families and those from high income families. When I started public school when we moved, my family was not in the best financial situation. We didn't have money that year to buy school clothes, and I had to wear clothes that were not considered "cool". This automatically put me out of the "cool group".

I felt unhappy and left out. Even now, when I buy clothing, most of the time I pay for all of it myself, and my limited budget has put a damper on what sorts of clothing I can afford. But that is a different story... So, can uniforms make a difference?

If they save one life or allow one child to be fit in, they can. No one claims that uniforms are the fix all for the public school system, but they are a start. Uniforms will give all students in school a chance to fit in regardless of their social standing. They will also take the student's focus off of having the right clothes and put it back on having the right attitude.