Debate Against School Uniforms Essay

Have you ever played Wheres Waldo? By issuing students school uniforms, finding a problem child would be a lot like playing that game in a real life situation. Just like any other argument you will have your pros and cons of the idea, but in my opinion and many others, the cons highly outweigh the pros of wearing school uniforms. Many intelligent individuals will lose their motivation to excel and be prevalent because they are used to being ordinary like everyone else. School uniforms shout conformity in many ways and to me that isnt the way to get your students to prevail in the classrooms. Individuality is a huge factor for school age children and their chance to grow among their peers. School uniforms will do nothing but cut down on a students individuality. A uniform is not the way to cut down on school violence. The only thing that will cut down on school violence is if parents would pay attention to their children and keep their children out of trouble and give them consequences when they disobey and not to let them run wild. Uniforms cause regularity. We need free thinking children to become the thinkers of tomorrow, not drones who will continue making the mistakes of previous generations. When we argue against school uniforms we argue against an education system that seeks to produce workers and for an education system that seeks to produce open-minded all-around human beings. One major argument of school uniforms is that they will save money for less fortunate families. This statement can also be battled very easily. There are just as many experts who believe that the cost of school uniforms is a negative factor as those who see it as a positive factor. Some experts believe that it increases the amount of clothing parents will have to buy for their children because the children will still want and need clothing for the hours they are not in school. Uniforms can be more expensive for a family who buys from second-hand stores or who relies on hand-me-down clothing from friends and family. Some experts believe cost is a negative aspect of school uniforms because there is no use for them outside of school. Ultimately school uniforms will likely cost equal to higher amounts of money than buying regular clothing for a child. Everyone wants to be comfortable in what they are wearing and school uniforms limit that option significantly. Many people say that different types of clothing feel comfortable to different people. Some children are more comfortable in a specific material or style of clothing. Uniforms reduce ones ability to choose clothing that fits individual comfort needs. Experts believe that children need to feel comfortable in order to maximize learning, and that uniforms can therefore prevent academic success. Another problem would be if the school was required to wear ties. Wearing a tie would put an enormous damper on childrens ability to pay attention. Most students would spend a majority of their time situating and loosening their tie to the desired fitting. The sad part is that by the time it feels comfortable it is against the dress code and they find themselves in trouble. Identification is one of the biggest factors ruled in against school uniforms. Many people state that you could easily site outsiders of the school, and it would also eliminate gang colors. If you have a school full of children with the same clothing on you would find it nearly impossible to identify a child who was causing trouble. One example is if someone caught a glimpse of a child stealing and then tried to give a description. The description would most likely fit a majority of the students in the school. As for eliminating gang colors, there are better ways to take care of that. If you can tell a gang by its colors and the ones affiliated with it, why not send the gang member to a school away from the other children. Any group that will endanger the life of the other students doesnt deserve to learn with them. Instead of taking away their ability to recognize each other by colors they should be sent off to boot camp or somewhere alike. In conclusion school uniforms can easily be avoided by making the right judgments and by working harder to keep our children away from conformity. Each factor for uniforms can also be backed by an even better reason not to put them in action. Our countrys children need to be able to form an individual personality and ability to learn and progress through adolescents. Each area of discussion shows that children would fair more successful without the statement of a school uniform in hand. Works Cited :1)http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/education/entries/2006/07/29/the_case_agains_1.html2)http://www.communityonline.com/local/educational/schools/uniforms/uniforms.htm3)http://www.geocities.com/school_uniforms/abstract98.html