There are two arguments for the way pupils should dress in a public education system:
CASUAL - freedom of expression and the parents do not have to spend extra money for specific outfits.
UNIFORM - discipline and preparation for the work place. Parents and teachers do not have to worry what children are going to wear. The ability to identify a student.
Why dress style do you think should be within public schools?
Having gone to school in both Trinidad and the US, I was exposed to both systems. In Trinidad, there is a strict dress code for students, especially at the secondary schooling level. It was even to the point where on Mondays we had to wear ties, and if not, we were disciplined. The pro to this was the discipline factor and the cost factor. Discipline in having a dress code and cost in only having to purchase a few uniforms and not having to worry about buying expensive clothes for going to school. At the time I did not care that much for the dress code, but looking back at it I am glad to have had it. The con of course was not being able to express yourself by dress, since everyone had to dress the same. However, for students, this should not be an issue. Unfortunately, in the US, it is a huge issue, and usually leads to more problems than solutions, which is why I will state that having a dress code is probably in the long run a better system to have.
I went to public school, and I went when there were strict dress codes. Only skirts and dresses for the girls, with the hems BELOW the knee, and the boys could wear jeans as long as they were clean, in one piece and pressed. Mostly the boys wore those pants that were kind of knubby and blue or black. Don't know what they called them. The shirts they wore had to be oxford shirts. Meaning: button up, either short sleeve or long sleeve. Solid color too. No polo shirts, or T-shirts, and also the boys HAD to wear undershirts. Also the girls in Jr. High and High School were not allowed to wear makeup either. It sure didn't hurt any of us either!
During my senior year in High School, the girls were finally allowed to wear Pants Suits. Remember them? The era of polyester?
My neighbors were Catholic and thus wore uniforms. They wore the same thing every day ~ no one looked richer or poorer than the others. Even though the uniforms cost more than street clothes, you wore less. Three skirts and five blouses got you through the week.
In public school the peer pressure was to wear a different outfit every day. Everyone knew I was poor because I only had three outfits! And only one pair of shoes for dress up/school!
In this day and age ~ with the children dressing as immodestly as they are and the boys wearing pants that drag down below their butts, it is most distracting in the class room. The public schools should go to uniforms. Put the emphasis back into education and not on fashion.
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CASUAL - freedom of expression and the parents do not have to spend extra money for specific outfits. |
I was raised in a poor household, yet attended a private school. There was a dress code at the school. While the dress code is supposed to make everyone appear to be equal it does little in that regard. Simple things are ever so evident even to young children. Nikes and other brand name shoes were not addressed in the dress code, all children were required to wear slacks, yet the brand of slacks also offered more than a small idea of one's financial status.
Discipline may have been improved, but I didn't notice it. In fact I recall being in more fights in the three years that I went to Catholic school than in the rest of my years of my life combined!
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Nikes and other brand name shoes were not addressed in the dress code, all children were required to wear slacks, yet the brand of slacks also offered more than a small idea of one's financial status |
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Nikes and other brand name shoes were not addressed in the dress code, all children were required to wear slacks, yet the brand of slacks also offered more than a small idea of one's financial status. |
We have uniforms in public schools and I think it's a good idea.
QUOTE |
Since the children cannot show off their clothes, they do it through the sneakers. |
Growing up at the time when the dress policy on the west coast started, I thought uniforms were a bad idea. I do not see how a uniform can stop a kid from joining a gang out there, when you do things like that outside of school more than in. It is just another way to force free americans to do things they do not want to.