I agree with the school uniforms, but I also have to totally agree with Ken, it's a bandaid on top of a compound fracture regarding the school systems, and unfortunately you can thank the Government and the NEA for that.

 

I send my kids to both public and private Christian schools where they have to conform to dress codes that range from mild to strict. In one, parents were discourged from picking up their children inside the building unless they tucked in their shirt tails too.

 

No one said uniforms would stop violence, but it would help. It takes some of the outside factors out of the equation.

I didn't send my kids to school to look good, wear the latest fashion, etc., so they could feel good about themselves. I sent them there for an education.
I wore patched clothes, and clothes with holes in them, but I got an education. Feeling good about myself came from home and family.

The Catholics have done fairly well over the years with uniforms.

School boards would have the final say in the uniform style.

Poor people have to buy clothes anyway, so why would it be an extra burden? There would be ways to help them with clothes. They get free meals at school, so clothing wouldn't be a problem. jd

 

You don't really think that uniforms at schools are going to cause kids not to know how to dress? My daughter wears a uniform, and has no problems with a sense of fashion outside of school. One's personality gives one their individualism, imho.

 

My kids wear school uniforms and I couldn't be happier. We save a lot of money with them wearing them.

 

well as a high schooler i can say that uniforms would not be welcome by many students unless they were designed resonable (none of this ankle lentgh dresses/ polo shirt crap) but if students were allowed to be a part of the planning i think that reasonable mediums could be reached and accepted by both students and officials.

On a political level i disagree with the principle because like it has been stated before in this thread, it is not the schools responsibility to teach our nations kids how do dress. that is the job of the parents.

 

Hate to tell you this, but if I were to rank the order of importance of opinions at a PTA meeting about uniforms, parents, teachers, the school board, etc. would all rank high on the list.... and the students opinions dead last. As a parent of three kids that's the way I see it. Asking the kids their opinion is like asking the fox if he should be allowed in the hen-house.

 

Hmm, I have a story to tell....


Clothing has 3 basic purposes really, to cover ones nakedness, to provide warmth and make impressions. The need for higher thinking about ones clothing beyond those 3 points ,really becomes irrevelant...

Our educational systems have been established to provide the basic education to young people to prepare them for the world they will walk in to one day, as an adult ...

If the particular clothes a student wears has a impact on the person wearing them or, those clothes have an effect on those around them, then the clothes become revelant to the student acquiring their education...

So, Beth is surrounded by her peers at school whom wear the latest "hot" fashions, they look so good in their $ 150.00 shoes, $100.00 jeans. Beth's parents are low income though, she cannot go to school in designer jeans...

These "hot" fashions the richer girls wear include miniskirts that barely cover their backside, with their thong string underwear( if they wear underware at all, especially if they are a Spears fan), shows from behind....

The guys come in wearing designer "jeans" resembling old time bloomers with the crotch of them hanging down to their knees. The boys restroom cleaning budget goes way up because of the urine all over the floor, where the boys cant find the fly opening fast enough...

So, the students get to wear what they want to school and get to look "hot" and WAY cool. Oh yes, they have their "individualism" and they get to make their fashion statement. Sadly, they are making this fashion statement during a time in their lives when, the importance of it matters about as much as a spitball in forest fire....

They get to devote their school/social time worrying about whether their classmate is going to get those new Fiddycent bloomers coming out on the store shelves Saturday, before they do.....

Then, one day one of the so cool, now graduated student's is sitting in front of a employer, filing out the job application. The student flips the application over looks at the back of it, then flips it back over again. They cannot find on the application anywhere, a box to check asking what the applicants fashion status was in school. It justs asks really stupid things like grade point average and degree achieved...

But the applicant does get the job though regardless. He or she NOW gets to wear a uniform in their new job. One that has their name over their left breast pocket and " Joe's Barn Cleaners" over their right breast pocket. But its not so bad, the ex-student even gets their pick of colors, beige or blue. Plus, they get to wear the uniform the rest of their lives even !!! Now, how great of a fashion statement is that ???


P.S. No disrespect implied or intentionally stated to those people reading that wear uniforms to work. The above is just a silly scenario I made up as I went along to try to make a point for the readers that are still in school. FORGET THE CLOTHES, GET THE BEST EDUCATION !!!..

Take from my tale what truth you may. I have worn a uiniform to work for 37 years now, so I know of what I speak. I would have much rather just worn one for the 12 years I was in school. all jmo

 

and once again it goes back to the parents, who in the heck buys and allows them to walk out of the house like that?

but society is on a constant drive to remove every and all responsibility from parents, soon parents are going to merely thought of as procreation machines for continuation of the species.

and so what if someone's kid dresses better than someone's elses, am i now not allowed to buy nice quality clothes for my kid with money i worked hard for because so and so's parents did not work hard in life and can not afford it?

by the way, it does not take money to dress well, people in poorer countries dress a heck of a lot better than people here, it takes style and sense, many people have resorted to laziness as their fashion guide.

i didn't wear a uniform in school, i wore one in the military, now i am in college not wearing a uniform again, so what of it? me not wearing a uniform had no effect on my adaptation to wear one at work, if someone thinks people are as so stupid they can not understand a requirment for dress at a job, then they probably should not be doing that job.

 

I think it would be a good thing. Around here we recently had an incident where a bunch of kids thought they would be cool to wear t-shirts for a band called, "Insane Clown Posse" that had some pretty disturbing images on them and the kids all painted their faces like the people in the band do.
When they were informed that they would no longer be allowed to dress like that, some of them told the principal that they would have no problems with blowing him away and some of the kids had a little protest about not being able to dress how they wanted. A lot of people around here were really scared that it was going to be another Columbine.
If there had been school uniforms, none of that would have ever happened. School is supposed to be all about getting an education so that you can get into college and get a good job someday, its not supposed to be all about wearing the right kind of clothes with the right brand names on them.
Of course, if parents would do their jobs and not let their kids out of the house dressed like a bunch of freaks, none of that would have happened either.

 

"kids rights"

that is a subject in itself.

who in the heck placed it in kids minds that they have "rights"

that is one of the first things my wife noticed when she first got to this country, how brave kids are to do things, not shy or shamed at all of their illicit behaviour. i guess it is those rights someone told them they have and let them have.

 

Why do they want to wear what they wear? Change that, and I think you might have helped the situation. Fix the root cause I say.

 

haha - you think that is bad?

If we were caught even outside of school (i.e. after school, down the street) with our shirts untucked, tie slightly undone, socks not pulled up, not wearing our school hat in summer, or not wearing our school blazer in the winter months (irrespective of weather). It was an immediate 2 day suspension (defacing the schools image) for the first offence, and got progressively stricter for further offences.



I have never seen a school here (public or private) that doesn't have an enforced uniform (enforced to different degree's admittedly), a couple of the public schools don't have uniforms for final year students, thats the only exception.

 

My message was not to incriminate anyone that wears a uniform to make their living, please read my closing. It goes without saying that because a person wears a uniform to work , does not make them less a person. There is the perception in America through the eyes of the affluent and higher educated, that a uniformed worker is "less" in their eyes...

My silly message above is, that school uniforms would take away the young peoples need to "meet" their peers clothing standards, if all were dressed alike. It would also help to lessen financial burdens for parents trying to keep their kids clothing standards "cool "... .

As an adult the way one dresses may not matter to them or others. To a teen with that heightened sense of worrying what,"everyone may think of them" and, to a teen that has parents that cannot afford the better clothes for them, it matters a lot. ...

Uniforms could take away just one little issue, of the thousands our school systems face nowadays. As you say , it starts and stops with good parenting. jmo

 

My wife is a third grade teacher in Las Vegas. It is a dang tough job. This year her school adoped school uniforms.

Believe it or not there are gang bangers in the third grade.

With uniforms, it seems , according to my wife, to cut down on the group, ie click thing, where gangs get started.

As far as the NEA comment, both my wife and I agree on that. When we get up north soon, my wife is already hired in a private school system.

I can tell you this, none of my grandchildren will attend government schools!