Should Kids Be Required to Wear School Uniforms?
SHE SAID WHAT?!
Posted By Wendy
Recently, I purchased four pairs of Oshkosh overalls, four patches, and five custom insignia-stamped T-shirts for my son’s pre-school uniforms. It cost me more than $100, and it requires that I now do Lucas’ laundry at least twice a week (laundry on weeknights = giant asspain).
Lucas just turned 2 years old.
Why uniforms at a pre-school daycare? That’s a good question. It can’t be to even the playing field, allowing families with less money to have their kids fit in.The daycare is by no means cheap. It’s the best (and most expensive) daycare in the Monterey Bay area. Anyone who can afford what is essentially a private school cost is not at a disadvantage for cute clothes. Plus, when’s the last time you saw a 2-year-old wrinkle his nose at his friend’s jeans because they’re Old Navy instead of Janie & Jack? (Okay, so Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s baby has yet to be born, but still…)
Another oft-sited reason for uniforms is to avoid trouble with gangs. So, again, that’s not really an issue with toddlers. I see no Crips or Bloods affiliations at daycare. But let’s expand beyond my current situation.
Say my child goes to a public middle school where uniforms are required, and no gang colors are allowed. Kids find a way around that. For example, skipping the third or fourth hold of your shoe laces can signify gang membership. What next, only velcro sneakers allowed?
Finally, one of my biggest pet peeves against school uniforms is that it blunts self-expression. As a pre-teen and teenager, a major part of my identity was wrapped up in what I wore. I spent hours digging through my parents’ closet looking for discarded 70s gear I gladly repurposed. I paired combat boots and crushed-velvet dresses. I came up with some strange-ass combinations (it was the 90s, after all). Some people teased me. Others said I had great style. I didn’t care. I wasn’t that concerned if my clothes were “label” (I seriously had never heard of Louis Vitton until I went to college in NYC). I just wanted to make a statement. It makes me sad that many of today’s private and public school kids won’t have that opportunity.
Now, if the best public school happens to have uniforms, I’ll still send my son there. After all, his education is more important to me than his sense of style. But I’ll be sad that I can’t stare at his outfit some day and say, “You are NOT leaving the house in that!”
SHE SAID WHAT?!
Posted By Lulu
You bring up some valid points, Wendy, but I like school uniforms. I have vivid memories of my own school uniform from grade school through high school, and I know my girls remember their uniform from when they attended their Catholic school in Chicago. The girls are only a year apart, and they wore the same size blouse, so it was easy to wash and iron 10 blouses over the weekend and have them ready for the week. The warm weather uniform included a plaid skirt (or a jumper for K-4) and the cold weather uniform consisted of warm wool pants. And dozens of royal blue knee socks. Getting the girls ready in the morning was a breeze.
School uniforms instill a sense of community and school pride. After school when I had to take my girls to their appointments, people identified them as students of their school because of the uniform. On field trips or outings, they represented their school while wearing their uniforms, so they were more likely to be on their best behavior. The girls weren’t allowed to wear makeup or flashy jewelry in school, only tiny stud earrings. It was part of the discipline of the uniform culture.
Their uniform reminded me of the one I wore when I was in school. Like I said, uniforms promote discipline, and at my school on the south side of Chicago, we needed lots of discipline. Sister Lorraine was our strictest disciplinarian. Mean, mean, mean like nun other. She used to perform a uniform check on the girls. She would have us kneel along the wall, looking straight ahead with our arms down. Then she would walk across inspecting our skirts to make sure they touched the floor. If they didn’t, she would whack us across our bare knees with her ruler. The eighth grade girls were bad. If you looked real close, you could detect the faintest baby blue eyeshadow. Not only that, but they would roll their waistband over and over to hike up their hemline. Then they would roll it back down for uniform check.
When I recall my grammar school days, the scratchy pleated uniform skirt and the little cross-over tie is a big part of the picture. There were other forms of self-expression. We all had our little quirks, talents, and mannerisms. The uniform allowed these other, more important, attributes to be the focal point, not the clothing.
10 Responses to “Should Kids Be Required to Wear School Uniforms?”
I think it is ridiculous to have pre-school students wear uniforms. I actually think uniforms in general are stupid. I can go on and on about why I think uniforms are ridiculous unless you are dealing with a school with a high gang population. Let kids dress the way they like and express themselves and only step in if they are actually wearing something offensive or gang related.
I can see how using Uniforms to control gangs is important but I can also see it not being necessary everywhere. Kids in daycare don’t need it, catholic schools don’t need it. I would hate going to school where I basically look like everyone else.
And that Nun who hit you guys? Lawsuit in today’s world.
Sure. Back in the day, Sister Lorraine had permission to whack me with her ruler. No different from my ma’s chancla.
Nuns get free passes. It’s just assumed they’re going to beat your ass.
Umm. I’m pretty sure if i looked back at most of our high school pictures we all (Wendy and Crystal excluding) looked like someone else. It’s part of our pack mentality in high school. So, yeah, you may not have a uniform but you kind of do. Even hot topic has essentially designed a uniform for those kids who want to be different. Oh you wanna be emo or goth? Just put on this formulaic outfit and you fit in! It’s the same, just marketed differently.
Well, I have a daughter who wears a uniform and yet she has her own crazy sense of style. It’s nice to have 5 days worth of outfits pre-selected and there’s no battling because her shirt isn’t pink this day or she doesn’t want to wear x outfit, something we battled when she was in preschool (yes, preschool. My kid is opinionated and has a unique sense of fashion). The only time it sucks is when we don’t get to laundry on the weekend and we’re scrambling Sunday night to wash her uniforms.
Preschool uniforms? That’s weird, but I can imagine it provides a sense of school pride and can serve as a status symbol.
Losing ones’ identify? I don’t agree. My sister was in one of the first classes in our town to have to use a uniform. She was very creative in her accessorizing and her hair, and she stood out. They even name her best dressed in her middle school’s yearbook. And even with Chinchilla’s school, the girls wear their hair differently, have different types of shoes and wear different parts of their uniform differently. I recently saw a little girl wearing the boy’s tie as part of her uniform while I saw another wearing the plaid shorts with navy tights. All different while keeping the uniform norms.
Frankly, most kids dress exactly the same without the uniform. So, just because you’re not expected to wear the same pattern skirts and dresses, it doesn’t mean you’re not dressed just like everyone else. Just go sit in front of a high school at about 3:00 pm. About 80% of those girls will be wearing what looks like the exact same thing.
Uniforms for kids! saves on hassle with a lil girl
totally.
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As a student, I would have hated school uniforms. However, as a teacher, I completely see the value and would love it if my school would enforce uniforms.
A problem that was not mentioned is inappropriate clothing. Parents, unfortunately, do not always police this, and students come in school in revealing clothing or shirts with marijuana or beer logos. Not all teachers enforce the uniform policy, so your choice is to either ignore it or to become “that teacher” that sends students to the nurse to borrow some hideous shirt to cover up whatever needs covered up. I am “that teacher”, but really, I have more important things to spend my time on than to make sure my pre-teens are appropriately dressed for school.