Compulsory School Uniform

In 1987, a public school in Baltimore, Maryland became the first to instill a school uniform policy in the United States. This idea of all students dressing alike spread throughout the country, and by 1994 a school district in Long Beach, CA became the first to require a whole school district to wear school uniforms (Background of the Issue - School Uniforms - ProCon.org). Today, an average of 23% of public and private schools enforce a school uniform system (School Uniform Statistics). But this change in dress code policy did not come about without controversy. Although some will argue uniforms promote safety, focus, and an even playing field in schools, school uniform policies oppress student’s freedom of expression, advocate for conformity, and cause more problems than they fix.

Student should be free to wear whatever they want. Students have shown how strong and considerate they are of others. Students have learned to not judge a book by its cover. School uniforms never really capture the full creativity of a student. Students need to be thinking of their future kids and if they want their kids to wear uniforms. Many students have complained about school uniforms because they feel like their not themselves. Students love to be free and not told what to wear. The parents have even complained about the school uniforms in many ways. The parents have said school uniforms are way too expensive and don’t want to pay as much. Parents do not feel it is right that their kids can not express themselves because of school uniforms. Parents want to see their kids grow up with creativity and imagination. Therefore school uniforms should be abolished from

Uniforms violate our first amendment. It doesn’t let students be themselves in the way they want to dress. There are pros about having uniform, but there are more cons because clothes don’t break rules. Students should not be required to wear school uniform.

First of all, mandatory school uniforms deny students rights, stated in the U.S constitution. In the first Amendment, it states, “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech. Recently, a student at Riverside Middle School, wore a pink shirt with a message on it that stated, “ #TeamTanya” He was spreading awareness for his mother, who had breast cancer. With school uniforms, this student would not be able to spread awareness for his mother. Not only it would be against what the U.S.A. stands for, it would be uncivilized and send a bad message to other countries around the world.

High school is a vital time in a child’s life to discover who they are as an individual; expressing themselves through clothes is part of this process. If a student is required to wear a uniform everyday, that would create a lack of self expression. The First Amendment states that every human being in the United States is entitled to express themselves (Anderson). When students are forced to wear

Students from schools with a uniform policy say that uniforms have affected the way they feel about themselves in an unsatisfactory way. Uniforms are proven to slow down the transition into becoming an adult because students aren’t used to choosing their own clothing. Wearing a uniform opens an opportunity for students to judge each other’s bodies based on how they look and it creates room for drama and bullying. The uniforms can also obstruct a student from expressing themselves. Schools should not require a school uniform policy because they delay the transition into adulthood, they cause students to compare their bodies and bullying each other, and uniforms restrict a student’s self-expression and personality.

In conclusion, students should not be forced to wear uniforms. This is because they take away a student’s right to their natural process of finding their individuality, they do not help to stop bullying even though they might increase student’s safety a little. However, obligatory school uniforms may seem like a beneficial idea at first but it would cause more harm than

In summary, schools should not have uniforms. They do not allow students to express themselves. Also, they teach conformity over individuality. In addition to being useless in schools, they do not improve attendance, academic preparedness, or test results. Really, they do not improve anything. If you were a principal, would you enforce a uniform

Uniforms have been around for centuries, from back in the day when women had to wear dresses or skirts and men had to wear pants. To now where students and employees have to wear certain pieces of clothing. People dress to express themselves, schools tell their students to be who they are and to be proud; however, when the student tries to do so they are sent home or held in the office which not only takes away their rights to express themselves, but takes them out of class. According to Friedrichs, “A shocking number of students are actually sent home or suspended for breaking dress code, which means even more time out of class.” A school's job is to prepare children for their futures, that can be quite hard when the student is not there to learn. Dress codes can be overwhelming to maintain. A student's wardrobe isn’t going to be full of polos and khakis because they most likely do not wear polos and khakis outside of school. Dress code should not be as strict, hoodies should be allowed, tank tops should be

First, school uniforms take away the students freedom of expression. The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees that all individuals have the right to express themselves freely. This points out, that by making everyone wear the same clothes, it takes away expressing who they are. Your clothes say a lot about who you are as a person and what personality you have and when you take that away, you take away the chance to express yourself.

Uniforms in schools are a big debate around the world. Should we have uniforms in schools? The answer is yes because uniform help the schools. They bring to table a great deal of help because students are getting bullied, killed, and some may not have as much as other when shopping for clothes. Having uniforms bring safety to schools and what goes on after school.

It is a belief that school uniforms teach students to respect their learning environment and behave themselves, and, therefore improving discipline. However, that assumption isn’t entirely correct. Researchers have actually found that school uniforms don’t make students better behaved. According to a study of more than 4,500 students, those who wore a school uniform did not have fewer behavior problems or better attendance. Forcing students to wear uniforms lead to more problems and misbehavior instead of encouraging discipline. Students could get into trouble if they did not wear their uniforms correctly. Many kids in today’s society cannot stand the thought of someone telling them what to do, especially what to wear. Instead of encouraging respect, uniforms may cause rebellions. For example, in 2009, a group of students at John A. Ferguson Senior High School rebelled against their school uniforms. Instead of following their school uniform requirements, the students wore what they thought would be a better school uniform to school. Not only uniforms don’t earn schools the respect from its students, but it may also lead to more problems.

Uniforms may represent unity in a school, however we are told to be different and be ourselves. There are several supreme court cases that have proved that the First Amendment, freedom of expression, the Supreme Court stated in one case in particular “it can hardly be argued that either students and teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." With uniforms we are losing the main way we express ourselves.

The first major reason for not wearing school uniforms is, it forces a student to conceal his or her individuality. To many people, it appears that the school system is trying to strip away this individuality on purpose, but now is the time that the school should be embracing it and helping the student become the person they are meant to become. “According to opponents of uniforms, even preschoolers should have input into their wardrobe, and the need to encourage personality, confidence, and independence grows more important as the student becomes older” (Chen). Because of this lack of self-expression, students feel their first amendment is being violated and most people would agree, which causes the school to look bad. Another way of looking at it is they are forcing students to become on mold, or one certain way of being. However, the problem with making them one is, no matter how they look they will still have their own individual personality traits that will come out in the end. If forced to wear the uniforms, many students would express these traits by adding things to their uniform such as brightly colored gems for girls and different

School systems have debated for years if they should make school uniforms mandatory for all students. Some parents do not want school systems to mandate uniforms due to pressure from their children to be able to maintain their individuality through clothing, while other parents prefer uniforms to reduce spending money on name brand school clothes and to minimize associations with gangs. More school systems across the United States of America are going to uniforms from grades one through twelve where students are still impressionable by their peers. I believe public schools should require students to wear school uniforms to help parents save money in these hard economic times, to limit the number of incidents of violence in the school systems due to gangs and gang associates such as colors, and to prepare students for the job force after school where some places make it mandatory to wear uniforms to work every day.