It has occured to me over the past few months that the children of our nation are being "de-individualized" slowly but surely. I'm sure there are many examples of this and I have included one.

All public school students in Louisiana are required to wear uniforms every day. The road to uniforms started in 1999 when all students were forced to adhere to a new dress code requiring, among other things, that all shirts be tucked in and all backpacks be clear or mesh. By 2000, elementary students were in uniforms and in 2001, all students from Pre-K to 12th grade were wearing the rags of their oppressors. The children sometimes have a choice of khaki or blue pants, as well as shirts that are usually one of their school's colors. They are watched like hawks and punished for not following suite. This oppression teaches the children one thing: "different = bad." Some of the older students recognize this, but have no real voice on the matter. The students I feel are the real victims are the Pre-K - 5th grade students. They are growing up with this policy and will no doubt be forced to follow some new, more controlling dress code in the future. And after the children are dressing how the state pleases, what will happen? Maybe the Crawfish State will begin lightening and darkening students' skin in order to achieve new levels of uniformity. Perhaps a law against red heads or blondes at school will be put into action. The more alike the students are, the easier it is to pick out the "bad eggs" who could simply be creative or imaginative children. The students of Louisiana are being taught mindless conformity in an effort to better control them.

I hope the power comes back on across the east coast soon.


BTW, Does clothing make the man, EYEEKSIST? Seems like there's more to a person than his clothes, to me. Hmmn.. It also seems like people can actually conform with their nonconformity. Look at a lot of 'liberal' liberal arts colleges. You'll have 2000 kids on a campus with every shade of hair color imaginable... yet 95% percent of their political views will be the same. So, is individuality a function of thought and behaviour, or merely one of appearance? personally, I think a lot of people who make a big deal about their 'individual expression' are, fundamentally, conformists... though often to a subculture.

[Edited on 15-8-2003 by onlyinmydreams]

I dont think a school dress code is such a bad idea, but not for any reasons you listed. I remember when I was in school if you came from a low income family and couldn't afford name brand clothes and sneakers, you got picked on. "Look, he's wearing bo-bo's!" I dont think it's a way of controlling the kids at all. Dont get me wrong, I'm sure glad I wasn't made to wear a standard uniform, but alot of my buddies that went to catholic schools did. Not a big deal to me.

We've gone the other way in the UK.
A few years ago nearly all schools had uniforms. Now there seem to be a lot more who don't.

Uniforms were cool. It enabled us as kids to identify with each other. It was our badge that also identified us from other kids at other schools.
I always felt a lot smarter wearing a uniform rather than wearing street clothes.

You also knew that when you put that uniform on, it was time to learn. Your mother made you take it off when you got home, and as soon as you got changed you knew you were free to play.

A uniform sets up a recognisable divider between work and play for a kid.

I wore uniforms every day when I went to Private School for 12 years. Didn't make me less of an individual.

weve had to wear uniforms here in australia since day one. we used to wish we could wear anything we wanted.

the reason for uniforms is
1) so the schools and communities can tell who is from what school etc.
2) so the schools know when there is people who arent supposed to be there.

it is a good thing, it might stop truency (skipping of classes) and the like

I Agree...For low income familys this can be better for the child.
Im in the UK to SO Uniform has always been there!
You hate it when your a kid, but understand it when your older...
I dont think its a bad thing...

In Japan, the kids love the uniforms so much they wear them on the weekends. Even university girls wear high school uniforms "because its easier to get picked up".

Back in the late seventies/early eighties when I was at school in the UK we all had so much fun *customising* our uniforms to whatever youth cult we belonged to, punks/skins/soulboys/mods/rastas etc, that it became a valuable lesson in the art of conforming while expressing your own individuality. Although I remember one kid being sent home after turning up with a safety pin through his nose. Those were the days.

YES!! Indeed, let us think of the children!!
Many talk about wearing clothes and hand-me-downs....uniforms, etc. to school....
WHat about those millions of kids that have no adequate clothing, housing, no facilities for education, no medical care......
Yes....what about those 40,000+ children who die everyday to hunger and those millions more who are mal-nurished! But yet, this world is steadily bringing new life into these very same environments and conditions....approx. 50,000+....yes....we should think of those children, be assurd our prays should be to them also.
But hey....lets talk of the 'uniforms' we are made to wear, etc.

regards
seekerof

Like the other British posters here I went through most of my schooling wearing a uniform and agree with the points made for it. Uniform prevented those of us on lower incomes or with parents less willing to fork out hard earned cash on the latest labels feeling out of place and being bullied. Plus it saved a whole lot of trauma in the morning deciding what to wear!

We just found other ways to express ourselves - remember having pencil tins adorned with various slogans and stickers, and the ensuing heated debates over who had the best ones....

Face it, if you work somewhere as an adult with a formal dress code you accept donning a shirt and tie everyday and wearing a corporate uniform. Do you complain then about not being able to express your individuality? Or should we actually be complaining about the corporate uniform too? I actually work somewhere with no dress code and my usual office workwear is a vest top, combats and trainers. Somedays it would actually be a relief just to drag another suit out of the wardrobe instead of spending valuable time trying to coordinate my outfit whilst still asleep.

Originally posted by zed
In Japan, the kids love the uniforms so much they wear them on the weekends. Even university girls wear high school uniforms "because its easier to get picked up".

*shudders*

aaah the land where grown men pay good money for schoolgirl's underwear.

School uniforms: bad. I grew up poor wearing dumpster dove/goodwill clothes. I got teased alot. So? that teasing taught me a valuable lesson about the nature of people and the human cattle. Forcing conformity is a bad idea, forcing uniformity and one ness, idenitfying with the crowd, ect. Why would anyone want to idenitfy with any gaggle of people?

Kids in the US need to be taught to distrust thier govornments, need to distrust the organization, the authorities, not conform and be "good citizens". Now is not the time for school uniforms, nor is the future. Lets kids wear whatever they want.

A liberal arts college will have people of the same mind because they all choose to go to that school, thus, they will be of like mind, despite thier different hair colors. Kids in public schools are forced to be around each other. Thus, the need for seperation and formation of indentities of thier own. Clothes do somewhat make the man: what you chose to wear is an expression of many things about you. Its simply one way of expressing yourself. Something that should not be supressed.

I never wore school unifroms and I think the idea of doing so is stupid. When I was in grade school I was picked on by the clothes I wore,I did'nt give a damn. Let kids wear what they want with some guidlines though,no sexual themed clothes,no clothes with obscene language that sorta thing.

For once I tend to agree with Skadi,minus the distrust of authority.

The clothes you wear show what kind of person you are. If you dress like a slut then your probaly a slut,etc.

My dear Ey-EE: do you feel the same trend could threaten our military services or our police forces?

And for the colleagues who have shown the common civility to grace this new development in Care in the Community with informative threads: yes, these are the points: identity, a way of masking inequality ( not only because of the clothing but because it was the same every day -the well-off couldn't parade an endless succession of outfits Monday-to-Friday) and -one hopes -some sense of institutional pride.
Also, a wonderful way to allow Munchkins to practise harmless childhood rebellion: those trousers a little too tight or baggy; hair just a little too long, shoes "black" but very fashionable -risking the non-regulation shirt and so forth. My sister enjoyed little breaches of her uniform-code even more than I enjoyed mine.
When- as is the case for the deceptively-youthful Estragon -schooldays become twenty years away, uniform is a good memory.
Younger Brit male posters may not have had to wear a cap -Estragon did: a milion anecdotes.

And I'll add that mini-Estragon (born 1985) loved her uniform from age 4.8 and loved her Brownie uniform, her Guides uniform and her pony-club and riding outfits etc.
Kids like 'em!!
And so do teenagers -they all dress the same!

I take it mini-estragon is enjoying the benefits of the new modernised brownie uniform? Mini-arc (born 1973) was a firm believer that original brownie uniform designed for troll not child, as had yet to meet a child of the requisite proportions to fill the outfit, ie thighs a maximum of 4 inches long, arms at least 2 foot in length, head the size of a watermelon and with a sufficiently insulated and bulky torso so that the wearing of sturdy aran cardigan underneath (to guard against the artic temperatures of east anglian methodist chapels), was not required

Bad:

1.Slight loss of individuality

Good:

1. End to the "X" brand crap, as many already expressed.
2. Less distraction to students. (except of course, for Britney-style school girls tying it into a midriff, but that's a whole other arguement, hehe... )
3. Ends the hassle of deciding what to wear, when it's 6am and you're trying to get the kids ready.
4. Instills school pride by identifying themselves as part of a group.
5. Gets them used to the job market, as many jobs have uniforms, or at least specific dress codes.
6. Instills a basic attitude of professionalism, and reminds the kids that they are they to work.
7. Would cut down on the "slacker" syndrome....

Sorry, but I'd definitely be for mandatory school uniforms. There are plenty of other ways to express your individuality, not the least of which, is your personality...