The Benefits of School Uniforms
In a time when the academic status quo is coming into question throughout America, educators, civic leaders, parents, students, and legislatures are left cycling through a myriad of standardized options to ameliorate the system. From gender-segregated classrooms to the implementation of national standard tests grading both students and teachers, suggestions abound on ways the American public might make its school system a better functioning environment for the socialization and academic study of its children. Among many other suggested and sometimes implemented deviations is the option of school uniforms as a mandatory part of American schools. Already a part of many school environments, usually private, parochial, or urban, uniforms come with a heady line of debate to the forefront of systematic discussion. Those in support of uniforms in both primary and secondary school environments stand in staunch opposition to those who suggest it might not only detract from the creative development of a child but may ultimately be a waste of time, money, and effort. Many critics of the school uniform movement proclaim that uniforms cannot "fix" anything about the failings of the American school system, and that i
Jacobson, Paul B. "Personal Expenses of High-School Students." The School Review. Vol. 52, No. 6. (Jun., 1994.) p. 350-355. Meadmore and Symes analyze the policies pertaining to school dress codes that instituted standard uniforms across the whole of Australia. They investigate the devolution and marketization of schools, as well as the growing state control over local practices. While their work is Australia-oriented, they strictly examine the social themes at play internationally that cause teenagers to misuse their freedom of dress in schools to a point that uniforms are a suitable tool to address the need of schools to control what goes on inside their walls. Likewise, Meadmore and Symes take an in-depth look at the transformation of schools over time, since formalized schooling in Australia has its roots in the private/public system of England, where uniforms have been traditionally mandatory. The English system, along with a desire for proper socialization to "the American way" for immigrant children in the 19th century, was the basis for the American school system's development, and its lack of uniforms is particularly interesting. Since public schools do not traditionally require uniforms in the halls of America while private schools, modeled more strictly on the elite British schools usually do, the work of Meadmore and Symes is easily extrapolated and integral to the academic discussion of the viability of uniforms in schools. Jacobsen, a well-respected University of Chicago academic sociologist, states that 'secondary education has always been selective.' While this double entendre refers to the past of secondary education as something only afforded to the privileged and now those only adept enough to swim the seas of high school, its significance is important in the modern day American school system. While education still takes place in these schools, he says, it is clear that the education has also left Western Civilization and extended to the malls, shops, and boutiques where clothing becomes a mark of who a student is. Does empirical evidence support the use of uniforms, and what are the actual drawbacks and benefits?
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1651
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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