Essay on the Topic of Adopting School Uniforms
Essay on the Topic of Adopting School Uniforms
Media stories about a nationwide school epidemic in which assaults on teachers are frequent and children are routinely killed over designer clothing have been constant over the past few years. Before the situation gets out of control, public schools need to have uniforms at schools. The adoption of school uniforms seems to offer a visible means of restoring order to the nation's classrooms and a quick and ready solution to the problem of public schools in a rapid state of decline.
There are few high points to having uniforms. First, uniforms can help students resist peer pressure. This point refers to the pressure to buy expensive name brand clothing. It is unfortunate that parents are at the mercy of their children's desires, a result of billions of dollars worth of advertising campaigns. The drive to acquire designer label clothing is a desire imposed by the mass media onto poor inner-city teenagers. Advertisers have long been aware that the culture of consumption has given the underprivileged a way to compensate for feelings of failure in a society that values material wealth. Uniforms eliminate the pressure to wear designer cloths.
Second, wearing uniforms to school will help students concentrate on their schoolwork. The idea is that if students don't have to think about what they are going to wear to school each day, they will be able to focus on learning in school. For many children living in homes where abuse, neglect, and criminal activity are daily occurrences, deciding what to wear is probably the least of their worries. If schools want to solve personal problems in the lives of their students to help them "concentrate on their school work," they can look to uniforms. The October 15, 1998, USA Today reports that teachers felt uniforms contributed to higher academic achievement.
Third, uniforms are also good because they help identify intruders who come to the schools. Most of the uniforms adopted across the country seem to be quite similar in that they require navy or khaki pants for boys and a choice of solid-colored shirts for girls. So to be recognized as an intruder, the individual would have to be dressed in street clothes that do not resemble a school uniform of any kind.
Since there will always be children in each school...