All dressed up and ready to learn?
Uniforms continue to make headway in local schools, as reported in an AJC story this week.
I understand the resistance of students to uniform dress rules. After my own 12 years in itchy school uniforms, I was thrilled to wear only jeans and t-shirts in college. But I have to admit, there’s an appeal to uniforms.
Earlier this year, I dragged three reluctant teenage boys to a downtown college fair. Their choice of garb – tattered T-shirts and floor-scraping jeans – reflected their unwillingness to be there. I watched in admiration when a parade of private school students in natty green blazers, ties and khaki slacks filed into the row in front of us.
It would be easy to assume that those well-groomed students were more focused, sharper and better disciplined than their shoddy peers in my custody. But that may not be the case.
In one of the largest studies on the effects of school uniforms, sociologists David Brunsma and Kerry Rockquemore concluded that uniforms have no direct effect on substance use, behavioral problems or attendance and may actually hurt academic achievement.
In effect, the study found, uniforms are akin to throwing a new coat of paint on a crumbling building. The building may well look better, but it’s still falling apart.
Still, schools are embracing uniforms, apparently reasoning that students will act and learn better when color coordinated and pressed.
But are the improvements merely cosmetic?
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13 comments Add your comment
Zachs Mom
August 17th, 2009
8:20 pm
My son had to wear uniforms for the last three years at private middle school and IT WAS WONDERFUL! No fights about what was acceptable to wear to school. Now in public school for 9th grade and the beginning of week 2 we have only had one disagreement about what to wear and in the end, he admited that I was right. I don’t see how or why any parent would argue with a golf shirt and khaki shorts or pants. Zachary could never learn if he was wearing a tie.
I also thinks it helps with security. You KNOW if someone doesn’t belong on campus because of what there are wearing. Seems pretty simple.
Matthew K. Tabor
August 17th, 2009
8:51 pm
If anyone is interested in Brunsma’s and Rockquemore’s original study, you can read it for yourself – including analyzing its merits and flaws – here:
http://www.members.tripod.com/rockqu/uniform.htm
Gwinnett citizen
August 17th, 2009
9:08 pm
Do improving behavior and academic achievement have to be outcomes in order for school uniforms to be a good idea? What about the convenience and monetary savings to parents? What about eliminating arguments between parents and their kids over what to wear to school? What about reducing the dress code issues that teachers and administrators have to deal with every day? Does every suggested change in schools have to be all about how it will affect academic achievement?! There are other valid reasons to make changes.
Seen it all
August 17th, 2009
11:04 pm
I am ALL for uniforms. Uniforms eliminate the disgusting displays we have been forced to look at for many years. You know what I’m talking about- super tiny, super tight shorts (i.e. “Daisy Dukes”- worn by a ten year old), halter tops, micro skirts, flip flops, rogue t-shirts with vile phrases, pants with the words “juicy” written on the buttocks (I saw this on a 10 year old!!!!), pants worn down to the knees, apparel worn in the fashion to display gang symbols (belts that hang down the knees, wearing one glove, etc.). I have seen all of the above when I was teaching in the ELEMENTARY and middle schools. I remember gangbanger “middleschoolers” wearing their pants and shorts 12 WHOLE INCHES OFF THEIR WAISTS!!!!! Boys walking into class with nothing but boxers showing, with the audacity to stare at me crazy and say “what you lookin’ at?”. “Nothing” (literally).
I think there was a quote in the newspaper today by a parent– “If you come to school in your play clothes, then you are coming to school to play. If you come to school dressed professionally, you are ready to work. So true.
Something to think about. Why do professional, serious people all over the world wear suits? Whether it’s the U.S., Canada, South America, Japan, Africa, Egypt, Russia, etc. They all wear appropriate clothing. I have never seen a president or business man or politician addressing public wearing jeans, t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, low-cut tops showing clevage. Yet our children and teens wear this everyday. And the behavior matches. I overheard one of my favorite gangbanger students joking with his friend that his mother was up in a tree with a monkey………… oh I digress.
Most parents WANT school uniforms. Public school students in OTHER countries wear uniforms. All over the world!!!!!! Our private school students wear uniforms. Why won’t we let our public schools require uniforms? Funny thing– only suburban, middle class parents fight mandatory school uniforms. Why? Even Clayton County went to uniforms!!!!!!!!!
maureen's accountability metric
August 17th, 2009
11:26 pm
Seen It All,
I posted here since the blog monster ate my post on the other blog
I wanted to ask, do you think it was wrong to “push buttons” until a response was garnered? Now that Maureen has been kind enough to give a response, at least we have a framework to debate, for purposes of this blog, what is and what isn’t a “pressing” educational issue.
Who knows, maybe this well bring back, by popular demand, the Student Advisory Council of Kathy Cox, and how they are a, if not the, seminal influence in shaping educational policy in Georgia.
Maybe they should rename it the “Pressingingly Important” Student Advisory Council.
ScienceTeacher671
August 18th, 2009
6:19 am
Maybe we need to have one “open forum” thread where everyone states what they think the most pressing issue is…
Not buying it
August 18th, 2009
7:03 am
Gwinnett Citizen asked “What about the convenience and monetary savings to parents? What about eliminating arguments between parents and their kids over what to wear to school?”
Quite frankly, this isn’t the job of the school system. Uniforms don’t provide any monetary savings, as it makes it much harder for parents to utilize thrift stores and hand-me-downs. My daughters are required to wear uniforms (not “uniform dress”) and my clothing expenses have never been higher. I spent about 5x as much dressing them in uniforms than I have spent in previous years. If parents believe that uniform dress saves them money, they are free to dress their students that way without imposing it on others.
Dress for Excess
August 18th, 2009
1:33 pm
Aagh! More uniform wars! If we spent as much energy fussing over the curriculum as we did dress codes our kids would all be in the Ivy League. Hike up the pants on the guys, dress the girls so they don’t look like the staff at Hooters and we’re good to go. Johnny Brown tried to inflict a strict uniform code on Dekalb, and it failed miserably. Dress reasonably, and let it be.
mom to four
August 18th, 2009
4:17 pm
My children have always worn uniforms to their private school. It is cheaper for me because we hand down from one child to the next. We also hand down between friends. This year I did not have to buy any uniforms for my daughters. Not-buying-it should try to work with his/her friends or with the school to trade or swap uniforms.
I agree that uniforms add a security measure as well. A stranger can be quickly identified if they are not in the uniform dress. Uniforms also add a measure of respect and pride in the school if students are required to wear the school colors.
In any event, having a clear uniform code of dress lessens the amount of time teachers have to spend addressing the issue in class, assuming everyone abides by the code. Leaving the issue to “reasonable choice” presents the problem that one person’s idea of reasonable dress may not be mine, and vice-versa.
kristina
August 18th, 2009
6:28 pm
I think that its good to wear uniforms to school . Yes you dont get to express your feelings but your in shool to learn.
kristina
August 18th, 2009
6:28 pm
Enter your comments here
Seen it all
August 18th, 2009
8:16 pm
MAM,
You did get someone’s attention. As to whether or not you will get the answers you seek is another story.
John
August 19th, 2009
1:03 pm
When I attended a Catholic high school about 10 years ago, we were required to wear uniform dress. Though we didn’t have to buy an outfit from some uniform store with a monopoly on its production (which I agree is a HUGE scam especially on poor students), we had to wear dress pants, dress shoes, dress socks, button down shirts, ties, and blazers — It was an all-boys school. This dress code allowed students to express their individuality. The student-body president’s campaign buttons, for example, featured simply his first name on a background of blue pinstripes because he was known for wearing a seersucker suit every day. It also allowed us to shop at goodwill or salvation army, and retro hand-me-downs became a point of pride.
A really good English teacher once explained it to us this way when students predictably complained about the jackets and ties: “In our country, the jacket and the tie is the uniform of the man and in this school we are training men, not boys.” My experience of the school was that, compared with the public schools I had previously attended, students were more respectful, more focused, and more disciplined.
I don’t know if the uniform was the reason. But, to this day, when I feel like I need that extra bit of self-discipline to finish a project, I put on a jacket and tie.