Landon Stewart Mrs. Luker Government A4 10/23/12 Cons of School Uniforms There are many schools in the U.S. that require their students to wear uniforms, and there are more that don't. I believe that school uniforms should not be required for a few reasons. Uniforms take away from a person's individual identity and freedom to express himself or herself. They can be costly to people depending on a family’s financial status. School uniforms can also be a very uncomfortable fashion that students would not take a liking to.
One of the top problems in school nowadays is school uniforms, having students to have to wear them or not. A lot of schools around the country are switching to uniforms. Before you were allowed to wear any type of clothing that met requirements. Many schools say that school uniforms decrease fighting and violence, while many other factors that play a role in that. Also families are affected by this too, as they would have to buy additional clothing on top of casual clothes for their children.
Others believe it stifles individuality. However, in most cases it seems the pros outweigh the cons. School uniforms need to be implemented in public schools because they eliminate pressure to be trendy or fashionable, help school officials to keep campuses safe and allow students to focus more closely on academics. School age children are very impressionable and will often do whatever is necessary to be liked by their peers. Many times they will wear clothes that are inappropriate or pressure parents to spend extra money on designer labels.
The first reason the grading policy should not be changed is students/parents would not know their exact grade. For instance, if a parent wants to know how their child is doing in school, they wouldn’t know because the new grading system doesn’t give enough insight (doesn’t break grade down). Also due to the fact that more students pass than fail,
Some schools, like the grammar schools, require a good result on the 11+. This leads to cream skimming, but also off-loading of ‘bad’ students, that for example will refuse children with learning difficulties good education, because they are “those students who won’t do well anyways”. The top students often seem to be from the middle class. They don’t suffer from material or cultural deprivation and often use the elaborated code, which makes education easier for them. This makes the schools trying to appeal to the middle class parents, to make the middle class parents choose their school and help them get their own results better.
I have actually seen students being neglected by their own classmates because of this particular reason. The students’ main attention should always point towards education and not towards fashion. They have plenty of time to do fashion outside of the school. Even though students' individuality is important to express one's self, uniforms should be adopted in the school, because it lowers disciplinary referrals and helps students focus on learning. Schools requiring uniforms will experience reduction in violence.
(“Point: The High Cost of School Uniforms”). If all PA public schools require students to wear uniforms, then the schools would be taking away freedom of expression during the week. Students in school who are growing up and transitioning to an adult world need to know how to live their own lives and be themselves, because eventually they won’t have someone there with them, helping them through things in life. Being themselves also means being able to express themselves the way the wish to. School uniforms are not only items that cause a lack of freedom of expression but also a largely ineffective way to help solve the problems they were meant to.
Kent J. Fetzer expressed, “Our biggest problem with a school uniform policy is the anti-individuality message it sends.” He feels students lose their freedom when forced to conform to only certain apparels. He believes in letting students experience freedom in order to learn how to act responsibly. I strongly believe teens need to learn how to act responsibly at a young age to develop skills for the future, but I refuse to believe that uniforms take away individuality. In contrast to Fetzer’s beliefs, Mike Kelly proclaimed, "Uniforms instill discipline, help students focus on their studies and eliminate pressure on parents to outfit their kids." He believes uniforms help parents as well as the students.
There is no doubt that children can learn even if they dress as they want. The question not addressed is to what extent fashion, and the tendency of moden children to focus on fashion, distracts from the academic program. This issue is generally avoided by those who argue that dress is unrelated to academics. High cost The economics of school uniform is hotly debated. School uniform was in part adopted by some American schools so children would not try to outdo each other with highh-priced designer clothes.
Not every parent has the financial Stability to send their kids to schools with great education programs, as shown in waiting for Superman. So why should the innocent children be the ones being punished for something they Have no control over? By having more well educated people in the world it will make the environment a better place. The future needs to be thought about while changes and problems are being addressed. The school board and the people within the school systems need to have more caring feelings about those students who are being left behind.