School Uniforms: Your Viewpoint

[oxfordcircus]

I can only hope that ten years from now, you will be able to laugh at yourself as well.

Whilst watching her child prance about in her private school uni.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

For the record, everyone I went to school with was VERY unique. They had their own personalities, styles, habits and talents. They weren't hampered by not being able to express this through their clothing. They expressed it through their work, their friendships, their successes at music, sport, english, math etc. You look at the subway at 8am - everyone's in business dress. They are ALL unique. They all have their own talents, their own families, their own traditions etc. Uniforms and dress codes don't hamper people - they make them belong, they make the distinction between work and play.

This is sooo true, if you express yourself only through your clothes, there is something wrong there. In our uniforms, you could still tell the funny ones, the creative ones..and so on and so forth. Clothing has nothing to do with that

 

[MUFFYCAT]

I wore unforms and found no problem with it.
With all the clothes I buy for my kids to wear to school, the uniforms
aren't expensive atr all.

 

[Albort]

I find it very ironic that some uniform's are a bit revealling. Like a girl's uniform skirt. Sometimes, they are just rediculously short. random.

But i do think uniforms are a good idea. I seem some girls go to school in Bikinis or just a towel wrapped around them. I was pretty shocked girls would do that.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Oh my Goddess.

Are you sure you did not mean goddess-like, just like Mary!?

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

Wonder twin powers, activate! I don't really have anything new to add to this thread, but I just wanted to try out my new catch phrase I'm thinking of including.

 

[oxfordcircus]

Wonder twin powers, activate! I don't really have anything new to add to this thread, but I just wanted to try out my new catch phrase I'm thinking of including.

Form of a bucket of water.

 

[debster812]

To be honest, this is the first time, on this forum, that I've ever heard of conformity amongst children. When I was in school, we were all very unique. We didn't want what Sally and Joe had, we wanted what we had, wanted what we wanted, not what everyone else wanted. And that is how I'm going to raise my kid.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? No conformity amongst children? Have you not seen several posts, on this very thread, of mothers of daughters buying similar or the same outfits? Or take my 9YO son. He is very much his own person. Walks to the beat of his own drummer for many things. However, line him up with 5 or 6 of his pals, and you'd be astounded at how similarly they are dressed. How they speak, how they act.

I swear--you are posting what you post to be confrontational, controversial, and contrarian (hey, the 3 C's).

 

[TurboKitty]

When I was in school, I would have hated wearing a uniform.

Now that I am older, and parent, I would like for either or both of my children's schools to adopt students wearing them. My children are unique enough that they don't need clothing to express it. It would cut down on the peer pressure of trying to use clothing a way of trying to fit in. It would cut down the morning frantic search for different shorts/shirt/skirt etc. that happen all too often. It would also cut down on the "fights" I have with DD to try and keep her from wearing some of the clashing-est ensembles she tries to sneak outta the house in! (Seriously, does orange even go with pink???)

 

[Cass]

If I didn't like the uniform with a job, I wouldn't go there. End of story.

Then you could just pick a school without uniforms. End of story

While we're at it, I think the military should be able to dress like then want, wear jeans or sweats. Wearing fatigues all the time just doesn't let them express themselves

 

[hydster]

Geez I wish I ONLY had to buy my kids clothes once a year for school. It would be SO much easier! I hate having to keep my child in the "in fashion" year round for school. It would be so much easier to buy 5 pairs of khaki's and some shirts and maybe a few pairs of jeans or capris instead of the ton of clothes I have to buy when the season and fashions change.

In the beginning of the year it's 1 set of clothes for the warm to cooler days.
In the middle of the year it's another set of clothes for the cold snow days where you have to look really stylish even covered up
At the end of the year it's another set of clothes that now aren't in style from the beginning of the year and we need a certain type of capri or shirt because the ones we had earlier aren't stylish enough.

Uniform/dress code whatever you want to call it would be SO much easier for me and MUCH cheaper than 5 different types of pant styles from 5 different stores.

 

[Poohnatic]

Why does this seem to be a tirade by a high school freshman rather than intellectual discourse by an adult? The OPs comments sound a lot like my brother's rantings and ravings about today's school system and child rearing, both of which he has no first hand experience with.

FWIW, I bought a bunch of polo shirts at Old Navy when my oldest was 2 years old. He was a big guy then, so they were 4/5's. His bruiser like build softened and he wore those shirts for almost FIVE years. My younger son now wears them and has for about three years.

These shirts are their "School Uniform" polos, which cost me a whole 8 bucks each. At this point, I think the cost per wearing is a penny each-and they're still in good condition. Good enough condition that we'll be passing them on to the two schools who use those colors as part of their dress code.

My older son was in a school with a dress code the first year we were in Florida. Blue or white polos and khaki or blue bottoms. It did not matter which brand or what store they were purchased from, so long as they met this criteria.

He LOVED not having to figure out what to wear each day. All he had to do was open dresser drawers, pull out what was on top and he was done. Frankly, he's spent the last two years in a school without a dress code, and his preference is to put on one of his polo shirts and a pair of shorts each day. My younger son is the fashion plate, but he also likes the idea of a uniform.

Suzanne

 

[va32h]

While we're at it, I think the military should be able to dress like then want, wear jeans or sweats. Wearing fatigues all the time just doesn't let them express themselves

Well Goldie Hawn did try that in Private Benjamin.

 

[hydster]

I say bag clothes all together and everyone walk around naked.....at least then they all came from the same "mall" so to speak!

 

[mytwotinks]

The irony of the teenage years.............

The truly mature teenagers are the one's that can recognize that they are not mature at all!

No matter how much insight a high schooler may have gotten from her semester working as an office aide, I promise you that you do not have a full understanding of parenting and the education system.

 

[Kath2003]

My older son was in a school with a dress code the first year we were in Florida. Blue or white polos and khaki or blue bottoms. It did not matter which brand or what store they were purchased from, so long as they met this criteria.

I used to hang my uniform over the radiator every day when I got home from school at 4pm (since skirts were washed on a Wednesday and at weekends and shirts were washed when they were dirty - changed every day in the summer, probably got through 2-3 shirts a week in the winter, jumper only got washed at the weekend or if it got particularly dirty in the week, I just took 'em off and hung 'em over!) so it was deliciously warm in the morning

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

*sighs* No, I would not save money, because they wouldn't last but a year, no matter how much I've tried, how much I've spent, a year is the most I can get out of any type of 'acceptable' uniform.

What are you possibly doing to your clothes to make them unwearable after a few months? You said before that you couldn't wait to take them off after school, so what were you doing to your clothes?

My brother went to private school and had a uniform. He was able to get through two years without them falling apart (this is after the few years that my cousin wore the clothes). He would run around and play, fall on the ground, etc and still the clothes were fine.

And, no, I don't need them. "Need" is food, water, and clothing. But not expensive food, water, and clothing. "Mandate" is different than "need", and to me, expensive clothing is not a 'need', but an 'unneccessary'.

*sigh* Yes, you do need the clothes. If your school requires them, then you NEED them.

You have stated that you only bought cheap clothes. Then you make a big deal of how expensive they are. Which is it?


I think you just want to pick fights with people. *shakes head*

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

I think you just want to pick fights with people. *shakes head*

NO!!! Say it isn't true! I simply refuse to believe that!

 

[nuttylawprofessor]

Form of a bucket of water.

Shape, of, a, giant, whacking, stick.


Seriously, this thread is like a train wreck. Strangely compelling. I just can't take my eyes off of it.

Public schools cannot condition attendance upon wearing a school uniform, that's why most schools have a strict dress code (khaki or blue pants, shirt with collar). Schools must provide a way to opt-out of the uniform policy. Generally, it only involves having a parent fill out the proper paperwork.

I sympathize with Pigeon's school funding problem. I find it outrageous that so many districts charge parents money for books and materials when those parents are legally obligated to comply with compulsory education. But a uniform dress code is different. No matter what, the kids need clothes. The uniform comes out of the clothes budget.

For our UK friends, I believe the American resistance to the public school uniform can be summed up as, "You can't tell me what to do with my kids. I make the rules."

BTW- I love OP's tag.

This is the thing I love about teenagers. They go off to college, and in one short year, they come home and can't believe how much their parents have learned.

 

[KikiFan]

Oh my Goddess. Really, now. I know for a fact I'm not that hard to understand.

Actually, that would be an opinion, not a fact.