From the debate:

Pro 1: School uniforms would save parents money.

Only if they are made of things that are readily available off the rack, in which case they are not a uniform but a dress code, which most schools have to one degree or another. If you have to buy a certain thing, and it has to be this thing or nothing, it doesn't take long for the suppliers to understand they have a captive market and to charge accordingly. If it's a special type of garment made of a special material that has to be ordered (the first 8 years of my school life), double that. And of course, the uniforms can't be used on the playground after school, since they're special, so that's two sets of clothes where one would have done the job.

Pro 2: School uniforms would save parents time. Kids in the morning would not have to make up their minds on what to wear.

This implies the existence of 5 uniforms, so there isn't the evening panic of finding the other clean one, and there isn't the morning panic of finding where you left the tie. When any clean presentable clothes will do, this is not an issue. Making up one's mind has never been a big deal in this house, and four kids have lived here at one time or another.

Pro 3: Kids who's parents would not or could not buy them the newest fad, would not be embarrassed or harassed because of their clothes.

HA! What are we going to do, regulate the kids down to their underwear? I went to an all-girls school, and let me tell you, the competition was fierce. It couldn't be expressed in clothing, so it was expressed in accessories, hairstyles, jewelry, school supplies, lunchboxes, lunches, shoes... Everyone knew. As for harassment, I'll get to that in #5.

Pro 4: Kids social standing would be based more on individual character and less their economic status.

Pull the other one, and see #3, above. Who gives the best birthday presents? Who's always borrowing looseleaf paper because they never have any? Whose uniforms are always crisp and pressed and never hand-me downs or worn in any way? Who has a monogrammed shirt? Who has poor hygiene or bad manners because their parents don't know any better? I rest my case.

Pro 5: Lots of gangs use cloths to identify themselves and other gangs.

This is an argument in favor of uniforms? To turn the school into one big gang with its own colors? Also, you have doubtless heard of writing on one's clothes and skin.

Harassment: I went to school in a city with two dozen private schools, each with its own uniform, and the ununiformed public schools. Once you left the building, you were marked as a member of a rival school by your uniform. There was violence at bus stops, not to mention after sporting events. We would often change our clothes before leaving school into civvies, because the public school kids were less of a target. This situation again refutes #1, less expense (two sets of clothes), and #2, decision making (the alternate set had to be not only selected, but packed).

Pro 6: Some kids use baggy cloths to hid weapons and drugs.

So we're to wear tight uniforms, the better to outline our body shapes? Puleeze. What does that mean when kids grow? 12, 14, 24 uniforms a year? Will they have no pockets? Do they have to be tailored? Who picks up the cost for that? If you want to eliminate places to hide things, try eliminating some of the things kids are forced to carry from class to class.

Pro 9: It is my opinion that school is in the 'business' of learning. School is the place where the next lawyers, bankers, CPA's and Doctors are given the fundamentals of working in this economy. One of the basics of our culture in the working world is conservative dressing, dress code, or even uniforms. What is wrong with sending our kids the message that they are in 'the business of learning' by enforcing dress codes, or even ascribing a uniform?

First, there's a big difference between a dress code and a uniform. Dress codes are more flexible and place restrictions on types of clothing for specific reasons, not a blanket "Everything That Is Not Required Is Forbidden" statement. Try telling a CPA he can't wear a brown suit to work.

Second, Con 9.1, below Pro 9, does an excellent job of pointing out that conformity is not always beneficial.

Third, have you any idea how much time is wasted by teachers who, along with their other duties, have to act as the Fashion Police? If you get a detention for wearing the wrong color shirt, what does that say about the same detention given for, say, running in the hall (a dangerous practice) or cursing at a classmate (an anti-social act)?

Fourth, what do you do about religiously-required clothing? Do you make an exception? Does that not make the child stick out not just as someone who wears an interesting item of clothing, but as an outsider, not part of the team, and possibly the focus of xenophobic abuse and even violence?

Pro 10: Uniforms make it easy to identify kids who belong in the school and those that don't.

OK, that means that this clothing is unique, and not available off the rack. See #1.

It also means that the school is so unaware of its students and so lax in its discipline that its staff doesn't know who their students are, and that people are wandering the halls whenever they please with no hall passes. I'll be at the next school board meeting to raise hell.

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Certain groups and organizations need uniforms. The military springs to mind immediately. It's important to create a team identity when your team has been created with the thought that it may have to go out and kill members of another team. Also, the team clothes help to identify members of your team so you don't shoot them by mistake.

Sports teams are another group, and for a related but less violent reason: sport is stylized conflict.

Private organizations of course have the right to require a uniform if they so choose. People who don't want to wear it have every right not to join and give them money.

Public schools have a perfect right to regulate atmosphere through the enforcement of a dress code that forbids clothing that conflicts with the mission of the school and the safety of the student. To put everyone in the exact same clothes will never ever bring "equality" to the schools. It will only make parents feel like they've "done something".

As you may have guessed, I feel very strongly about this. :D

Regards--
Mary Anne