School Uniforms for American Public Schools - Essay Example

School Uniforms for American Public Schools Introduction Wearing of school uniforms should be made mandatory in all of the American public schools. This is a policy, which is long overdue and it is the high time, when all stakeholders in the education sector, such as parents, students, teachers and the government, should come together to support it in full and bring to an end this controversial debate, which has been going on for more than 10 years. The society has a lot of important things that require attention and it is due to this that the government should come out strong and bring to an end some of these issues regardless of the detractors, who are bent towards creating mountains out of every mole hill they come across. They do this by playing deaf to the positive impacts of such a policy, which are in plenty and instead dedicate their undivided attention to what may easily pass as negative impacts but if well scrutinized, the only conclusion one can make is that they are unfounded and are only as a result of conservativeness of individuals, who are unwilling to give room to change which is inevitable (Hamilton 10). This paper is a critical evaluation of the issues surrounding the debate to introduce school uniforms in all American public schools. School Uniforms for American Public Schools A school uniform for every American student in public schools is a policy, which should be adopted in the nearest future possible, if not today. This debate has been going on for a long time, since early 1990s, and to date, no valid consensus has been reached. As a result, the decision has been left to individual school administrators to determine whether or not to compel their students to wear school uniforms. Majority of private schools in the country have had this policy in place, especially catholic schools, since 1980s and ironically, they were highly admired by the public on the basis of their academic excellence and discipline, which was unfavorably higher than that of public schools and indeed, this motivated some of the public schools to adopt this policy as early as 1987. In 1996, the then president of the US, Bill Clinton, showed his outright support to the adoption of this policy in his State of the Union Address and since then, public schools have been working closely with the government to come up with a workable modality to introduce school uniforms (Brunsma 26). Wearing of school uniforms is essential as it enhances discipline among students. It is ironic that parents and the society at large depends on the teachers to instill discipline in their children but they do very little to support teachers, who are sometimes overwhelmed by the large number of students constantly demanding their attention (Hamilton 31). Parents in this context have continued to neglect their role to discipline their children whereby they allow them unrestricted freedom outside school hours and weekends, which allows them the opportunity to pick up bad habits from their peers, such as smoking, drug and alcohol abuse among others. Wearing a school uniform changes the mentality of students in terms of misconduct as it draws the line between school life and civilian life. It puts a sense of responsibility to the students by acting as a constant reminder of the nature of environment they are in, which is official and businesslike in nature. In general, the uniform, being unique for every school, identifies students among huge crowds and it therefore makes it easy to know and track which students of which school are involved in misbehavior (Hamilton 38). Assuming you have two students, one wearing a uniform and the other in civilian clothes, it is only evident that the uniformed student may be denied access to prohibited areas for minors such as bars and they would indeed attract a lot of attention from the public if they are noted as trying to solicit for such pleasures during time which they should be in school. The civilian dressed student on the other hand may walk from school and back without necessarily attracting any attention from the public and as such, parents of such students may continue to be at a loss on their children’s daily activities, which may include high levels of truancy. Every parent takes his child to school with the hope that he or she will acquire good education to enable him graduate and become a responsible person in the society, probably a Nobel Prize winner. In order to increase the chances of this occurring, they are being called upon to stand up and support the wearing of uniforms by their sons and daughters as this may impact greatly on their future. Security in our schools is of paramount importance and one way to achieve this is by making it mandatory for students to wear school uniforms. As a parent, it is the last thing that one may want to hear, that his child has suffered injury or death within a school environment. This is especially in this era when the threats of terrorism against the US and gang violence are real possibilities and which calls for vigilance in every American citizen. Without school uniforms, it becomes easy for criminals to access school premises without necessarily raising security concerns due to the fact that security officers may not be capable of facially identifying each and every student passing through the gates and this may create a loophole, which may be in favor of criminals. Several incidences of this nature have been reported in the past for example the infamous Virginia tech massacre in 2007, where more than 30 people lost their lives while 25 others suffered serious injuries (Hamilton 67). It has also been observed that the wearing of uniforms helps to prevent students from carrying concealed weapons. In this context, it is believed that when students are allowed to choose what to wear to school, some with criminal intentions wear oversize clothing items, which makes it difficult for one to know when they are carrying weapons. In addition, gang membership by students is a real problem, which must be controlled especially within school boundaries. However, the lack of strict school uniform policies in our institutions is propelling gang ideologies and activities to greater heights especially since most of the gangs have unique colors, which identifies their members from other gangs. It is a known fact that different criminal gangs in the US are always at loggerheads with each other and when students are allowed to walk to school in such clothing, it becomes almost impossible to prevent gang rivalry to spill into schools thereby resulting to numerous cases of gang related violence (Brunsma 43). In addition, it is important that students dedicate their full attention to the real reason why they go to school, which is to learn. However, this might be compromised by issues related to social and economic disparities among the students, which may be evidenced by the type of clothing students wear to school. In this context, team work is affected negatively as poor students are shunned away by the rich ones notwithstanding the fact that the two groups could be of great help to each other at intellectual level. School uniforms promote equality among students and this is a benefit, which those in opposition should highly consider unless they have other reasons why they send their children to school (Hamilton 70). On the other hand, it does not escape the minds of those in this debate that making it mandatory to wear school uniforms infringes on the freedom of expression. It is true that before any decision involving the public is reached, there needs to be extensive consultation with the affected persons. However, this discussion has been going on for a long time and the benefits of this policy override its demerits. Statistics in Long Beach indicate that since the introduction of this policy in 1994, indiscipline in students has gone down by approximately 86% and there is nothing more important than bringing sanity into American schools irrespective of what methods are to be applied (Brunsma 76). Opponents in this debate also argue that school uniforms fail to provide comfort to students, which may affect their concentration and academic excellence. This is ironic considering the fact that these children are expected to graduate and join different careers, some of which require the wearing of uniforms (Brunsma 104). The police, army, pilots, nurses among other professionals wear uniforms while on duty and there is no research which shows that their performance is affected by this. They are highly respected in the society and parents should prepare their children to take up these professions by allowing them to wear school uniforms. Conclusion School uniforms should be made mandatory in all public schools in the US. This is due to the fact that they help in promoting discipline among students. A study on the impacts of uniforms in Long Beach showed that indiscipline had gone down by 86% in the period between 1994 and 1999. Uniforms also assist in maintaining security in schools by making it easy to identify strangers who may want to commit atrocities in schools. In addition, they reduce the possibilities of students coming to school wearing clothing items depicting gang membership, which is essential in controlling gang related violence in schools. However, it has also been toted that such a policy infringes on the freedom of expression and also denies the students comfort necessary in achieving academic excellence. Works Cited Brunsma, David. Uniforms in Public Schools: A Decade of Research and Debate. R&L Education, 2005 Hamilton, Jill. Dress Codes in Schools. Greenhaven, 2008 Read More