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Expensive school uniforms don't make kids better at maths, so why are schools so focused on them? (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (18 children)

There are many reasons to have school uniforms. Growing up in a school system that does this for elementary and middle school:

it allows the wardrobe to be much more simplified so students don't have to figure out what to wear that day.
Kids don't have to get jealous of others for wearing fancy brand names or maybe in some bad areas they'll do gang colors or something.
The prices are generally ok, I was never complaining at the prices.
It might reinforce dressing up professionally even if the clothes aren't the most comfortable.

The way my school district worked it never looked for the brand names or anything, just so long as it fit the guidelines.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There are also a lot of good reasons uniforms are unnecessary or even detrimental to students and families.

Creates additional stress in having to have a narrow range of clothing always clean and wearable each day
Uniforms do little to nothing to mitigate inequality, as children will always have other items to compare each other with - pencil cases, sports trainers/boots, lunchboxes, mobile phones etc.
Prices of uniforms will likely always be higher than regular clothing due to limited choice and supply, and limited utility outside of school
Workplace dress codes have become increasingly casual in recent decades, and continue to do so, making reinforcing the use of a highly restrictive uniform seem anachronistic

School uniforms create more problems than they solve.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

On the other hand, an argument for uniforms would be that they remove a whole raft of problems with grey areas.

Without a uniform, you'd need to have a policy about 'acceptable' clothing - profanity, slogans, sun safety, workplace safety etc which would all be up to interpretation by students and an administration.
And you know that students would push the boundaries, and the 'line' would be constantly redrawn every week.
How short is too short on sleeves? What words are inappropriate on shirts?

Uniforms remove this - you're either in the approved uniform, or you aren't.

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