You should have stuck with this picture:
http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2007/09/schooluniformgrp.gif
What, they couldn't get a kid in a wheelchair for that picture? Those prejudice bastards!
School uniforms only work if they include shoes. If the kids buy their own shoes then all class bets are off.
the history boys!!!
There's other tells of class, besides clothes. People will still be able to tell, and still be little fuckers. Kids are cruel because not all parents are great, and any inadequacies they have are magnified in the offspring (until said offspring grow up and learn to be less openly officious). Uniforms won't change that.
Though back when I was in elementary school wearing Value Village peach corduroys and everyone else was in blue jeans, I would have appreciated a fuckin' uniform.
everybody buys their identities to varying degrees. it may not turn out exactly as planned, and it's by no means an exclusive way to build your identity, but to pretend it isn't significant doesn't make any sense to me. more to the point, i believe school uniforms make things more easy for both teachers and students. In the end though, you end up just magnifying the problems elsewhere. you might as well deal with the issues where they occur. bubbles of any kind rarely make any sense.
Uniforms are a great idea! But why stop with schools? Let's just make EVERYBODY wear uniforms! No more class issues! EVERYBODY WINS!
err, wait... nevermind. Let's just stick to those second-class citizens who can't vote.
People will still find subtle ways to distinguish themselves. Designer uniforms being the most obvious choice, shoes being another good example.
Better yet, why not actually TEACH students about the inequalities in the American class system, and maybe inspire the change from within...?
If the effect of mandatory school uniforms is to make every school kid in America look like a member of a retro 80's British electro pop band, then I'm all for it.
Shoes, hairstyles, designer purses, prada backpacks, iPhones...
As someone who hated wearing even some slight form of uniform in school, I (mostly) agree with Charles here.
I only disagree on the hair-splitting phenomenon of people who only spend money on clothes, which slightly warps the idea that better clothes = richer. But again, hair splitting.
This still won't stop nerds/geeks from being beat up on or anything, but it does some form of neutralization. Better than none.
I think it's funny that the drive for school uniforms mostly comes from conservatives, who claim we live in a classless society. And who further claim that distinctions of wealth are not a form of oppression.
So now are they admitting that class exists, but saying they just want to paper it over so it doesn't show so much? Or do they expect to separate the classes further with 'school choice?' Maybe the power of wealth is so secure that they no longer need to worry that class consciousness is a threat.
i dont think uniforms are so great. poor people would still be poor and would still find constant reminders of that.
i propose instead that we severely reduce janitorial activity in schools and make the kids take turns engaging in the group activity of cleaning part of the school after classes are over like they do in japan. this teaches kids something essential about being human, which is the physical and hopefully the metaphorical mess we leave behind. it shows us that everyone should be involved in cleaning our acts up, no matter what our position in society.
it brings everybody down to the same level, no one is exempt.
I went to schools with and without uniforms, and am in favor of them. The class issues may still exist to some degree, but I'm convinced they're more muted in a uniformed environment. Also, in the uniformed environment, I somehow spent marginally less time distractedly fantasizing about banging senseless the girl sitting next to me, which occupied entirely too much of my adolescent brainspace at other times.
Let's not forgot the parents. My school uniform was made out of some indestructible polyester fabric. I'd come home all covered in shit and my mom would throw it all in the machine - pants, blazer, tie, everything - and it came out clean and pressed. You couldn't remove the crease from the front of the pants if you ironed it flat.
elenchos- is it really coming from conservatives? Most times I hear it brought up, it's in the politically neutral topic of trying to ablate the bullying problem. But if you're following the news more closely than I, maybe you know better. Give some examples.
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No khaki pants! Agh, fuck. All navy is the way to go.
"Give some examples?"
Well since you asked me so nicely, I have to ask: why? Should I Google it for you because you're my friend? Is it because of how much I like you? Because I want to reciprocate all the examples you gave to support your claim that it's a politically neutral position?
Fuck off.
> School uniforms are rational. Why? Because they greatly reduce the class stress caused by teen fashions, by flashy back-to-school items.
You meant that sarcastically, right? Please, tell me you did.
I went to a high school with a dress code. I wasn't in the upper class that 95% of the rest of the student body was in.
The rich kids spotted me immediately. Uniforms reduce class stress? What a complete and utter load of festering pig shit.
Who, me? Bitter? Nah...
I went to an American school with no uniforms and my boyfriend went to a Catholic school with uniforms. We both dyed our hair unnatural colors and made a bunch of other sartorial choices to proclaim our individuality. He's in favor of uniforms on the basis that they keep kids from looking down on poor kids for their clothes, where I've always viewed them as a way for The Man to stop students from doing their thing.
Oh, also he's poor and I'm rich.
I HATE UNIFORMS! There is nothing like being the fattest kid in the school and having NONE of the preselected uniform sizes fit and trying to squeeze into the largest size available. Meanwhile everyone else looks the same, but you look like a fat freak. Of course, fat kids don't exist in the world, so I'm sure there's no problem with it. WHATEVER! Uniforms aim to make everyone look the same, but the truth is we AREN'T all the same! If I wanted to wear a uniform I would go to Catholic school. I don't want to, so I wear my own clothes. And, as if it would keep kids from knowing whose parents are the richest and poorest. Again: whatever! UNIFORMS SUCK!!!
Plus, uniforms somehow make all those cute English History boys all the hotter. Thanks for the pic, Charles.
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