Children are the future of human society, and this is why we have to develop effective solutions to problems that they face. When it comes to school, there is a variety of problems concerning the social status of the students, crime, and a lack of willingness to study. There is an urgent need to estrange these problems or at least make them occur less often, and many researchers consider school uniform implementation to be an effective tool for that.
First, there are many researchers who believe that uniform policy implementation can have a positive influence on students of different ages. A necessity to wear a school uniform is definitely a restriction, and it helps students to realize that their school is not a place where everything is allowed. In such a case, it is easier to make students respect their teacher. According to Agarwal (2015), the uniform is able to increase students’ attendance and academic performance. The author is not the only one who considers it to be helpful for students’ development; Sanchez and Hill (2012) claim that a school uniform is an essential tool helping to reduce students’ inclination to commit offenses.
According to the opinions of many researchers, crime and inequality belong to the number of the most urgent problems that occur at public schools. Most of them seem to regard school uniform implementation as a factor that can significantly decrease students’ willingness to offend their classmates. For instance, Achinstein (2015) believes that a necessity to wear the uniform is able to distract students from assessing class positions of their peers. What is more, it is regarded as a factor limiting crime. Thus, Yang (2016) believes that its ability to reduce crime remains the most convincing reason to implement school uniform policy. Having taken these opinions into consideration, we can say that school uniform is likely to be beneficial for students, even though not all of them realize it.
Nevertheless, not all researchers are positive about school uniform policy implementation as they tend to see it as an ineffective measure. For instance, Park (2013) claims that the school uniform does not help to improve students’ grades. Besides, he believes that it deprives students of their essential right to express themselves, and it makes them less creative. Such an opinion is claimed to be based on observations made at Korean schools. However, Gentile and Imberman (2012) believe that school uniform has a positive effect on students’ grades, and it makes children respect their teacher. Indeed, I strongly believe that we should explain to children that self-expression is not closely related to appearance. In conclusion, there is no doubt that the opinions on the inefficiency of school uniforms are not able to reject its numerous advantages.
References
Achinstein, B. (2015). (Re) labeling social status: Promises and tensions in developing a college-going culture for Latina youth in an urban high school. American Journal of Education, 121(3), 311-345.
Agarwal, D. (2015). Effects of school uniform on student’s achievement, behaviour, and attendance in government school of Odisha: A case study of Sundergarh District (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India.
Gentile, E., & Imberman, S. A. (2012). Dressed for success? The effect of school uniforms on student achievement and behavior. Journal of Urban Economics, 71(1), 1-17.
Park, J. (2013). Do school uniforms lead to uniform minds?: School uniforms and appearance restrictions in Korean middle schools and high schools. Fashion Theory, 17(2), 159-177.
Sanchez, J. E., & Hill, G. C. (2012). Uniforms in the middle school: Student opinions, discipline data, and school police data. Journal of School Violence, 11(4), 345-356.
Yang, S. (2016). School uniforms, elementary students—“docile bodies”. Race, Population Studies, and America’s Public Schools: A Critical Demography Perspective, 1(1), 55.