Education Essay Sample: Students Should Not Wear Uniforms

Students should not have to wear uniforms. This is because when students wear their clothes of choice, they are able to show their sense of style, individuality ,and their creativity. Over the years, many high schools have come to the realization that wearing uniforms at school has no beneficial impact on the students progress hence they do not require them to wear a uniform. This is also evidently witnessed in universities across the country. It is also worthy to note that not all uniforms provided by the school or worn by the students are suitable for wearing in some seasons. Instead, I think that basic guidelines should be in place to guide the students on what to wear and not to wear so as not to cause misunderstandings with the school administration.

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Style gives one a unique identity in the society. When students are free to wear the clothes they deem favorite; they develop a sense of taste and style as they sample out what they wear to school. This helps them to gain a type of style which they do not feel intimidated by their peers hence creating themselves a unique identity which makes them stand out. This has been evidently witnessed in a case where a student did not want his hair cut short. The court ruled that compelled conformity to conventional standards of appearance does not seem a justifiable part of the educational process.( Richards v. Thurston ,1970).

High schools across the nation have come to the realization that students wearing uniforms do not improve school attendance, academic preparedness or examination results. In fact, many causes on poor academic achievements were related to uniforms at school. These schools and also some universities have also realized that bullying and cases of indiscipline incidents rose significantly after the introduction of uniform. According to a peer-reviewed research in 2007, found that there was an increased number of violent assaults in school after the mandatory introduction of uniforms. Universities and schools have seen the need to reduce the extra expenses on families where they see no need of buying uniforms which cannot be worn out of school.

Different seasons come along throughout the year. This means that there should be different sets of clothing to wear during the appropriate season. Taking, for example, the clothes one wears on winter needs to be warm enough to accommodate the situations presented. The uniform that is required may not be suitable enough for such situations which cause inconvenience. Therefore clothes to be worn should be left to the students to choose. This also helps in cost reductions in instances which the school has to provide different sets of uniform to be worn in different seasons.

Many people argue that uniforms create a sense of belonging to a particular group of people or place. While this reasoning might apply to some group of people, I refuse to agree to it basing on the fact that not all students have low self-esteem that it is at the point where they compare themselves to others. Given freedom to wear what they want, each person is able to decide on what is best for them, therefore, will not mind what others wear. It is, therefore, clear without a doubt that wearing uniforms at school should not be mandatory and let the students choose to wear what they see to be good and suitable for themselves.

References

J. Scott Granberg-Rademacker, Jeffrey Bumgarner, and Avra Johnson, "Do School Violence Policies Matter? An Empirical Analysis of Four Approaches to Reduce School Violence," Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice, Spring 2007

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Richards, Jr. v. Thurston, ahcuah.org, Apr. 28, 1970