You probably guessed right, this posting is about uniforms. Now that all the recent chatter has died down about uniforms has died down I'll make some comments that hopefully won't be snowed over by an avalanche of emotion. Besides I had my own snow I was shoveling when all the rhetoric was flying.
Education is serious business. It is our kids jobs. Their wages are just paid at a later date. The amount of those wages is dependant on how well they do their job. We associate the worth of their job with the kind of clothes they wear. Lawyers wear suits, doctors wear lab coats, and UPS drivers wear brown.
It is only natural that our kids distinct attire for school. If we want our kids to take education seriously then we must take it seriously. Uniforms would help build a cohesiveness and establish the fact that we are all in this together. Football teams all wear the same jersey.
The concerns about self-expression and individuality are not truly legitimate. Our creativity would be better served if it was channeled into academic pursuits. Individuality should be measured by our achievements.
When I was very young, I told my father I wanted to quit the Cub Scouts because I could go camping and do all the same activities through other youth programs, without the nonsense of uniforms and badges. I did find alternative outlets, and later on, became a Nature and Orienteering camp counselor, myself - all without uniforms.
ReplyDeleteI went to public schools without uniforms, and though I didn't quite see it that way at the time, we had more freedom to express ourselves in the late 80's/early 90's than today, especially before the more "out there" styles were co-opted by shopping mall stores. But I digress..
My first student teaching assignment was at a Catholic Prep school with uniforms. It was co-ed, but I still felt as though I had entered an alien world. It wasn't just that these students were not expressing themselves superficially through clothing, it was that they were not expressing much of themselves at all - a slight challenge for a Speech Communication major about to introduce a unit on Public Speaking.
On the day of their first speeches, the school nurse, whom I had never met, came up to thank me. She said several kids came to her office "sick," as a result. I became apologetic and she stopped me mid-sentence and thanked me again.
I felt very uncomfortable at that school.
If you believe clothing influences behavior and attitudes, then consider what we're really teaching children if we take a one-uniform-fits-all approach, especially during a period of their growth when they're finding out who they are and experimenting with identity.
You're right. Education is serious business. But one thing that sets us apart from some of the countries that beat us in test scores is that we're in it for something greater than the next crop of obedient factory workers and cubicle slaves. Remember that we still excel in innovation, if not always in efficiency and scale. And that one of the great things about our country is the extent to which we value individualism and creativity.
I agree with a lot of what you say. The Cub Scout anecdote is priceless. I think it is all about perspective. If put on uniforms to all become cardboard cut-outs, we become mechanical drones marching to an Orwellian disaster. Creativity is stifled, individualism lost. I, like you am opposed to slavery, we just are looking at different masters. I fear that the fashion industry has formed an unhealthy alliance with the advertising industry to manipulate our society. The energy and money necessary to adapt to the latest style could be better spent in true creative outlets of a more practical matter. To be honest though, I did not always feel this way and proper respect and consideration has to be paid to opposing views, after all, I've had both in my lifetime.
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