• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Do you support school uniforms?

What is your stance on School Uniforms?

  • Yes and the school should offer them at no extra cost.

    Votes: 20 18.3%
  • Yes and the parents should pay for them.

    Votes: 40 36.7%
  • They should be optional for students who want them

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • There should be school uniforms for specific activities only

    Votes: 3 2.8%
  • We should leave it to the parents to decide if the school should have uniforms

    Votes: 10 9.2%
  • We should leave it at municipal/state level

    Votes: 10 9.2%
  • We shouldn't have school uniforms at all

    Votes: 24 22.0%
  • I like the current way things are.

    Votes: 5 4.6%
  • I hate uniforms

    Votes: 9 8.3%
  • I'm a potato.

    Votes: 13 11.9%

  • Total voters
    109
No, it's not. At most, roughly 8 hours of your day, for 180 days a year is spent inside a classroom. That's 1/3rd of your day for roughly half the year. That's not even close to being "most of your life".

I've given you those reasons.

Then feel free to let them dress however you want for the other 180 days a year they are not in school and for the other 2/3rds of a day when they do have school.

You've posted to me twice. In neither situation have you given any reason whatsoever why they should have to wear uniforms. Either you're a liar or a mistaken.
 
Well it was cultural issue. It was in an area where many Scottish immigrants were.
Then that makes more sense. :)
You've posted to me twice.
Both times proving you wrong.

In neither situation have you given any reason whatsoever why they should have to wear uniforms.
Nor was I intending to. I was pointing out the falsehoods in your statement. Kids are welcome to wear whatever they want for most of their life. As far as giving the reason for a stricter dress code, I did that in the very first post of mine in this thread.

Since we implemented that dress code (which was met with strong resistance, but only AFTER it passed...that's what you get in a small town, a bunch of morons), the quality of education has gone up. Test scores have risen slightly and discipline has been down each year. Obviously it's a very short time frame to measure, but it seems to be having a positive effect on our school. The students are not prohibited from expressing themselves through clothing, they just have more limited options. And many parents, even those initially opposed, have said it's been good for them, as it brings the cost of buying clothing for their children down.

It's gone very well for us.

Either you're a liar or a mistaken.
I'm neither, I'm simply someone who possesses the ability to read and do math. If only there were more like me.
 
In my youth I didn't, but as I became a parent and then grandparent I see the value in school uniforms. Puts all the kids, regardless of family financial status, on the same footing. Especially in the high school years.
 
Then that makes more sense.
Both times proving you wrong.

Nor was I intending to. I was pointing out the falsehoods in your statement. Kids are welcome to wear whatever they want for most of their life. As far as giving the reason for a stricter dress code, I did that in the very first post of mine in this thread.



I'm neither, I'm simply someone who possesses the ability to read and do math. If only there were more like me.

Dude, you have posed ZERO ****ing arguments. You have made zero points, and expressed zero opinions. You have not taken a side. You have done nothing. If you'd like to make an actual ****ing point. I'll be here.

Stop acting like a ****ing child.
 
I support school uniforms, and although I would normally think parents should pay for them, since it would be required clothing, I support the school paying for at least a few sets of clothes. My reasoning behind school uniforms, is that it takes the focus off of students being obsessed with how they look, and how they dress, and helps redirect it toward scholastics and education. It cuts down some of the shallowness of students trying to out-do each other wrt looks and style.
 
I support school uniforms, and although I would normally think parents should pay for them, since it would be required clothing, I support the school paying for at least a few sets of clothes. My reasoning behind school uniforms, is that it takes the focus off of students being obsessed with how they look, and how they dress, and helps redirect it toward scholastics and education. It cuts down some of the shallowness of students trying to out-do each other wrt looks and style.

The issue is, we're already having a major problem in education that kids aren't able to think independently and creatively. Pushing all of them even further into a cookie-cutter mold and refusing to let them express themselves isn't going to help that.

Our education system doesn't need more cookie cutter, it needs far, far less.
 
When I was a student - I never attended a school with uniforms. None of my schools had significant issues from dress and appearance problems, so I don't see what it would have changed.

As a parent of four students - for a time we were in a uniformed school district. It was a pain, actually. Some areas might be more considerate than others - but buying uniforms is far more costly because schools made it very complicated.

My kids had this:
No polyester. Boys wore a belt. Tops had to be dark blue, red, or yellow proper shirts (no t-shirts or tank tops but things like polos and button-ups). Shoes had to be only from a select few styles.

1) Not all places sold school-appropriate articles of clothing. Where they did - it was often marked much higher. I can find t-shirts for a few bucks but when it comes to uniforms, everything was between $5.00 - $12.00 a top and pants were higher.

2) Limited materials - by disallowing polyesters and knits they limited the available selection which forced me to buy more expensive articles if the cheaper one was the wrong material.

3) Shoes - dress shoes were more expensive. Aside that, kids spend time running around in the dirt and rain while at school, dress shoes are just thoughtless and inappropriate. They are ruined more quickly and much more expensive to replace.

4) Belts - my oldest was in K-2, special needs, and always needed help with his belt. It was entirely ridiculous for them to require it. They complained to me often, though they're the ones who decided that the button-shirt line had to fall in line with the pants and be topped off with a belt. The only thing missing was a tie :roll:

5) Heat - we live in Arkansas. A few months of every school year it's too hot for pants and sleeved tops (upper 90's and 100's with high humidity), yet they required them - kids were more uncomfortable.

6) Color choices and children - light colors like yellow, light blue, khaki and beige are horrible choices for school clothing. Kids go to school where they use paint, glue, and drink chocolate milk. I had a lot of clothing go to the trash because they quickly became stained and the stains would not come out - especially the paint.

We were dirt poor - and hunting down uniformed articles was a pain in the butt. It's inconsiderate to put people in that type of situation and it solved nothing. I ended up finding long sleeve shirts and clothes that were too big at good-will and then taking them in so they'd fit. Dressing kids should not be so difficult to tedious.

All in all - it cost us hundreds more every single year, created faux problems like the teachers complaining my special needs son needed too much help (tying shoes and lacing his belt), and on top of that - you still have to cloth the child in regular clothes like t-shirts and shorts so they can go out side and play.

It also increased laundry time by almost doubling the dirty clothes you had to wash each month.

All in all - it was a pointless pain in my butt and thus - I oppose them strongly. Most people are not well off nor do they have time to keep after it all.

Sometimes crap happened - like one week (we lived in an apartment) and the laundromat dryer system stopped working - we didn't have clean clothes for school, they wore regular clothes - and I was given a hard time for it.

Thanks for that perspective. I'm ok with reasonable dress codes - no mid-driffs showing, pants can't be hanging below the butt type of thing. But uniforms? Naw, can't be for them. We didn't have them when I was in school, and I can't remember ever being so distracted by someone's clothes or someone's hair that I couldn't learn. Who cares what people wear?

Ok, there was the girl who was rumored to never wear the same clothes twice...new outfit every day of the year... but that was probably just a rumor.... I certainly never paid enough attention to say if it was true or false.
 
The issue is, we're already having a major problem in education that kids aren't able to think independently and creatively. Pushing all of them even further into a cookie-cutter mold and refusing to let them express themselves isn't going to help that.

Our education system doesn't need more cookie cutter, it needs far, far less.

I disagree, especially again at the junior and high school level. How they dress is NOT a matter of creativity, but more a case of conformity and competition in action. There are so many ways to express and engender creativity through learning and academic pursuits. Creativity is a tough one in high school as the kids largely don't want to stand out in any way unless it's popular in their crowd. And that's not standing out but fitting in.

Btw, where there is no standard uniform I am against dress codes. It's an either/or situation in my book.
 
I disagree, especially again at the junior and high school level. How they dress is NOT a matter of creativity, but more a case of conformity and competition in action. There are so many ways to express and engender creativity through learning and academic pursuits. Creativity is a tough one in high school as the kids largely don't want to stand out in any way unless it's popular in their crowd. And that's not standing out but fitting in.

Well would you agree that our education system is far too cookie cutter? Our entire system is based around doing a ****ty teaching job in class, assigning them homework reading which they won't do, then asking them to regurgitate then purge all of the information they memorized.

This is simply another way of making them just another brick in the wall. Our society doesn't benefit from conformity, it benefits from creativity and radical thinkers.
 
I think they're a great idea for most schools.

They boost integration and respect and I also think they should be free of charge for the parents initially. Each student should have 3 (random number > 1) school uniforms given by the school at the sizes of the student and if the parents want additional school uniforms, they should pay for them.

So what do you think?

Depends on thier locations and whats going on in the school. For places like the St. Louis or Detroit? Most definitely. For places like Bonners Ferry ID, no need what so ever.
 
Well would you agree that our education system is far too cookie cutter? Our entire system is based around doing a ****ty teaching job in class, assigning them homework reading which they won't do, then asking them to regurgitate then purge all of the information they memorized.

This is simply another way of making them just another brick in the wall. Our society doesn't benefit from conformity, it benefits from creativity and radical thinkers.

No, I wouldn't agree. There have to be consistent standards for each level of education. Where individualization comes in is through the teacher. This is what teaching is all about. Radical and creative thinkers are not born from the distractions of what clothing we're going to wear that day. In fact radical and creative thinkers are generally known for not giving a hoot what they wear, having a uniform saves them the time and stress of trying to fit in that can be better spent on their creative and radical thought.
 
Just what we need is to make everybody look the same. The point of wearing different things to school is to not only express yourself, but so that not everybody looks the same. Just what we need is less diversity.
 
The issue is, we're already having a major problem in education that kids aren't able to think independently and creatively. Pushing all of them even further into a cookie-cutter mold and refusing to let them express themselves isn't going to help that.

Our education system doesn't need more cookie cutter, it needs far, far less.

I personally think that far too much emphasis (by the kids) is put on shallow endeavors in the way of worrying about how they look, how they dress, and how much attention they can get from the other kids. Imo, uniforms would encourage them to focus more on school, and not socializing.
 
Uniforms are a great idea. There is no valid reason to oppose them either...
 
Just what we need is to make everybody look the same. The point of wearing different things to school is to not only express yourself, but so that not everybody looks the same. Just what we need is less diversity.

That is ridiculous. School is not about expressing yourself... it is about learning. You obviously have zero experience with common sense too... even with school uniforms, get this, people do not look the same. Gasp!
 
That is ridiculous. School is not about expressing yourself... it is about learning. You obviously have zero experience with common sense too... even with school uniforms, get this, people do not look the same. Gasp!

Exactly. School is for learning how to think critically, perform math functions, learn to read and write, and for learning how to learn itself. Self-expression is more likely seen in artistic endeavors, sports, music, and similar activities. I didn't want my children learning how to be individualistic and creative from their peers. I wanted them to learn it at home.
 
That is ridiculous. School is not about expressing yourself... it is about learning. You obviously have zero experience with common sense too... even with school uniforms, get this, people do not look the same. Gasp!

Have you looked at a private school before? They all are almost identical. As to the learning comment, while you are right, school is not simply about learning but also experiences. This is where you make the connections you use the rest of your life. Appearance is the building blocks to relationships. I don't want to make friends with somebody that looks like they are copied and pasted out of a 1800s mental asylum.
 
Have you looked at a private school before? They all are almost identical. As to the learning comment, while you are right, school is not simply about learning but also experiences. This is where you make the connections you use the rest of your life. Appearance is the building blocks to relationships. I don't want to make friends with somebody that looks like they are copied and pasted out of a 1800s mental asylum.

If you have the opportunity making friends with them wouldn't that mean that either you also look like you're from an 1800s mental asylum or that you're outside of school and they aren't wearing their uniforms. I went to a private school with a uniform. It didn't seem to have any impact on connections made at that school or outside it for anyone.
 
Sacrifice individualization for order. Self expression for conformity. No, I don't support them. I'd never wear one, regardless if it resulted in my being suspended from school. Uniforms are superfluous, and often uncomfortable. Think the bullying will end because people can't pick on others because of their clothing? Wrong... bullies are very adept at finding idiosyncrasies to poke fun of. I like my clothes, lax fitting, mundane, conveying my indifference to fashion. I like other people's clothes as well, it gives me a "although at times superficial" basic understanding of their personality. How short are their shorts? Why wear pajamas? Very dressy, must be orderly and desire a professional atmosphere. Etc.

I agree with your point about bullies being able to find something else to make fun of. I disagree that individualization and self-expression are sacrificed. Plenty of other avenues for individuality and self-expression.
 
In my youth I didn't, but as I became a parent and then grandparent I see the value in school uniforms. Puts all the kids, regardless of family financial status, on the same footing. Especially in the high school years.

Which is really the greatest benefit of uniforms. Sneaker-heads aside, of course.
 
I personally think that far too much emphasis (by the kids) is put on shallow endeavors in the way of worrying about how they look, how they dress, and how much attention they can get from the other kids. Imo, uniforms would encourage them to focus more on school, and not socializing.

We need to create individuals. People who are creative and free thinkers. Forcing these kids even further into the automoton production line and squashing another element of their creativity isn't really helping anything. I mean, how much time do you think they're really losing picking out clothes in the morning? I can say for guys we spend about 30 seconds.


No, I wouldn't agree. There have to be consistent standards for each level of education. Where individualization comes in is through the teacher. This is what teaching is all about. Radical and creative thinkers are not born from the distractions of what clothing we're going to wear that day. In fact radical and creative thinkers are generally known for not giving a hoot what they wear, having a uniform saves them the time and stress of trying to fit in that can be better spent on their creative and radical thought.

I think this proves my point. You believe all kids should be exactly the same, and the teacher should shape their individuality. Jesus, that's a scary concept.

I'd like to know where this is really coming from. How much time did you spend picking out clothes as a teenager? You apparently think it was this massive time waste, when in reality, I, like most men, spent about 30 seconds getting ready.

Saving 30 seconds isn't a good reason to take their individuality away.
 
Last edited:
Let schools decide individually, it gives the parents more input that way.

I do think if schools are going to require uniforms, they should provide at least some free ones. Otherwise that can get kind of expensive for families that don't have a lot of money when they have to buy special clothes for their kids to go to school in.
 
I think there's more than enough indelible uniformity stamped on a child's psyche, without dressing them like mindless drones.

What's next? Make them salute flags while chanting? lulz
 
I would rather have a happy kid wearing what he wants, within reason, vs a kid that is pissed and wants to rebel about what he is forced to wear. I wore uniforms in Catholic school for a couple years. It sucked.

Oh? Maybe it would suck but at least it would remove several pressures kids have today like

1. "What will I wear tomorrow to impress or fit in with the other kids?"
2. "I can't afford clothes to impress anyone, people will judge me on that."
3. "How much money can I get from my parents (or use from my job) to buy the latest fashion?"

Now I admit adults might think those are minor concerns, but I seem to remember them being a major deal as a kid. Making a good impression on peers while at school is a big deal on a daily basis as a kid, most especially in your teens. So another advantage is that uniforms allow kids to shrug off "not being fashionably cool" by blaming it on the dress code instead of stressing about it.

Then there is the major advantage for parents in not having to waste so much money and time dragging, or being dragged by, kids to stores to buy the latest fashions for school.

Finally, bitch about uniforms in school, but you still get to express yourself freely AFTER school is over when you go home, change into something more "chill," then go hang with friends.
 
Last edited:
Look at a school with a uniform on non-uniform day and you have the best argument against uniforms.
 
Back
Top Bottom