Do Students Have to Wear Uniforms?

Do Students Have to Wear Uniforms?

Introduction

School uniform is absolutely not the most beautiful and fashion clothes in the world, but it probably owns the highest amount of users. In majority of the schools in the world, students are asked to wear uniforms, and the schools usually argue that it is a rule to manage students with unified clothes. However, most recently some arguments have come up to be opposed to wearing school uniforms. For instance, a public debate was carried out by the online community Debate. Org about “Should Kids Have to Wear Uniforms?” attracting many people to join in the debate. This paper is going to discuss whether the uniforms are necessary from three aspects, namely the health of students, equality and economic impacts.

School Uniforms and Health of Students

The first viewpoint that focused on by the debaters is whether wearing school uniforms can do harm to the heath conditions of students. In terms of the positive side that supports wearing school uniforms, many people believe that wearing school uniforms can regulate the students’ behaviors and help to reduce the violence and theft in schools. Differently, the colored insignia and gang activity may lead to the conflicts. As a result, school uniforms will promote the discipline of students and improve their safety in schools, further bringing positive better performances toward their academic study (Keith, 2008).

On the contrary, some others hold negative opinion that uniforms may influence the students’ physical activities. To be specific, a repeated measures crossover design was carried out to compare the physical activities in 64 primary school students who are averagely aged as 10 years old. And a self-report log book was applied as a tool to record the intensity of physical activity. As to learn more about the restriction of uniforms, the students were tested with both their sports uniforms and their winter uniforms. According to the findings of this study, the researchers found out that the physically restrictive school uniform has the potential harm to inhibit the physical activities of girls in primary schools (Norrish, Farringdon, Bulsara and Hands, 2012).

School Uniforms and Equality Issue

It appears that wearing school uniforms make students to have the same clothes and disciplines that bring equality. But is it really performs equality in this way? Some people argue that the mandatory school uniforms will hinder the freedom of expression of students and challenge their rights to be creative. For example, the former president and CEO McDaniel in SunPower Corporation and Edison Mission Energy pointed out that students have the First Amendment right to express their intentions of wearing the school uniforms or not, and the schools should think over about the policies of uniforms that it has to be more humanized and provides better service for the students themselves, rather than doing good only to the leadership of schools and the management perspectives (McDaniel, 2013).

However, there are also different opinions that do not agree with school uniforms’ going to affect the equality right of students. For instance, Mark Vopat argued that the actions of the school about mandatory uniforms will not violate the freedom and equality rights of children, because for younger students of grades 4-8 the equality right cannot properly be said to apply to most of them as they are on the interest side of the rights spectrum according to the liberty restriction (Vopat, 210).

School Uniforms and Economic Conditions

For some parents of the students, school uniforms help them to save the cost of clothes dramatically to bring economic benefits, and this viewpoint is another issue that argued by different sides of the debates. According to the debate carried out in South Africa among parents, learners and educators, school uniforms have many positive influences such as the benefits of identity, economy and equalizing effect. The structured questionnaire method was conducted among these people to collect data and find out whether they support the compulsory uniforms or not. On the basis of the findings, almost two-thirds of the learners are highly in favor of obligatory school uniforms, as this regulation not only makes it easier for schools to manage students, but also reducing a lot of costs of families (Wilken and Aardt, 2012). 

However, some scholars argue that in spite of the economic benefits, school uniforms bring a lot of troubles much bigger than the financial gains. For instance, the Tenth-grade data from The National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 was collected and analyzed on the center of the benefits of wearing school uniforms. And the findings show that there is no direct relationship between the behavioral problems of school uniforms, but it actually has a negative effect on student academic achievement, as well as indirectly affecting the environment in school by providing a visible and public symbol of commitment (Bodine, 2010).

Conclusions

On the basis of the discussion above, there are three major points that are arguable in the debate about whether students should wear school uniforms. First of all, school uniforms as the often used clothes are closely related to the health of students. Some people argue that wearing the uniforms will make negative impacts on physical activities of children, while others support to wear uniforms as it will increase safety of students. Secondly, the opposite side thinks that school uniforms violate the equality right of students, but the supportive side disagrees with it because younger students have limited rights. At last, some parents support uniforms as they can save costs of clothes, while others think more disadvantages exist than the simply economic benefits.

References

Keith A. K. (2008). Should School Uniforms Be Mandated in Schools. Journal of School Health.

Vol.68(1). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from Wiley Online Library.

Norrish, H., Farringdon, F, Bulsara, M., & Hands, B. (2012, April 24). The effect of school uniform on incidental physical activity among 10-year-old children. Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport And Physical Education. Retrieved February 28, 2016, from http://www.tandfonline.com

McDaniel T. R. (2013, October). Making the School Uniform Decision: Is It Right for Your School?. Kappa Delta Pi Record 49.4.

Retrieved February 28, 2016, from https://www.ebscohost.com

Vopat M. C. (2010 December). Mandatory School Uniforms and Freedom of Expression. Ethics and Education. Vol.5(3). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from https://www.ebscohost.com

Wilken I. & Aardt A.V. (2012 July). School Uniforms: Tradition, Benefit or Predicament? Education as Change. Vol.16(1). Retrieved from March 14, 2016, from https://www.ebscohost.com

Bodine A. (2010 April). School Uniforms, Academic Achievement, and Uses of Research. The Journal of Educational Research. Vol. 97(2). Retrieved from March 14, 2016, from https://www.ebscohost.com