no school uniforms!

discussion of the arguments


School Uniforms - webring with sites discussing the arguments by webmaster


Do you also feel annoyed by the lack of arguments to justify school uniforms, by the lack of research supporting uniforms and - overall - by the lack of discussion and debate on the issue? Have you ever had an opportunity to study and debate the issue? Why not start a debate on the issue at your school or elsewhere? If you need help, have a look at the Debate page at this site and at some general debate guidelines!
Once you've set up the debate, start doing your research. On the left, you see some often-used arguments. Check the discussions for each argument and the conclusions, so that you have your response ready during the debate. Good luck!
There's also a group at Yahoo that discusses school uniforms. It's called SchoolUniformsDebate. In its intro, it says:
What's all the debate about school uniforms? What are the arguments against school uniforms? What are the arguments for or against uniforms or dress codes in general? Some arguments against school uniforms are that uniforms are:
  • at odds with inalienable rights
  • more expensive for those forced into uniform
  • more expensive for the school (include cost of legal cases!)
  • less comfortable than clothes that match one's personal details
  • endangering students by making them into targets outside school
  • teaching the wrong moral values (robotism, servitude, gang-mentality)
  • making students focus more on body shape, color, etc
  • making it harder for school staff to identify problem-makers
  • slow development of creative talents, independent thinking and personality
Below are some brief conclusions. Note that this debate is an on-going one and that only at times do school allow students to debate the issue and learn to think for themselves in the process.  Feel encouraged to click on the links for each argument in the panel on the left to go into more detail for each of these arguments.
Generally, cost is an argument that  works against school uniforms, especially when taking into account that students who wear uniforms also have normal clothing on top of that. For the school, uniforms come with extra administration and legal cost, which we all ultimately have to pay for.
There are some suggestions that school uniforms reduced discrimination, bullying, violence and crime, which in turn would result in a better learning and a safer learning  environment. However, there is little or no evidence in research to support any such suggestions. In fact, there is some research that concludes that uniforms did NOT result in better behavior. 
While school uniforms may reduce some kind of peer pressure, they arguably increase other types of peer pressure between students even more. School uniforms may impose some sense of equality upon students, but whether this was desirable is a matter of politics. Diversity seems an equally valid principle to follow. It's inappropriate for a public school to impose one specific political view, while silencing the opposite view. 
Most importantly, mandatory school uniforms at public schools are prone to violate inalienable rights, including freedom of expression and the prior right for families to decide how their own children are to be educated.