You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile Uniform
They say there's something about a man in uniform. He exudes power, gives off an air of confidence, and he does all of this while also managing to come across as very sexy. Almost the same can be said of a girl in uniform. Take a Catholic schoolgirl uniform for instance. In fact, it would probably be said by the men wearing the uniforms, but I digress.
Uniforms make the opposite sex go crazy because they are break from the norm. There's also something about being all dressed up that many people equate with being all bottled up like a genie, waiting to be released. If Poison videos taught us nothing else, we learned that deep inside that Catholic schoolgirl is always a wild child, dying to break out into a pole dance.
But school administrators everywhere don't see it this way. They see uniforms for all the good things they symbolize like sameness, structure and stability. If everyone wears the same thing to school, gone is the underlying competition to wear the latest name brands to keep up with your friends. This puts less pressure on parents to keep up, and less pressure on administrators to police potentially bare mid riffs. (thanks for the catch, Charlie!)
So schools across the country that are not of the Catholic variety are beginning to adopt a school uniform policy. At first this started at the high school and middle school level, but now it's beginning to trickle down to elementary schools, too. This is being done at such a young age to to eliminate status and keep them typical "kids" instead of mini runway models, for as long as possible. This year a survey was sent home to parents about this very issue. The parents were asked how they would feel if our school implemented school uniforms. Positive feedback of over 90% was necessary in order to seriously explore implementation.
The results, given what you're thinking up to now, may or may not surprise you. The majority of the parents whole heartedly agreed with the idea of purchasing school uniforms.
Since I work in a high poverty area, I believe this was a major factor. No longer would things like a cool new pair of Heelies be a rite of passage. In its place would be a uniform given to the child to wear on a regular basis. But one of the problems becomes the way the question was posed. Nowhere does it make it clear whether or not the uniforms are being provided to the kids versus the uniforms being purchased by the families and that, my friends, is a very important distinction.
Yes, in the long run, many parents could save money by purchasing a few school shirts and maybe even slacks, but when you're living paycheck to paycheck, it doesn't always work out that way. There is also the factor that the less clothes you have, the more often you have to launder those clothes, another ongoing issue for many of the students in our school.
Then there's the factor of whether or not the uniform itself really changes the child. After all, if you ever went to Catholic school, or knew someone who did, it's not like they didn't have kids cutting school or smoking in the bathroom. A sheep is still a sheep people, even while wearing wolves clothing.
There are a few schools in our district that has already adopted a school uniform. However while it is now an option for many, it is not a necessity. So then you have a mixed bag of kids, some showing up in a complete uniform, some showing up in a half assed school uniform and others still showing up in Scarfaced t-shirts. Suddenly something that was supposed to promote sameness only manages to separate the "darks" from the "whites" in the big spin cycle we call life even more than before.
Growing up, I went to a school where what you wore was more important than who you were. It was all about the number of Champion sweatshirts, Umbro shorts and Z.Cavarricci pants you had hanging in your closet. The more knowledge you had about fashion, the better chances you had to have friends. The school system, in my opinion, fed into this by including full length mirrors in our hallways in high school. Nothing stated your reputation better than your own reflection.
But even if all of the status was removed, I think children would somehow manage to find another way to rank each other. Instead of Heelies, it might be hair length. In place of long sleeved t-shirts, it would be lip gloss. This comparing and contrasting is human nature and I'm afraid, an inevitable part of the awkward process of growing up. We all went through it, shirts, skins or otherwise. You can take the girl out of the low rise jeans, but you'll never stop the guy from lusting after that girl. It's just built into our real genes biologically.
No pair of blue jeans can change that.
Uniforms make the opposite sex go crazy because they are break from the norm. There's also something about being all dressed up that many people equate with being all bottled up like a genie, waiting to be released. If Poison videos taught us nothing else, we learned that deep inside that Catholic schoolgirl is always a wild child, dying to break out into a pole dance.
But school administrators everywhere don't see it this way. They see uniforms for all the good things they symbolize like sameness, structure and stability. If everyone wears the same thing to school, gone is the underlying competition to wear the latest name brands to keep up with your friends. This puts less pressure on parents to keep up, and less pressure on administrators to police potentially bare mid riffs. (thanks for the catch, Charlie!)
So schools across the country that are not of the Catholic variety are beginning to adopt a school uniform policy. At first this started at the high school and middle school level, but now it's beginning to trickle down to elementary schools, too. This is being done at such a young age to to eliminate status and keep them typical "kids" instead of mini runway models, for as long as possible. This year a survey was sent home to parents about this very issue. The parents were asked how they would feel if our school implemented school uniforms. Positive feedback of over 90% was necessary in order to seriously explore implementation.
The results, given what you're thinking up to now, may or may not surprise you. The majority of the parents whole heartedly agreed with the idea of purchasing school uniforms.
Since I work in a high poverty area, I believe this was a major factor. No longer would things like a cool new pair of Heelies be a rite of passage. In its place would be a uniform given to the child to wear on a regular basis. But one of the problems becomes the way the question was posed. Nowhere does it make it clear whether or not the uniforms are being provided to the kids versus the uniforms being purchased by the families and that, my friends, is a very important distinction.
Yes, in the long run, many parents could save money by purchasing a few school shirts and maybe even slacks, but when you're living paycheck to paycheck, it doesn't always work out that way. There is also the factor that the less clothes you have, the more often you have to launder those clothes, another ongoing issue for many of the students in our school.
Then there's the factor of whether or not the uniform itself really changes the child. After all, if you ever went to Catholic school, or knew someone who did, it's not like they didn't have kids cutting school or smoking in the bathroom. A sheep is still a sheep people, even while wearing wolves clothing.
There are a few schools in our district that has already adopted a school uniform. However while it is now an option for many, it is not a necessity. So then you have a mixed bag of kids, some showing up in a complete uniform, some showing up in a half assed school uniform and others still showing up in Scarfaced t-shirts. Suddenly something that was supposed to promote sameness only manages to separate the "darks" from the "whites" in the big spin cycle we call life even more than before.
Growing up, I went to a school where what you wore was more important than who you were. It was all about the number of Champion sweatshirts, Umbro shorts and Z.Cavarricci pants you had hanging in your closet. The more knowledge you had about fashion, the better chances you had to have friends. The school system, in my opinion, fed into this by including full length mirrors in our hallways in high school. Nothing stated your reputation better than your own reflection.
But even if all of the status was removed, I think children would somehow manage to find another way to rank each other. Instead of Heelies, it might be hair length. In place of long sleeved t-shirts, it would be lip gloss. This comparing and contrasting is human nature and I'm afraid, an inevitable part of the awkward process of growing up. We all went through it, shirts, skins or otherwise. You can take the girl out of the low rise jeans, but you'll never stop the guy from lusting after that girl. It's just built into our real genes biologically.
No pair of blue jeans can change that.
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