Public School Uniforms in the US

You may want to research on how many public schools enforce uniforms.

But, I found some statistics on a school that switched to uniforms. Vague, so sorry I couldn't get more for you.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19990901-000009.html

Ah, here's another one. I've just been googling "school uniform psychology".

http://www.danenet.org/ncs/forumuniformseval.htm


Happy Writing!

I can't speak for schools in the US, but I was a school secretary in England, and we dreaded "own-clothes" day (which we had once a term as a fundraiser). The behaviour went right down the toilet. Funny that. And if it was windy on own-clothes day, we were doomed. (Which is another issue--why are children antsy when it's windy?)

Some Catholic high schools in Canada are going back to uniforms. The girls have the kilts so short, they might as well not bother. How they bend down, I don't know.

Remember my sister's friend Joy, who'd used up the good graces of the public school system and was enrolled in a Catholic school in the hope that strict discipline would turn her around. (It didn't, but that's another story.)

The uniform, a knee-length pleated plaid skirt and a white man-tailored shirt, sweater optional, seemed so sexless, but the stuff Joy did to make it look hot was nothing short of amazing. I'm sure that girls who choose to look that way when their public schools go to uniforms will do the same thing.

Maryn, who hadn't thought of Joy in years

Sandi LeFaucheur said:

I can't speak for schools in the US, but I was a school secretary in England, and we dreaded "own-clothes" day (which we had once a term as a fundraiser). The behaviour went right down the toilet. Funny that. And if it was windy on own-clothes day, we were doomed. (Which is another issue--why are children antsy when it's windy?)

Some Catholic high schools in Canada are going back to uniforms. The girls have the kilts so short, they might as well not bother. How they bend down, I don't know.

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I dreaded 'uniform free day' because I didn't have anything to wear. Just my uniform. I much prefered 'worst dressed day'. I came in my uniform.

All the schools I went to were uniform schools.
When my kids were younger and going to school in Germany they did not wear uniforms. I was so happy to pack them off to England, where they had to!
Kids in uniform-less schools think of it as something perfectly dreadful and personaluity-robbing. It's not. When everyone's doing it they kids don't mind at all. Both my kids said they preferred to wear uniform, and always stuck up FOR wearing one when speaking to German kids. The whole competition thing, and "what shall I wear today" falls away.
And as Maryn says, it's amazing what you can do to individualise the uniforms. At my daughters school, girls did one of two things: they took up the hems of their skirts, and either they wore them very short, or else they wore them very low so that their bellies - and thongs - stuck out. Every now and then we parents would get a letter from the school telling us to have our daighters dress properly.

I remember how proud my son was when he first wore his uniform, a dark suit with long sleeved white shirt and a tie. He immediately looked smarter in every way, and felt smarter as well. Up to that time he had been a bit of a hooligan, and was expelled from school in Germany. I don't know what role, if any, the uniform played in this, but the moment he went to school im England he was an angel. I remember him coming home from England, picking him up at the airport in Germany. The only time boys wear suits in Germany is at their Confimation or Holy Communion, so at the airport, and at the restaurant we went to afterwards, everyone was staring at him - and he loved it. I loved it too, needless to say!

I see girls uniforms which include a required skirt as enforcing gender stereotypes people may disagree with or not be comfortable with. Uniforms in general also express an anti-individuality and anti-personal freedom mindset that I and many others find abhorrent and inhumane. Any arguments against state religion or reciting the pledge of allegiance can probably also be applied against school uniforms; they are both a case of a bureaucracy punishing those who have committed no crime by compelling them to conform to an arbitrary standard which does not significantly benefit anyone.

sunandshadow said:

I see girls uniforms which include a required skirt as enforcing gender stereotypes people may disagree with or not be comfortable with. Uniforms in general also express an anti-individuality and anti-personal freedom mindset that I and many others find abhorrent and inhumane. Any arguments against state religion or reciting the pledge of allegiance can probably also be applied against school uniforms; they are both a case of a bureaucracy punishing those who have committed no crime by compelling them to conform to an arbitrary standard which does not significantly benefit anyone.

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Yeah, fight the power.

beezle said:

Yeah, fight the power.

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sunandshadow said:

I see girls uniforms which include a required skirt as enforcing gender stereotypes people may disagree with or not be comfortable with. Uniforms in general also express an anti-individuality and anti-personal freedom mindset that I and many others find abhorrent and inhumane. Any arguments against state religion or reciting the pledge of allegiance can probably also be applied against school uniforms; they are both a case of a bureaucracy punishing those who have committed no crime by compelling them to conform to an arbitrary standard which does not significantly benefit anyone.

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Have you got school age children?

Maryn said:

Remember my sister's friend Joy, who'd used up the good graces of the public school system and was enrolled in a Catholic school in the hope that strict discipline would turn her around. (It didn't, but that's another story.)

The uniform, a knee-length pleated plaid skirt and a white man-tailored shirt, sweater optional, seemed so sexless, but the stuff Joy did to make it look hot was nothing short of amazing. I'm sure that girls who choose to look that way when their public schools go to uniforms will do the same thing.

Maryn, who hadn't thought of Joy in years

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Not if it's an all girl's school: usually they look as if they rolled out of bed in their uniforms, and often that is the case.

sunandshadow said:

I see girls uniforms which include a required skirt as enforcing gender stereotypes people may disagree with or not be comfortable with. Uniforms in general also express an anti-individuality and anti-personal freedom mindset that I and many others find abhorrent and inhumane. Any arguments against state religion or reciting the pledge of allegiance can probably also be applied against school uniforms; they are both a case of a bureaucracy punishing those who have committed no crime by compelling them to conform to an arbitrary standard which does not significantly benefit anyone.

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I've had jobs where I had to wear a uniform (nothing glamorous, believe me: gas station attendant, painter, waitress etc). It made getting to work on time easy, and I changed when I got home.

As a mother of four, I am grateful for school uniforms. The uniforms really cut down on the expense of clothes and the dilemma of what to wear each day. My children go to a religious school where the emphasis is on modesty.

Uniforms are definitely in the minority in US public school. Most public schools that I have dealt with that require "uniforms" actually allow a fairly broad range of clothing - more of a dress code than a uniform. Kids usually are required to wear something like khaki pants (both genders) and a polo shirt of a particular color. Sometimes there is a option of a skirt for girls or khaki shorts in hot weather. Another common variant is dark slacks and a white polo shirt. It's not like the kids all trek on down to the local uniform shop and all buy the same pieces of clothing made by the same manufacturer. Private schools may require skirts and blazers for girls and dress shirts and ties for boys, but this would be quite rare in a public school.

I absolutely loved my Catholic school uniform. Our school was exceptionally strict: in addition to the button up shirt and jumper (after fifth grade, girls got to switch over to a skirt in the same pattern), no cosmetics of any kind (girls were sent home for clear nail polish), specific shoes, and a hair-legnth code for guys (couldn't be past their ears, I think). It was so much easier than having to worry about fashions and the like, and made getting ready for school that much faster--and it certainly didn't hinder anyone's personality from shining through. I think because such a fuss was made about such a little thing as a dress code, we all knew what a big deal they would make of any serious behavioral problems.

Maryn said:

The uniform, a knee-length pleated plaid skirt and a white man-tailored shirt, sweater optional, seemed so sexless, but the stuff Joy did to make it look hot was nothing short of amazing.

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The only thing you need to do to the Catholic school-girl uniform to make it look hot is to put the girl in it.

ugggghhh

I abhor the use of the uniform. The very word speaks of suppressing individuality and creativity. It's sickening and repulsive and nothing short of a control mechanism.
When I went to Catholic school I had to wear the customary plaid dress that never fit me right year after year. I remember the last year I went to Catholic school and how super tight my uniform was that year because we were too poor to get a new one and, unfortunately for me, it was also the year my body started to grow in new ways.
My son's former school (he went to a new one this year because of learning disabilities and bullies combined) went to a uniform last year because of the gang problems in our area. It didn't help. There are still gangs in our area and forcing them to dress like "their enemies" is not going to change anything except force them to be extremists whilst not in school.
My daughter has to go there next year. Guess I have to shell out money for uniformic wear since she won't wear the ones her brother wore. Who can blame her really? She's turning 12 and just starting to realize who she is as a person to the rest of the world.
I guess that means I have to buy more 20$ polos and 15$ kakhis (which she's always hated by the way). She can't wear them everyday so I guess that'll be at least 100$ for a set of shirts and 75$ for a set of pants. I don't even spend 10$ on shirts for myself much less them...and nothing comes of it. The poorest ones I think are hit with this d***ed conforming c*** and expense. People who can afford better schools really aren't interested in the whole "let's try to be like everyone else so we can get along" game. They can afford to move and change schools at will.
Gangs to them are a distant problem. How little do they know that it is much closer underfoot than they think.
I don't even want to get into the whole problem of laundry and time to do it when you don't have a machine in the house.
So there you go. My feelings on the whole deal...and I thank God everyday that he brought me to a decent job where I can wear what I like as long as it's clean and not skimpy.
Though I find they don't say anything about skimpy on days when they're doing the same cause the air conditioning is broken.

Carrie

I did a brief newspaper piece on the subject when a local public school switched to school uniforms. Frankly, the principal was manipulative in the way she presented the matter to parents, but any way you cut it, in a popular vote of the parents and the teachers, there was overwhelming support. The reasons were numerous; I'm sure you've seen them all examined in your research. Parents and teachers tended to like them because they made things both simpler and less expensive. (Yes, usually less expensive -- most kids seem to spend a great deal more on what they wear to school than the extremely affordable school uniforms.) The school system wanted to be very careful not to put an unnecessary financial burden on lower-income parents (the school has a lot of economically disadvantaged students), so they found a variety of ways to make sure that those who could not afford the uniforms were provided with them. It's an elementary school, so gangs aren't a serious problem yet.

Those who opposed to the change mostly did so with more heat than light; they ranted ineffectually, but never developed a clear argument to answer the strong majority of those in favor of uniforms and their arguments. The biggest opposition seemed to be due to the slick (and perhaps marginally dishonest) way the principal ram-rodded the whole thing through.

I don't think anyone seriously believed that their children would be any less individuals for wearing, say, a red shirt and khaki slacks like all the other kids instead of a football jersey and saggy bluejeans, or whatever the style du jeur was, like all the other kids; some people who seemed to be opposed for various other reasons (mostly a personal dislike for the principal, as best as I could tell) did bring this up. But proponents countered with the fact that this actually had the effect of bluring the distinctions between the kids who had more money or were "cooler," thus making it more likely that children would be looked at based on their own personality and actions rather than whether they were dressed to fit a particular steriotype.

Carrie Ann Eggert said:

I guess that means I have to buy more 20$ polos and 15$ kakhis (which she's always hated by the way). She can't wear them everyday so I guess that'll be at least 100$ for a set of shirts and 75$ for a set of pants. I don't even spend 10$ on shirts for myself much less them...and nothing comes of it. The poorest ones I think are hit with this d***ed conforming c*** and expense. People who can afford better schools really aren't interested in the whole "let's try to be like everyone else so we can get along" game. They can afford to move and change schools at will.

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Most schools have a donation stock for poorer students, which they check out and return on a regular basis.

Minister said:

I don't think anyone seriously believed that their children would be any less individuals for wearing, say, a red shirt and khaki slacks like all the other kids instead of a football jersey and saggy bluejeans, or whatever the style du jeur was, like all the other kids; some people who seemed to be opposed for various other reasons (mostly a personal dislike for the principal, as best as I could tell) did bring this up. But proponents countered with the fact that this actually had the effect of bluring the distinctions between the kids who had more money or were "cooler," thus making it more likely that children would be looked at based on their own personality and actions rather than whether they were dressed to fit a particular steriotype.

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This is absolutely true.
The whole "blunting personality" argument is nonsense. In German non-uniform high schools the kids all wore the same stuff anyway. Certainly, neither I nor my children had our peronsalitiesd changed or obliterated by wearing a uniform!
In england, uniforms for poor families are ridiculously cheap. Like, £2 for a white shitrt or £3 for a jumper.
At my kids expensive independent school there is a lot of cjhoice. Girls wear kilts and can choose between two patterns, plus a coloured three-quarter sleeved blouse; they can choose the colour, and the colour of their jumper, and whether they wear it tucked in or outside the kilt. And whatever shoes they like, as long as it was the right shape and colour, and no high heels.
Boys wear trousers of any dark colour and shirts of just about any colour, and regulation ties. So it is really more of a guideline to keep them looking smart. And looking smnart on the outside keeps you smart on the inside, I am convinced.
IN sixth form girls get to wear trousers.

High School Gym class we were given ONE uniform: a T-shirt and shorts. I didn't take it home to wash between two classes, once. I was told by the instructor, as I was pulled off to the side, that I should take it home and get it washed. There were complaints from others. lol, I knew there would be. There was a whole croud of people running behind me to stay away from the smell, it reeked so bad. I remember taking it out from the locker and, once I got past the smell, I thought to myself, "I should ask how badly they wish to stick to the unifrom rule." Then, I thought, "Nah, people who bring notes for sprained ankles still have to get dressed for gym class and sit on the sidelines. If this is the only unifrom they are going to issue to me, they can deal with the smell!" Heh, I'm sure they didn't think about it that way but I sure did! I was always making "statements" no one else got but me. Many will never understand alarge portion of my life...

I seriously doubt the male species spends LESS by getting uniforms. Young women... well, that's slightly more believable. I can't believe how much the skimpy stuff costs! Slightly off-topic here but I do not desire being forced to wear a hat at jobs that required them. Some people paid for doctor's excuses in order to stop wearing them at one of my previous employers and I should point out that the managers never did wear them. I never did get the Doctor's Note myself, but I could have had one for free... Those caps could be very uncomfortable at times... And another employer required Khaki pants. The first time I bought those, they were the most expensive pair of street clothes I'd ever bought! I learned quickly what Khaki was and where to get it cheaper. All my slacks were black at the time. I never even understood the Khaki one. It doesn't hide pizza sauce well and no one stands in a storm of white flour that much. For the small amount of people (2?)who do slop flour off on themselves, kneeding dough, who sees them in the kitchen?

My kids' school is contemplating uniforms as we speak. I am completely opposed to the idea.
Our old school system had them; they were the "khaki pants/skirt and polo in either navy or pale blue" style. If you have a kid who's a messy eater (like most early elementary grade kids I know), the polo is grease stained in a week. Shirts with a pattern or a design on the front don't show that kind of stuff. The uniforms also never go on sale around here, but I can buy other clothes for my kids on sale all the time (I've bought shirts for my daughter for less than $2 at Target). And any administrator who thinks kids can't tell who has money and who doesn't just because they're all wearing blue is out of his/her mind.
But my biggest problem is that my daughter has Asperger's, and is faceblind. She's also a bully magnet. When half the school has brown hair and brown eyes, and they're all wearing khaki and blue, how does she identify the fifth grader who's picking on her in the parent pick up line? "Um...it's one of those seventy-three kids over there. Dunno which one."

Those people who think uniforms sap individuality--what about people in the army, police, firefighters, paramedics, flight attendants, pilots, employees of some stores, banks, car dealerships, mechanics? Are they all robots? Nope, they are individuals. The children in the school in which I worked were certainly individuals. They were intelligent, stupid, kind, bullies, the-girl-most-likely-to, the boy-who-already-did, bold, shy . . . but they wore uniforms. They behaved better when in them (usually!) and were easy to spot when on a school outing. Just write your name on the tag, that's all I ask. Four hundred blue sweatshirts with the school insignia are hard to tell apart in the lost and found.

Jenan, I can see how your daughter would be somewhat hampered by the uniform scenario and I sympathise. Funnily, I could tell the kids apart better when they were in uniform than when they were in mufti. But then, I'm just weird.