School uniforms | Teen Ink

School uniforms

August 27, 2009
By Anonymous

Parents always talk about how If schools had uniforms, everything would be so much eisier. You wouldn't get caught up on looks and would learn the skills you need. I disagree with this, I think that school uniforms would put a restriction on our creativity. We dress the way we do for a certain reason.
Clothes give us expression and the ability to use color and patterns. The first impression we get of people is usually clothes, facial expression and language. If we all wear the same thing we don't get to really see what people are like on the inside. Usually girly girls wear pink and frilly things. Skaters wear baggy pants and goth usually wear black. Clothes don't distract us form learning the studies we need to, it simply lets us inspire our imaginations and lights up our worlds.
putting school uniforms into order would probably make us rebell against it and we would only be able to express our creativity in things like art and music. Because of the current economic situation most art and music programs are being cut from schools because there is simply not eneough money to support them.



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This article has 240 comments.


on Oct. 21 2011 at 12:10 pm
AmayaSakaruta, Borger, Texas
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From out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, i thank whatever gods may be, for my unconquerable soul. -William Earnest Henley
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. -the Bible

i agree with what you're saying, but you didn't really use very original points...

pumpkin said...
on Oct. 20 2011 at 12:32 pm
i went to a school w/ uniforms to and it sucked,i agree because we couldn`t expree who we are or any thing

on Oct. 20 2011 at 8:04 am
I feel that this article is based very strongly on stereotypical and cliched information. "Girly girls usually wear pink..." The "girly girls" at my school all dress differently, it's not the clothing that makes the person, it's the personality. I also feel that the "limiting creativity" shpiel is very overused. Uniforms would not limit creativity, and have nothing to do with the cutting of art programs. I see where you are comign from, but this is very underdeveloped.

Chffhjjb said...
on Sep. 8 2011 at 12:53 pm
Chffhjjb,
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
I agree to a certain extent. I go to a uniformed school and people still judge you on what you wear (how short/long/tight your skirt is etc). Truth is people will judge because it's their nature, having a uniform won't create a feeling of togetherness or equality as having a hierarchy of some sort is programmed into us.

on Sep. 6 2011 at 11:38 pm
pageturner PLATINUM, Brooklyn, New York
34 articles 0 photos 94 comments

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It's okay to daydream.. just as long as you get to do some of those daydreams.

 

I don't personally have a uniform at my school. Just a dress code that a lot of people break. But I do have friends who went to a private school with uniforms, and they said the uniforms weren't too bad. But I'd still like the freedom of figuring out what acessories to wear with my outfit.


on Sep. 6 2011 at 8:36 pm
writingmagic26 BRONZE, Eureka, Missouri
2 articles 0 photos 34 comments
I agree with what you say, having to wear uniforms all throughout elementary school myself, but in some ways, uniforms just aren't reasonable.  For example, their cost.  Uniforms cost a loooooot of money.  And because of this, big families tend to only have one or two uniform pieces per kid.  But, yeah, other than that, uniforms were fine.  I mean, people found their own ways to stand out: how they did thier hair, their bracelets, earings.  But now that I do wear my own clothes now, I do feel a little more free and conifdent in school.

Katie1234 GOLD said...
on Sep. 5 2011 at 5:18 pm
Katie1234 GOLD, Velva, North Dakota
10 articles 0 photos 77 comments

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"When life becomes more than you can stand; fall to your knees"
"To be normal is to be boring."
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"Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God because He said so."
"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

I have to kindly disagree. I went to a school with uniforms, and all of the students there found their own way to stick out. Clothes are not the only way to be an individual. 

 

On the contrary to what you have said here, we did become more distracted on out few free dress days. People separated out into their cliques, and became much more rude. We tried to believe that it didn't affect us, but it really did. 

 

Getting dressed is not an art form. There are so many ways to stick out and be an individual without wearing differently dressed. 

 

Also: art forms express who we are without forcing us to divided.


on Aug. 26 2011 at 6:35 am
Ayushi_austen BRONZE, Kolkata, Other
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hey holla....4m wer did countries come in?? dis ws just a discussion on clothing?? y do we hav 2 bring our countries in b/w??

on Aug. 15 2011 at 9:52 pm
crazychick SILVER, Norwich, Connecticut
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I think school uniforms would be a good idea in school, now before you rant and rave at me hear me out. Our society is all about image esspecially in high school it is a huge distraction for me and others even if you dont want to admit it you know its true. School uniforms would help the self esteme of teens and increase concentation on school work.

on Aug. 15 2011 at 9:47 pm
ohheyyyelli SILVER, Woonsocket, Rhode Island
5 articles 3 photos 178 comments

*Also:

With uniforms, you let your personality show your creativity.


on Aug. 15 2011 at 9:43 pm
ohheyyyelli SILVER, Woonsocket, Rhode Island
5 articles 3 photos 178 comments
I think you kind of disproved your point by saying "usually girly girls wear pink and frilly things. Skaters wear baggy pants and goth usually wear black." That is called judging people, by what they look like on the outside.

on Aug. 15 2011 at 8:48 pm
Lola_Black GOLD, Harrison, Michigan
11 articles 2 photos 276 comments

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"I've always been famous. It's just everybody's just now finding out." --Lady Gaga

I actually wouldn't mind wearing a school uniform. That way, we wouldn't have to spend so much time picking out outfits, and nobody would get picked on for their clothes, as RockGirl182 mentioned. But, that's just my opion. I'm very creative, so uniforms just seem to me like a challenge, not a restriction. Besides, I've always loved those cute plaid skirts! But that aside, your writing was okay. There were a few misspelled words and grammar issues. If you just fix that up, that makes your writing look so much smarter, making people take you more seriously.

on Aug. 15 2011 at 1:48 pm
just-another-url GOLD, Cannes, Other
16 articles 6 photos 151 comments

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"It's a good thing to be strange. Normalness leads to sadness." -Philip Lester

I go to a private school but we don't have to wear uniforms. The problem is that most of the kids are rich and buy really expensive cloths when others such as myself don't have that kind of money to spend on an outfit. That isn't really the problem, it's that the richer students make fun of us if we are wearing Target instead of D&G. I think that school uniforms would help and wouldn't stop us from being unique. Just my opinion :)

on Aug. 6 2011 at 1:06 pm
andromeda13 SILVER, Barrie, Other
8 articles 0 photos 174 comments
i agree with most of ur piont but i kind of enjoy the morning hassle too find something i like, it gives me the chance too be creative, and i wouldn't want someone too take that away

on Jul. 24 2011 at 11:58 pm
firelord SILVER, Queensbury, New York
8 articles 0 photos 22 comments

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"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference." -Robert Frost

I don't think I'd wear a uniform even if my school did enforce it. But if I had to, I'm pro at finding lupoles :D

on Jul. 24 2011 at 3:50 pm
CupcakeSaffy PLATINUM, Cochrane, Other
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"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away."

Sorry, but I've gotta admit that I really miss having uniforms at school. In my last uniformed school, the rules were strict about uniform but you still had the freedom to make your tie short and fat or long and thin, or to secretly have your shirt untucked at the back (until you got caught). Earrings and bags were another expressive thing. So you can be creative with them, but all in all, wearing uniforms is a lot easier because it stops that agonizing morning routine of searching through your entire house for something good enough to wear that your peers will accept you in. Wearing your own clothes means that you have to have enough different outfits to not be considered dirty, whereas if you have a uniform, you can wear the same pair of pants twice and no one knows. Also, without a uniform, certain non-official uniforms are formed by students anyway, if you want to feel like you fit in, which many self-concious teens need to. I liked your opinion piece, but I thought I'd add my side of the topic too. =P

on Jul. 22 2011 at 2:04 am
gaffyninja SILVER, Doha, Other
7 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
Fettucini alfredo is macaroni and cheese for adults.
- Mitch Hedberg

If not for uniforms, you wouldn't have met a lot of good people isn't it ? A uniform is more than just weird clothes that everyone in a school wears, instead, it has it's own way of expressing things. It's an embodiment of all the values that are taught in a school, stitched together to provide a sense of belonging and unifmormity among the students. However big your school might be, it makes you believe that you're a part of something. When it comes to wearing your own clothes, school isn't the only place to express you're creativity isn't it ? Expressing creativity shouldn't be confined inside the walls of school. That should be for the rest of the world to see.

on Jul. 5 2011 at 5:05 pm
radicalhonesty GOLD, Alpharetta, Georgia
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I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to sound snobbish or anything, I'm actually sort of jealous your article got this popular. None of mine are. I respect your opinion, guess I just felt too strongly about mine :) I just did a debate about this so I just had alot of reasons. Great job :)

on Jul. 4 2011 at 7:49 pm
Emma.H.96 DIAMOND, Kalamazoo, Michigan
65 articles 0 photos 67 comments

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hey I really appriciate your opinion as I do everyones but I really don't appreciate you trying to make me feel bad about writing this or feel as if I should 'edit and revise'. This was the first artivle I wrote one day at a library and I hadn't intended it to get this popular. My editing has nothing to do with the statement I make on my opinion so don't comment on it unless you have good intentions towards me. Thank you.

on Jul. 3 2011 at 7:08 pm
Thoreau420 SILVER, Martinsburg, West Virginia
7 articles 0 photos 39 comments

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"Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is its destruction." - Bob Marley

I go to a private school where we have to wear a kind of uniform. Button up shirts, a tie, a jacket, that sort of thing. while it does hinder creativity, it does help us break out of the clique style of High School. If I had gone into my school looking for friends by the way they were dressed, I would be left without any. Without the pre-seperation of cliques holding me back, I found some pretty cool friends I never would of talked too. However, I do hate that I can't just dress how I wish, if not for creativity then for convinience. You take the good with the bad I guess.