The Dress Code Dilemma

It is a Friday afternoon and a group of students are staring at the clock in their classroom. The class began only three minutes ago, so staring at the clock may not be the most heartening pastime. As the teacher begins monotonously to call roll and occasionally look up at the students, there is a sudden silence. When the teacher looks up for the fifteenth time, she notices a girl in the third row who is not wearing a collar. In the matter of seconds, the girl finds herself on her way to the Head Master’s office. Although she thinks her shirt was dress code, her “collarless-ness” ultimately costs her an entire half hour of class and an hour of detention after class. 

Two major reasons for the existence of dress codes are to prepare students for the dress requirement expected of them once they enter the workforce and minimize the appearance of economic inequality among students. However, restrictions on students' clothing are often unclear, frustrating, and are unfairly applied more stringently to female students than male students. Since the negative effects of a dress code outweigh its benefits, dress codes should be abolished in schools.   

First, the dress code is unclear for those who must follow it: the students. A set of rules created by adults cannot encompass every single article of clothing available on the market for students. Certain articles of clothing are not clearly banned by the school dress code. In these situations, students spend too much time trying to figure out whether something they want to wear is appropriate. This is a clear waste of time that piles up over time and can become a real problem. In addition, this confusion leads to situations where students are punished for misinterpreting the code rather than intentionally transgressing it. For example, at my school, the administration recently decided to get rid of the collar requirement for girls’ shirts. However, girls who decided to take advantage of this new rule and wear plain t-shirts to school were punished for transgressions of the dress code even though they honestly believed that their shirts fit the requirement.

Second, since dress codes are also unclear for the teachers, they make singular verdicts about transgressions based on their own understanding of the dress code. In this system, teachers and administrators are more likely to be subjective; they might consciously or unconsciously favor students they like and punish others. In most cases, teachers who have a good relationship with a certain student are more likely to look the other way when that student’s outfit does not adhere to the dress code. This means that the dress code is not applied universally, which only causes more confusion. The students are at the mercy of the teachers; some students can get away with what they are wearing whereas some are caught and punished.

Furthermore, dress codes are frustrating and put too much attention on clothing rather than learning. Dress codes distract from more important rules. All conventions in a school should be created to foster education and ensure the safety of students. However, dress codes ultimately fail at both of these. They fail to foster education because they take time away from the classroom. Students who are caught breaking the dress code lose precious time dealing with the consequences of the infraction. For example, the average student at my school will spend ten minutes trudging up to the fifth floor Head Master’s office, fifteen to thirty minutes discussing their dress code infraction with an administrator, and an hour translating the dress code during detention the same day. That is an hour and a half wasted on someone’s clothing. Dress code infractions also take time away from teachers who, instead of measuring the capacity of their students, have to measure the length of a skirt.

Contrary to popular belief, dress codes backfire by putting an emphasis on fashion rather than learning. In a school that values education and learning, the students have already internalized proper school values and do not need external restrictions to keep them focused on learning. Dress codes do not guarantee academic productivity, but actually take time away from learning and overshadow important safety regulations in schools.    

Finally, school dress codes are sexist and are disadvantageous to female students. Dress codes for girls contain more restrictions and more guidelines than those for boys. Across schools in the United States, “guys can basically wear whatever they want as long as it doesn’t promote drugs or alcohol” whereas girls “have to make sure [their] clothes aren’t too tight, [they] don’t stand out, that [they’re] not too revealing or appealing to men”. Dress codes aggravate gender inequality by forcing girls to alter their wardrobe in order to create an optimal learning environment for the male students. Dress codes aim to keep boys “focused” at the expense of the girls’ freedom of expression. They bring even more attention to the fact that girls’ bodies are overly sexualized from a young age by highlighting the need for modesty.

In a larger sense, dress codes tell girls that their education is less important than a boy’s education by punishing them whenever their clothing is too “revealing” or “distracting”. If schools are supposed to prepare students for their future in the workforce, they should be teaching boys professionalism instead of shaming girls. Girls should not be held responsible when boys are “distracted” by an exposed shoulder or knee. In the status quo, dress codes remove girls from the classroom in order to avoid a situation where a boy could potentially be distracted by a revealing outfit. Girls should not be robbed of class time while their male peers are exempt from taking any responsibility. In addition, teachers and administrators are more stringent when interpreting the dress code for girls than those for boys. Girls, on average, get sent home or sent to the administration offices for dress code infringements more often than boys do. Girls are outside the classroom for periods of time because of their wardrobe choices while the boys remain in a learning environment at all times.

School dress codes are ineffective, time-consuming, and biased. Therefore, in schools where students have already internalized proper educational values, dress codes should be abolished. On the other hand, in schools where there is a history of behavioral problems or where students do not understanding the school’s purpose, there should be a standard uniform instead of a dress code policy. These changes to school policies would abolish the confusion surrounding clothing choices for students and ensure that students maximize their productivity at school.