AS I SEE IT

Can we make our kids uniform?

Here I go again, putting my foot in my mouth. I've been thinking about all this talk on requiring students in the public schools to wear uniforms. Well in case you're interested, I am “agin” it.

I know the proponents of uniforms for students are earnestly seeking alternate means of restoring better discipline in the schools. This problem is not unique to our locality. It is nationwide. But I have heard enough horror stories from educators to know that disruptive manners and behavior of students present a real problem, and I sympathize; but I believe this “uniform” idea is just grasping at straws.

We've all heard theorists contend that the wearing of uniforms by students reduces disciplinary problems, but evidence is scanty.

My opposition to this change is primarily intuitive, gut instinct. I do speak from experience, however, having, along with their father, brought up five kids through socially tumultuous times. The kids in my eldest child's generation went through the ordeals of fighting to be allowed to wear blue jeans to school. She was in seventh or eighth grade when kids were lobbying for that, and they won.

Her brother, two years younger, helped break our hometown in to the long-hair scene. He suffered for it though. Teachers thought he was rebellious because of his shoulder-length locks. He washed it every day and kept it neat, but that wasn't enough. He actually had teachers single him out as a rebel. A bright kid, he fulfilled their expectations - and worried his parents - through his writing of controversial editorials for the school paper and as commencement speaker. His father had to help him tone down his speech a bit, but we both still held our breath when he got up before the microphone that night of graduation. It came off without shock.

It isn't easy being a kid these days. And neither is it easy being a parent, or grandparent - or teacher, for that matter. Society-at-large doesn't make it easy. There are so many double standards today, regarding morals, appropriate behavior ... and apparel.

But “what can I wear to school today?” is an important issue with kids, especially adolescents. They establish their identity that way. Oh some of it is shocking, all right. Some of us never get used to seeing kids with pink, blue or green hair. It doesn't change who they are necessarily, but it can, I think, change the attitude toward them of some people of authority, and I believe a child's sensing of the disapproval in cases like that are part of their backlash.

Now I do believe a workable dress code could be designed. There are limitations of appropriateness and decency, in my opinion. School administrators should be allowed to send a student home for a change of apparel if certain standards are violated. And even though rings on eyelids, nose septums, lips, tongues, navals etc., and tattoos anywhere on the anatomy, do seem senseless to me, I believe parents of minors should be the final authority. You do see adults, professionals and youthful idols, sporting these accoutrements. (People of my generation who got themselves tattooed decades ago have since rued the day. I fear today's “tattooees” will see the same.)

But then, maybe adorning their bodies this way is a means for kids to make statements, establish who they are, even release pent-up emotion, or possibly just prove they are cool, fitting in with the crowd. Whatever. Do we have a right to try to “cookie-cut” our youth? Do we have a right to tell them what they have to wear? Isn't that robbing them of their individuality? Isn't harnessing them just one more step in depersonalizing them? Hitler put uniforms on his youth and yes, he did get discipline. In a democracy, however, does not the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness apply to all of us? Even youth?

Some psychologists advise allowing small children to pick their own clothing, mismatches and all, in order to teach them the art of independence, self assertion and confidence.

Isn't depersonalization part of today's problem, especially with youth? So many of our youth are passed over anyway, by parents in too big a hurry, teachers with too much to do, studies that are so overwhelming that mastering them seems hopeless. Life today tends to make us just another number anyway, and if we're all forced to dress alike, isn't that regimentation akin to watering down who we are?

So, in my mind, requiring uniforms for students would not justify the desired objective. It might seem effective for a time, but here's betting, down the line, it would be one of those educational experiments that seemed so right at the time, but was eventually discarded.

So then, mightn't it be more expedient to turn our attention to the real issues of society, like provision of functional homes, responsible parenting, upgraded media quality, wholesome values and respectful treatment of others? Then we can see what that does for our kids.

Harriett Gustason
19 January 2006

http://www.journalstandard.com/articles/2006/01/18/daily_features/pulse/features01.txt

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