School uniforms

[Tarelenion]

So, what do you think about school uniforms?

 

If you have to much time and no hobby, please reply:

 

1. Who are you(student, teacher, third party)

2. What would you like about school uniforms

3. What would you not like about school uniforms

4. What is your preference, School uniform yes or no?

[Galactic Turtle]

1. Who are you(student, teacher, third party)

 

Third party but, as for most people, I used to be a student.

 

2. What would you like about school uniforms

 

I like that it makes getting dressed in the morning easier and makes it so you don't need as many clothes.

 

3. What would you not like about school uniforms

 

Some components of my school's uniform were a bit expensive which caused trouble for my parents at initial investment.

 

4. What is your preference, School uniform yes or no?

 

I prefer having a uniform.

[Scottthespy]

1. A third party, but I did go to a uniform Junior High school, and non uniform schools for the rest of my years.

2. There are two pros to school uniforms. One is that a student doesn't have to spend effort worrying about what to wear in the morning- every one's wearing essentially the same thing, there's no subtle social competition for 'best dressed', no one can be mocked for the clothes they have access to, and you don't spend hours agonizing over your outfit the way nebulous dress code restrictions can make a person do. The other is that they do create a subconscious feeling of solidarity...we are of one group, we are together. It makes for a certain level of school spirit, pride in each other's accomplishments. While I'm not super stoked about creating 'in' and 'out' groups normally, for younger kids this can help develop empathy and cooperativeness.

3. Lack of personal expression, and they're typically expensive.

4. I honestly liked either. I feel that total freedom is nice, but uniforms had their upsides too. I very much dislike the halfway measure of restrictive dress codes though. They're usually poorly defined and too easy to interpret in ways that get students sent home or shamed.

[Grumpy Alien]

Meh. I’m none of the above. I went to a mixture of public and private schools in the US growing up. I only had a uniform for high school because the only high school in my town was a private Catholic school. So until I was 14, I just wore my normal clothes. In high school, the uniform sounded like a great idea. I didn’t plan outfits or rummage for clean matching clothes. But the uniform didn’t fit me right and wasn’t flattering. I had to wear skorts instead of skirts or pants/trousers, which were a nightmare. I never altered mine but got a few detentions over them being too short... because I had hips. I was thin at the time but curvy and I bought a size up but it still didn’t fall far enough down my leg to meet the requirement. But the stick thin girls who altered their skorts so their butt cheeks showed were somehow fine. The guys would always get hot year-round because of puberty and they’d open the windows even when it was snowing. Our sweaters were thin and itchy polyester knit and girls weren’t allowed to wear trousers. I would often be shivering throughout class. The uniforms were also ridiculously expensive for what they were and the only way to buy them was to go to Philly (an hour away) to their warehouse in an industrial park. It saved no money or hassle at all.

 

I’ve seen the uniforms here in England and they’re the most hideous garments I’ve ever seen. They can’t even wear regular shoes! Wtf is up with that?? I’m not against cheap uniforms but there’s gotta be something better than that. And why can’t they wear real shoes instead of the tiny old man atrocities?! I don’t understand 

[blunose2772]

1. Who are you(student, teacher, third party)

 

Third party but a former student

 

2. What would you like about school uniforms

 

Not sure if it still applies today but when I was in school someone's fashion sense (or lack thereof) was a major thing that led to bullying and other forms of peer abuse. It would be great to at least eliminate one thing from that equation

 

 

3. What would you not like about school uniforms

 

Granted for lower income families it would be a bit more of a financial stressor but I'm sure something could be figured out. 

 

 

4. What is your preference, School uniform yes or no?

 

Yes

[Red Ivy]

I've never had to wear a uniform at any of my schools but I don't think I would like it much since in my experience they tend to be pretty unnecessarily gendered. 

[Forest Spirit]

13 hours ago, Tarelenion said:

So, what do you think about school uniforms?

 

If you have to much time and no hobby, please reply:

 

1. Who are you(student, teacher, third party)

2. What would you like about school uniforms

3. What would you not like about school uniforms

4. What is your preference, School uniform yes or no?

1. third party, 24yo so was in school not long ago

2. reduces the stress of what to wear and to have clothes that are "in" (in order to fit in, not be judged for your clothes). They can look nice imo

3. if they're made out of bad material or look really bad, if you can't choose any component yourself (like shoes or choosing between trousers and a skirt, ecc)

4. yes, to an extend. A uniform that can still be partially personalised sounds good to me

 

Mind I've never had to wear one (it's not normal where I grew up) so this is all just hypothetical. But I often wished we had one as I was never good with clothes (my "style", in the broadest of meanings, only really developed in the past couple of years)

 

 

[Skycaptain]

Third party. Living in a country where uniforms are uniform 😋😋, I see two sides. On one hand, there's less pressure for one-upmanship for children to have the latest designer gear, and it might help maintain discipline on the commute. 

However they do seem to be generally crap. Either colours no sensible person would be seen dead in, very olde-worlde, or trying too hard to be youthful 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

On one hand, there's less pressure for one-upmanship for children to have the latest designer gear,

I know a fellow who grew up in pre-90s Bulgaria who said basically the same thing. No one could brag about having a rich daddy as he put it. Besides, many of those “designer” clothes are glorified rags to me.

[Guest]

1. 3rd party

2. They take away a lot of the pressure to be fashionable or wear designer brands. 

3. They can be a major financial burden on poor families. They are also often gendered or impractical (it was for some reason a big things in the news a year or so ago when during a heatwave a bunch of boys when to school in skirts because they weren't allowed to wear shorts).

4. Having attended what seem like some of the only schools is the UK to not have uniforms (they are very much the norm here), and being painfully oblivious to fashion and social norms, I would have much preferred to wear a uniform. So I'll say yes.

[Gloomy]

I had to wear one in 5th grade because that year the principal decided to implement them. 10 year old Gloomy thought they were dumb and 29 year old Gloomy still thinks they’re dumb and just another way to teach kids conformity and obedience.

[GingerRose]

Uniforms are for jobs. I need that self expression!

[J. van Deijck]

Third party and never. It's enough I have to wear uniform in my workplace, I'm happy I never had to do it in my school years

[everywhere and nowhere]

Third party and I never wore a school uniform as such in any school*. Although, when I was starting school (1988, in communist Poland shortly before the transition to democracy... which we are now losing again...), there was the idea of "gala colours" - no predetermined uniform, but the idea was that colours appropriate for school are black, white, blue, particularly navy blue, at most also brown and violet... but no red, yellow and so on. Later it was reduced to special days only (opening and closing of school year, exams etc.) and yet later it completely stopped being expected.

*I went to four schools altogether, including university - when I was a student, the division was into primary school for grades 1-8 and secondary school for grades 9-12. In some areas, including my neighbourhood, it was also customary to separate smaller children by creating schools for grades 1-3 only. My schools were: grades 1-3, 9-12 and university - state-owned; grades 4-8 - so called community school - paid, but non-commercial (all tuition fees are spent only on school functioning and are also typically lower than in purely private schools.

 

I'm against school uniforms because, as a chronically ill and nudity-averse person, I know that they aren't as non-problematic as people often assume.

1. Nudity aversion - in my case it goes much deeper: I'm not just "NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!" about exposing intimate body parts, but also very uncomfortable with exposing, for example, legs above the bottom 1/4. Guess what, girls' skirts in school uniforms are usually just a tiny bit below the knee. School uniforms are regarded very non-sexy, and yet for me even they are too skimpy...
2. And what about girls who hate skirts in general and just feel uncomfortable wearing them?
3. And what about trans students? Remember that not everywhere they are supported. I know of very few cases in Poland when trans students were allowed to function in their preferred gender. (One case has been quite famous: little Bartek, a trans boy yet in kindergarten age - althhough, now he should probably already be starting school. His mother had him diagnosed and then asked the teachers at his kindergarten to refer to him as Bartek. The headmistress kept making obstructions, expecting all possible extra tests and certificates - and in general, there are no established procedures for trans minors in Poland! It is all a matter of good will! Later someone probably denounced the boy's mother to the family court, that she's supposedly abusing him by not forcing him to live as a girl - however, this ended well, the court decided that she's a very good mother and there is no legal basis to reduce her parental rights.)
4. As far as I know, school uniforms often contain wool - a fibre I'm very much allergic to.

One size doesn't fit all.

[Rin G. Ito]

(third party)

 

When I used to go to school (high

school) my family never allowed me to wear different clothes to class, since I can "just pretend it's a uniform". It was always the same jacket every. single. day. and I could mostly only change it seasonally. That pretty much had an impact in my self confidence and self image since I was looking at everyone around me wearing nice clothes while I was just stuck with the same jacket because of my family. 

 

In my middle school we had a uniform, but it wasn't strict, it was just shirt and pants. For girls who didn't want to wear pants (mostly for religious reasons) they were allowed to wear long skirts instead of the same color. 

 

 

So I'm definitely with the uniform idea, but make it a bit loose so people can adjust the said uniform as they like.

[everywhere and nowhere]

5 hours ago, Lin G. said:

For girls who didn't want to wear pants (mostly for religious reasons) they were allowed to wear long skirts instead of the same color. 

I personally believe that pants are very "modest": they make a woman more Sexually Inavailable. In fact I think that my asexuality is one of the reasons why I don't like wearing skirts - I prefer feeling Unaccessible. (I still wear them sometimes, but only very long and decorative ones - hippie style. But I vastly prefer pants; I may also wear shorter dresses with pants.)

[Rin G. Ito]

2 hours ago, Nowhere Girl said:

I personally believe that pants are very "modest": they make a woman more Sexually Inavailable. In fact I think that my asexuality is one of the reasons why I don't like wearing skirts - I prefer feeling Unaccessible. (I still wear them sometimes, but only very long and decorative ones - hippie style. But I vastly prefer pants; I may also wear shorter dresses with pants.)

I mean long skirts. A lot of times religious women in the middle east consider jeans and pants to take the shape of the body, and since their idea is not to cover the skin but rather the shape and the curves of the body which are being sexualized by society, they find long (like real long) skirts to be pretty modest. A lot of other women don't mind wearing pants though, so it really comes to the person's personal beliefs. 

[DarkStormyKnight]

Ugh never had a school uniform in my life and never want one thanks. I'd much rather wear what I want and would be most comfortable in.

[AceMissBehaving]

1: third party, but former student and someone who had to wear a uniform for 7 years growing up

 

2: I guess not having to pick out an outfit for the day

 

3: ooof where to begin? Having to wear a uniform and deal with strict uniform rules during important formative years I feel made the whole “figuring out who you” are stuff harder as you don’t get to try things out.

With uniforms it’s harder to match what we wore to the weather, harder to navigate sensory issues 

 

Uniforms are expensive. You still have to buy general clothes, and now specific items from specific stores for the uniform on top.

 

4: I would say no. Maybe I had a particularly bad experience with them because my school’s uniform rules were particularly strict. My experience was they didn’t solve any of the problems they were supposed to, and they stifle people at a key phase of development 

[J. van Deijck]

17 hours ago, Nowhere Girl said:

when I was a student, the division was into primary school for grades 1-8 and secondary school for grades 9-12.

For me it was already primary school 1-6, middle school 7-9, and then 4 years of technical high school. They briefly introduced uniforms when I was out and graduated.

[korik]

I never wore a uniform for any of my schooling, and I would have dropped out of school had I been required to. 

 

I have never worried about what to wear. I wore what I thought was comfortable. And I never got bullied for what I wore, even though I wore pretty stupid shit. - so I don't understand half the arguments here.

[Crystallux]

I never had to wear a school uniform, but just the idea is "ugh" to me. I obviously can't speak for cultural differences, but to me forcing students (especially young ones) to conform to all one look instead of expressing themselves is far too constraining. I find rules like "no hats indoors" or "no short shorts" bad enough as it is.

I was bullied for several things in school, but never my clothes. Harassers will always find something anyways, so I don't think taking away the choice of clothing is worth it.

 

1. Who are you(student, teacher, third party)

Third party

2. What would you like about school uniforms

Nothing.

3. What would you not like about school uniforms

No school uniform I've ever seen has been something I would want to wear.

4. What is your preference, School uniform yes or no?

No

[everywhere and nowhere]

Just out of curiousity: if some kind of uniform is required at some place (not just school) and someone is allergic to its components, what are the procedures for solving the problem?

I work at home, so I'm not subject to any dress code and I love colourful hippie clothes - but I'd also like to have a suit. I mean the kind of male clothes, just buttoned to the "female" side (I don't want to look as a woman dressed as a man, rather a woman dressed in male style - it's an obvious difference). And I'm allergic to both wool and polyester (generally my skin only tolerates plant-based fabrics without protest), so I'd need to have one made for me, preferably of gray corduroy and slightly lighter gray cotton cloth as lining...

[Guest]

Hmm, this is complicated for me... when I was younger, I thought that wearing an uniform would be good because it wouldn't show one's socio-economic status (yes, I was feeling hmm.... a little bit negatively, not that I have resented my parents for this, but because one could tell my socio-economic background was not quite good). However, I have realized that for some people clothes are away of expressing themselves and/or expressing their artistic feelings and then I thought that having uniforms was not so good. And later I have realized that clothes too are not such a good indicator for one's socio-economic background.

[Gloomy]

I grew up kind of on the poor side and had little to no fashion sense until I was around 14, but I still hated uniforms. In elementary school I actually had this red hoodie that was so old it had holes I could put my thumbs through that weren't there when it was bought. I actually loved that hoodie because it was comfy and I thought it looked cool to put my thumbs through the holes. I definitely preferred clothes like that over the stupid uniforms.

[Lie-RennyValkyrie_]

1. Who are you(student, teacher, third party)

Student with a uniform

2. What would you like about school uniforms

-They take away competition from students when it comes to clothes which might happen depends on students

-You don't have to figure out what to wear

- don't have to worry about looking trashy if you wear the basically same outfit everyday like I do 

-People can't judge you for your dress sense

-School pride, uniformity and recognition

3. What would you not like about school uniforms

-Often Gendered (Mine isn't but Uniform shop worker was super judgey at the idea of me wearing the opposite sex's pants because it was all they had second hand)

-Really expensive (I only own one of each item I wear because they are super expensive and my family isn't super low on money and most of my clothes are bought second hand)

-Often restricted to summer and winter which doesn't always match up with weather (Mine isn't but its the only school I know of that isn't)

-No choosing to wear what makes you comfortable 

-You can't just wear something else if it gets dirty or something

-You can't just put on a jacket/jumper or something if it gets too cold.

-Little personality in clothing

-We aren't allowed unnatural hair despite the fact two teachers have bright pink hair???? My friend got into trouble a few years ago for having dyed tips that were the exact same colour as the school dress so you couldn't even notice them from far away.

-Immediately noticeable as a school student

-If students do anything bad outside of school wearing it it reflects badly on the school.

4. What is your preference, School uniform yes or no?

I would rather no uniform but I can understand why we have it.

[morshmallow]

I guess I'm a third party? I'm in college, so it doesn't apply to me anymore, and I don't have kids.

 

I like that school uniforms have the opportunity to serve as an equalizer between kids in different economic classes, and I would like to remove the issue of fashion from the mind of any kid I end up raising. There are definitely ways that kids will manage to subvert these things though, with tailoring  and the like.

 

I don't like that school uniforms are so gendered. I would not like to battle the school over whether my kid gets to wear the uniform they want in the even that I end up with a trans kid. I also don't like forcing girls to wear skirts in general.

 

I guess I'm pro uniform? I don't really care, but I'm not against it.

[Acerna]

Student with a uniform (which wasn’t on poll), honestly don’t care or notice but the P.E. (every other day) uniform is a whole lot more comfortable. I wouldn’t care if it was comfortable 100% of the time, and we get days where we can wear our own clothes for $1. To be honest as someone who basically only wears random t-shirts and pants/shorts the uniform I like is basically that so I don’t mind them

 

formally amswering questions 

 

1. Who are you(student, teacher, third party)

Student

2. What would you like about school uniforms

To be comfortable all the time

3. What would you not like about school uniforms

My school’s aren’t gendered (as far as I know?) because I’m pretty sure anyone can wear the skirts that aren’t required but if they were, I would not like it and would probably throw them in the trash

4. What is your preference, School uniform yes or no?

If they’re comfortable and ungendered, sure, people don’t have to stress about wearing clothes. We all wear our own hoodies anyway so it’s not like there’s no self expression

[J. van Deijck]

On 11/27/2020 at 10:29 PM, korik said:

I never wore a uniform for any of my schooling, and I would have dropped out of school had I been required to. 

 

I have never worried about what to wear. I wore what I thought was comfortable. And I never got bullied for what I wore, even though I wore pretty stupid shit. - so I don't understand half the arguments here.

I was bullied a lot for what I was wearing, and look what happened

[daveb]

3 hours ago, Jelle van der Lee said:

I was bullied a lot for what I was wearing, and look what happened

You turned out awesome?