School Uniforms

Although I have never really liked school uniforms, I don't consider them to be evil; I do, however, see them as a serious indicator of an institution's overall educational philosophy. If a school's administration believes that they have the right (and they might even see it as their duty to save children from themselves) to to narrowly restrict how children dress, then just imagine what they are doing with the curriculum. When a school tells a community that its students must dress a certain way, we should ask what that dress code reflects. If it simply restricts what can be worn, then the school also likely restricts what student's learn. One thing students learn from this is that their place in the world demands conformity to to a narrow set of rules to stay out of trouble, or rebel against conformity and suffer the consequences. If it offers offers clear guidelines with limited choices, then student likely learn a slightly less restricted curriculum, but their real choices life are still limited. When their are guidelines that are open to some interpretation, it places schools, students, and parents to reflect upon the values they wish to represent to the outside world; it creates an environment where everyone can express their views on appropriateness, manners, decorum, and self-respect. When communities create environments that encourage dialogue in the area of dress codes, then imagine the types of dialogues that happen in regard to the curriculum. We seldom see large numbers of successful students come from the most restrictive, least critical schools and there are many reasons for that, but if the overarching philosophy of those schools are to limit students from the moment they arrive, then they are doing a huge disservice to our society as a whole and one by one, they are dooming those children to a life of fewer and fewer options.