The Social Experiment On If Students Should Wear School Uniforms

Imagine being a parent with two children attending a private school. One a 14-year-old male freshman and the other is a 17-year-old female junior. Then you hear that they will now have to be required to wear uniforms to school every day, does that not concern you at all? Others think that uniforms will improve attendance, enhance academics, and encourage discipline. Uniforms should not be required because they do not affect academics in a positive way which also means they are not effective and do not allow teens to self-express who they really are which can lead to insecurity and bullying. Uniforms also are also a challenge to purchase for some families.

Uniforms have no positive impact on academics. Many others have said uniforms help with academic achievement. David L. Brunsma, research at the University of Missouri concluded that there was no direct correlation between the use of uniforms and improvements behavioral problems, school attendance, etc (Chittom). This thus indicates that uniforms do not help accomplish anything others have said uniforms would. Uniforms can actually harm education and student initiative. In the article, it says, “...uniforms may even be associated with a small detrimental effect on achievement in reading” (Chittom). This means that uniforms can be a vital aspect of the harmful effect on reading for some students. Uniforms can either do no damage and show no growth in academics or it can bring student’s academic achievements down.

Education is affected by uniforms and it is not effective. President Bill Clinton said in his State of Union speech that the use of uniforms could be the solution of violence in schools (Chittom). However, Clinton is wrong. School shootings have still preceded throughout the United States and just because of wearing uniforms and looking the same does not solve the violence at schools. There really is not big huge impact from wearing uniforms. A uniform wearing school in Nevada only increased by 0.01% and they're reading scores actually went down (Matthew). Uniforms do not curve violence or behavioral problems, and they do not increase academic achievement.

Another reason why uniforms should not be required to be worn is the student’s right to freedom of expression under the First Amendment is violated (Chittom). Wearing uniforms will not allow students to dress how they like and each individual has different personalities that can be revealed through the clothes that they wear. If everyone wears the same thing every day, students can’t be who they really are. Wearing uniforms hide the individuality of students and teens are at their age of trying to identify who they really are. For example, if students are interested in fashion and like to design their own clothing, they would come up with many designs on different articles of clothing and wear them to school to show all their peers their individuality and reveal what they're passionate about. Taking the right to self-expression from students is not only going to hold them back from who they really are but can also lead to low self-esteem.

Everyone has all different kinds of body shapes and skirts or certain uniforms can form insecurity in some students. Certain schools without a school uniform policy have a higher self-perception than those which forced students to wear uniforms (Wilde). Student’s self-esteem can be affected by wearing uniforms. Low self-esteem can also cause bullying. Students who are more down on themselves and don’t themselves for themselves are more prone to bullying. Jaana Juvonen, Professor of Developmental Psychology at UCLA, has done research about the connection of bullying and self-esteem. In her research it states, “Bullies are likely to have high levels of self-esteem and to be idealized at school by their peers. And a victim is almost always going to have low self-esteem and be less popular” (Wildt). These certain victims can develop low self-esteem by wearing uniforms that can make them feel very insecure about themselves.

Uniforms can be a financial burden to some families when going to a private school, like Maumee Valley. Since Maumee Valley is a private school, tuition is around $20,000 (Private School Review). Adding on to the $20,000 tuition, there are back to school necessities that need to be bought. School supplies average around $101.18, which includes backpacks, calculator costs, and also contains an average of around 18 items that will be needed (MetroKids). Some parents will purchase new back to school clothing for their children and the average money spent is $231.30 (MetroKids). Electronics, like computers, are also needed when going into high school which means about $221 will be paid (MetroKids). Overall, about $669.28 is spent per child (MetroKids). All these extra items that need to be purchased including the $20,000 tuition can put certain families in financial burden.

After hearing about all these costs that you have to pay, add the expense of uniforms on to your paycheck. Parents in the US spend about $1.3 billion on uniforms each year (Lynch). Uniforms can also be expensive depending on the number of uniforms purchased and fabric. About three uniforms cost about the same as one pair of designer pants (Hamilton 9). More and more parents are going into debt and uniforms are not going to help them at all. The responses of a survey done by The Children’s Society says, “13% of parents were getting into debt to cover costs of school uniform - up from 7% when the charity conducted the same survey in 2015” (The Children’s Society). This thus indicates the fact that certain parents are struggling finiacialy when it comes to purchasing uniforms for their children. Making uniforms mandatory is going to be a financial challenge for some families.

Did your imaginary two children really succeed through school wearing uniforms? Did they get bullied at all? Uniforms should not be required because they do not help with academics and they are not very effective. Self-expression is also prevented if uniforms were mandatory which can lead to any type of bullying. Also, certain families who are in financial struggle will have a hard time with uniforms. Therefore, uniforms should not be mandatory for students to wear at school daily.