school uniforms

[ky]

[8D]do you think kids should have to wear uniforms? I think its okay you have to wear uniforms when you grow up and get a real job. or at least I have to wear scrubs.

[AMP]

We were required to wear a special blazer, tie and slacks at the private school I attended in Tulsa.  

Worse punishment was to have a teacher throw a chalk board eraser at you.  Left a big white mark on your jacket till you got it to the dry cleaners.

Never agreed with it, and they even enforced the dress code while borders and other day students were on campus.  

Never forget the night four of us were dissassemblying my Honda twin cylinder motorcycle engine on my study desk in my room in Driscoll Hall during Study Hall time.  The priest opened the door, and proclaimed, "May I remind you this is not an A&M school, I expect that mechanical device will be removed by tomorrow!"  

Before he left he checked the main caged roller bearings and suggested we replace the one that did not spin.  Never commented on the fact we were all wearing "off campus" Levis.  He was a pretty cool dorm-master.  

Thought the school uniforms were dumb then and I still do.  Guess if you are not an artist, producer, composer, entrepreneur or other free spirit, but an employee of some corporate run business, then perhaps a uniform of sorts is proper.  I never like wearing uniforms or dress suits much.  I avoid Weddings and Funerals due to that.

[Sangria]

I am for the school uniforms and for one reason only - safety.

Parents have given up or just don't care how their kids dress these days. Girls look like tiny little hookers and boys can't seem to figure out where their waist is.

Kids don't always know what's best for them. Sometimes they need guidence and protection. No one seems to want to step up.

It's just one more way parents have failed yet again in the parenting department.

[si_uk_lon_ok]

I think school uniforms are a great idea. In a school uniform everyone is equal, there are no labels and children are not divided by who can afford the latest clothes and who can't. I wore school uniforms and I know it saved my mum a fortune. It also helps you realise what is and isn't acceptable work wear, It's amazing that some of the people I have met who went to schools with no uniforms who still can't do decent tie knots.

[Conan71]

I spent my last three years of high school at a college prep school which required a blue blazer and tie.

At the time, it was expected you would wear a suit and tie or blazer and tie when you got out in the real world.  Now it seems like only lawyers or bankers wear ties, and it's even rare to see a male wear a tie in a "branch" bank.

Funny to think a college prep school is one of the "few" places to see a neck tie these days.

[Hometown]

I was kicked out of Nathan Hale because I refused to cut my hair.  Ended up at a private school for long-haired kids in Dallas.  Guess where I stand on uniforms.  These days we hold kids to a higher standard than we were.  Read – hypocrites.

It's a different story if there is a gang color issue going on.  That's a matter of safety.

[Steve]

quote:Originally posted by Hometown

I was kicked out of Nathan Hale because I refused to cut my hair.  Ended up at a private school for long-haired kids in Dallas.  Guess where I stand on uniforms.  These days we hold kids to a higher standard than we were.  Read – hypocrites.

It's a different story if there is a gang color issue going on.  That's a matter of safety.

I graduated from Hale in '75, just a few short years after you left.  By that time, all the boys there had shoulder-length hair, including myself.

I think the uniform issue is just a short-term fix to a longer-term problem.  The bigger issues are the rampant materialism of US society and the lack of parental discipline and parents supervision of the lives of children today.

You can't blame the kids, or the public schood system.  The slow demise of 2 parent households, kids being warehoused in daycare instead of being raised by their parents, etc.  I think we baby boomers and younger generations have been the worst parents on record.

[AMP]

Another result of the "Best Economy in 50 Years" syndrome.  Both parents required to work to make ends meet, or to stay ahead of the Joneses.  

Very few "Father Knows Best" families out there today.  Where the dad worked from 8am till around 5pm and arrived home to a wonderful home cooked meal prepared by a maid or perhaps his wife.  A meal where the entire family sat and ate and laughed and talked about spending their fortune on new cars, college education and vacations.

Today everyone in the household that is old enough to hold a job has one or perhaps two.  Gota keep the "Best Economy in 50 Years" rolling along at a brisk pace.

[Steve]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

Another result of the "Best Economy in 50 Years" syndrome.  Both parents required to work to make ends meet, or to stay ahead of the Joneses.  

Very few "Father Knows Best" families out there today.  Where the dad worked from 8am till around 5pm and arrived home to a wonderful home cooked meal prepared by a maid or perhaps his wife.  A meal where the entire family sat and ate and laughed and talked about spending their fortune on new cars, college education and vacations.

Today everyone in the household that is old enough to hold a job has one or perhaps two.  Gota keep the "Best Economy in 50 Years" rolling along at a brisk pace.

I can't argue with you, I think US society today is just the natural evolution of a capitalist economy.  Buy more, consume more, can't have enough, inflation, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the middle class disappears, etc.  There will be a breaking point I believe, probably not in my lifetime or our children's lifetime...

But I think I am getting too off topic here.  The school uniform requirement is probably not a bad thing, IMO, for a short term fix to a longer term, and much more complicated problem.

[jamesrage]

quote:Originally posted by ky

[8D]do you think kids should have to wear uniforms? I think its okay you have to wear uniforms when you grow up and get a real job. or at least I have to wear scrubs.

Yes I think kids should have to wear uniforms to school.School is a place for learning,not seeing who has what on.

[si_uk_lon_ok]

quote:Originally posted by jamesrage

quote:Originally posted by ky

[8D]do you think kids should have to wear uniforms? I think its okay you have to wear uniforms when you grow up and get a real job. or at least I have to wear scrubs.

Yes I think kids should have to wear uniforms to school.School is a place for learning,not seeing who has what on.

Crap, I'm agreeing with Jamesrage. I might as well kill myself now.

[SoonerRiceGrad]

I favor uniforms, because research proves that they create a consistent standard for all students attending a school. They increase a school's image. Inner city schools that have mandatory uniforms don't look as trashy, and the students feel like they are at a decent school, and not the Betty Ford Clinic.

It's a more respectable thing to do. Of course there are the kids that dress respectably anyway and get the short end of this stick, but the kids that act like retarded gangbangers really deserve uniforms.

[Hometown]

Choosing your own outfit is an opportunity to develop good judgment and an opportunity to express your individuality.  Kids that never have an opportunity to exercise judgment won't know what to do with it later in life.  

So some folks think kids today look funny.  Guess what, when my grandmother saw my mother in lipstick she thought that the young generation was in serious trouble.

And I'm old enough to remember when women weren't allowed to wear pants to work.  Imagine, today women brazenly don menswear and prance about in public.

How about matching hospital gowns for nursing home patients?  That's right you old boomers; get ready for nursing home uniforms.  And keep that hair above the collar.

[RecycleMichael]

Funny you should mention "hair above your collar".

When I was in high school at Will Rogers, There was a wrestling referee named "Onions" Martin that would make us wrestlers cut our hair on the side of the mat right before the match if he thought it was too long.

I once had to get the scissors from the equipment box, covered with sticky from the residue of white athletic tape, to give myself a little off the top before he would let me wrestle.

He was the total authority at that moment and believed that most of us long haired kids were just going to be trouble. He was a good referee, in fact is listed in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

When Onions died last year, I went to SuperCuts in his honor.

[waterboy]

I've had three kids in several different school paths within TPS. One with uniforms from kindergarten through middle school.

I personally prefer the uniforms even though I was like Hometown during my high school days. (Got sent home for a moustache and sideburns!)

Why? Because of the horror of trying to keep up with expensive, ever changing fashion and the havoc it wreaks on your child's self esteem. Some adults like dressing their children up in a misguided effort to relive their "happy fashion" days and are willing to buy anything to keep the child ahead of the pack. They do it in every facet of education including sports and drama. It creates unnecessarily early divisions of "haves" and "have-nots" that last forever.

Believe me, uniforms or not, kids will differentiate and show their own personal style. Note bagging uniform pants, football players getting to wear a jersey on game day, collars flipped up or down.

I hate the passion for conformity of the current times, but uniforms are as much for the average parent as they are for disciplin and safety.