Pros and Cons of School Uniforms
Johnathan Abaya
English 1301, 1:45pm Class
9-25-2012
1124
School Uniforms: Convenience or Conformity As children we always seem to be told “love who you are and be yourself.” For instance, as a child how many of you were so excited to pick what to wear for the day, to feel that sense of control and to know you could show up to school and say “this is me and I love who I am!” However, on the other side of the fence, you have another student that has a uniform, who is not being given the option to dress as he chooses. Who gets the better end of the bargain here? Child A has to spend all that time using materialistic things to say who he is as a person, however, his creativity becomes one dimensional. Child B has been socially forced to use his words and other means to express who he is as a person but also gets his creativity smashed by limiting what he can wear. So I ask you this, do the pros outweigh the cons? As an opinion that many others will share, there is no solid answer to this question. Many students feel as if uniforms are limiting their ability to show who they really are. Robert Weider.Ph.D, a physician at The Center Institute in New Jersey, says this; “anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport,” What we can take from this is that if there is a will there is a way. Meaning there are many ways to let your personality be seen with something other than your clothes. One’s creativity should never be limited to one particular thing. For instance, Steve Jobs founded Apple INC. with his two partners and started off with the ever so popular Macintosh Computer. Steve Jobs and company expanded on that single idea of the Macintosh computer and produced that iPad we know today. Think of school uniforms as that Macintosh computer. If students cannot expand on that idea of wearing uniforms then we get nowhere, however if they do expand on that idea of
English 1301, 1:45pm Class
9-25-2012
1124
School Uniforms: Convenience or Conformity As children we always seem to be told “love who you are and be yourself.” For instance, as a child how many of you were so excited to pick what to wear for the day, to feel that sense of control and to know you could show up to school and say “this is me and I love who I am!” However, on the other side of the fence, you have another student that has a uniform, who is not being given the option to dress as he chooses. Who gets the better end of the bargain here? Child A has to spend all that time using materialistic things to say who he is as a person, however, his creativity becomes one dimensional. Child B has been socially forced to use his words and other means to express who he is as a person but also gets his creativity smashed by limiting what he can wear. So I ask you this, do the pros outweigh the cons? As an opinion that many others will share, there is no solid answer to this question. Many students feel as if uniforms are limiting their ability to show who they really are. Robert Weider.Ph.D, a physician at The Center Institute in New Jersey, says this; “anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport,” What we can take from this is that if there is a will there is a way. Meaning there are many ways to let your personality be seen with something other than your clothes. One’s creativity should never be limited to one particular thing. For instance, Steve Jobs founded Apple INC. with his two partners and started off with the ever so popular Macintosh Computer. Steve Jobs and company expanded on that single idea of the Macintosh computer and produced that iPad we know today. Think of school uniforms as that Macintosh computer. If students cannot expand on that idea of wearing uniforms then we get nowhere, however if they do expand on that idea of