Advantages Of School Uniforms Essay, Research Paper

Violence has been around since this world began, whether being in biblical times or in the modern times. Although violence has been around a number of years, there is on place where parents trust they can send they children with worries, school. Everyday a mother wakes up, kisses her children goodbye, and sends them to school. Unfortunately, in these times that we live in parents may have a legitimate cause to worry about their child s well being. Parents often wonder if their children are getting the right education at the right school, but if uniforms are introduced to schools many parents will find their money will be helping to keep their children safe and well-educated. Whether being to improve student s all-around academic environment or to prevent school violence in the classroom, school uniforms has been proven to successfully achieve these goals almost immediately.

First of all, school uniforms virtually eliminate school violence in the classroom. School uniforms play a major role in decreasing potentially dangerous altercations among students. A case in point, many unsuspecting and vulnerable students unknowingly wear gang-colored or gang-affiliated clothes to school. If school uniforms were mandated this would bring and end to school students being mistaken for members of rival gangs and being shot for the sake of gang-members defending their territory. Also, at Will Rogers Elementary school, in Long Beach California, teachers are beginning to notice that students have had decreasing amounts of racial or ethnic tension between them because students now look more alike. In the 1994 school year, at Long Beach Unified school district, school officials noticed a 50% decrease in the number of students bringing weapons to school. To add, Delma Culverson, an eighth grader at the Chicago school Florence B. Price Elementary, said, wearing a uniform doesn t symbolize. The colors don t symbolize anything, and wearing one could save your life. Students should not be worrying about their safety in schools. They should be focusing on their academic abilities. This is an example of how uniforms can make a child feel more comfortable in their school and safety will no longer be their main agenda in school. Finally, Dr. Reginald Wilson, Senior Scholar of the American Council on Education, said uniforms make a quite a bit of difference and they have worked in reducing violent behavior in schools. If uniforms are enforced students will be able to work steadily and surely, not worrying about their safety. Just as important, school uniforms eliminate crimes of jealousy among students because of how they are dressing. In the State of the Union Address, President Clinton expressed his whole-hearted support towards invoking school uniforms. He addressed the nation and said public schools should be able to implement mandatory school uniforms if it means teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets. Similarly, Staff Attorney of the National School Boards Association, Naomi Gittins, said, but junior and senior high schools use [school uniforms] to keep kids from fighting over the latest fashions . In the 1994-95 school years of Long Beach schools, while uniforms were implemented, acts of violence, partly due to jealousy, dropped a staggering 50%. Lastly, Thriftone V. Jones, President of the D.C. Congress of Parents and Teachers said, clothes breed jealousy because people will want what another has Apparently, many students feel clothes make the man. If uniforms were introduced many students would feel like equals and therefore would not have to envy each other for clothes. In considering this, many students would not have reasons to quarrel and act pugnacious towards one another.

School uniforms have not only led to a decline in the number of violent acts committed by students, but they have worked in building an all-round better learning environment for students. Uniforms being mandated in school, have had a tremendous positive effect in building a better school atmosphere for students. To illustrate, a financially lacking Whittier elementary, in an impoverished Long Beach, California, has seen overall crime rates in the district drop by 36% and school suspensions are down 32% because of mandatory school uniforms. If uniforms can work in the most impoverished neighborhoods, such as Long Beach, there is no telling what they can accomplish in average school districts. Also, in a Los Angeles Times survey of 958 elementary and middle school principals, school spirit was said to have increased by 22%. Lastly in the testimony of Sybil Selfe, a counselor at Bishop Healy Parochial Elementary school, she said, Behaviorally student s attitudes will be better their expectations for themselves will be higher because they will feel they must act appropriately wearing uniforms. School uniforms would bring a sense of morality among students. Thus, enforcing good behavior and manners to the school students wearing them. School uniforms have not only led to an improved school atmosphere, but they are proven that they also lead to higher academic ability for the students using them. For example, in the same Los Angeles Times survey of 958 elementary and middle school principals, uniforms were given credit to having improved academic achievement by 7 %, in the Los Angeles schools. Next in the same testimony of Sybil Selfe, she stated, students won t feel as though they have to compete with their peers they will be able to focus more on academics. As part of ranking held in the Long Beach school district, Will Rogers elementary school ranked 14th out of 19th. When uniforms were not mandatory, the school was ranked last in the annual ratings. The second year of the implementation of uniforms, Rogers showed even greater signs of improvement, when it jumped from 14th to 4th in the annual rankings. With a newly improved learning atmosphere and higher academic standards, many schools around the world have found a new way to cope with the questions that have plagued school administrators and parents alike.

In closing, school uniforms have established the fact that they can improve almost every aspect of school. Uniforms have proved they can curb student violence and at the same time improve their school s academic atmosphere. Uniforms may have ended the predicament parents find themselves struggling with everyday, when they send their children to school. A mother may finally be able to kiss her children on the cheek, with no doubt in her mind they will be safe for harm. If administrators of all school districts could see the obvious effects of uniforms on students and throughout the whole school, they may reconsider and decide to mandate school uniforms. Violence has plagued schoolyards and innocent children for too long. School uniforms will bring the changes needed to improve student s surroundings and in essence decrease acts of violence committed in the schoolyard.