The dress code in public schooling has been a
controversial issue lately, both in
Massachusetts and
nation-wide. I feel some type of dress
code would cut down some of
the everyday
problems that schools have today. A
dress code in public schooling would be
a good idea
because it would reduce violence, eliminate the problem of wearing hats or
jackets in
school, and make school more of an academic atmosphere, and less of a social
one. In this
paper, I will discuss why a dress code would be a good thing for public schools
to have.
A dress code would eliminate many problems
including violence that occurs
everyday in
school. For example, if a simple shirt
and tie with dress pants were worn by
boys, and some
type of skirt or dress for girls, baggy clothing would be eliminated which
could hide
weapons such as guns or knives. Fights
also break out in schools because of the
way students
dress. Negative comments are often made
at school by students about their
classmates'
clothing which provokes fighting.
Obviously, some type of dress code would
stop this.
Studies show that a dress code reduces violence
and makes students behave better
because it makes
everyone equal, bringing all of the students to the same level: "A dress
code brings us
together, like an athletic team. We're
unified, we stand for the same things,"
said Bob Sanders,
57, a teacher at Antioch Christian Academy in Oklahoma City (David
2). Principal of Minneapolis' West Central Academy
believes that uniforms help the school
meet five
goals: foster greater school pride,
enhance self-esteem, improve school
attendance,
reduce suspensions and improve school climate (Washington 1).
The number of suspensions in Long Beach, California,
which now requires
uniforms for
students, dropped 32 percent. Every
category of infraction - from assaults to
drug use to sex
offenses- has fallen. Teachers and
administrators in the Long Beach also
believe most
students perform better academically because of the uniforms, making school
more of an
academic atmosphere (Pertman 2).
Officials in Long Beach believe that uniforms
reduce escalating violence and gang
activity in
schools, because students no longer get hassled by gang members because of
clothes with
rival colors or insignias. They also
help create a work-like atmosphere because
students spend
less time discussing wardrobes (Pertman 1).
The same applies to Chicago
public
schools. Farragut High School in Chicago
went from fifteen large gang fights a
week to an
occasional fist fight when they adopted a school dress code: "It seems
like we
have more
togetherness because there are no gang colors," Farragut disciplinarian,
Walter
Brown said (Rossi
1).
A dress code would allow students to make
friends on their personal qualities,
rather than
appearance. Too often students classify
other students by the way they dress.
Many students
avoid some of their classmates because of the way they dress, rather than
trying to be
friends with them. Dave Bouronich, 13,
a student at a school in the Long
Beach District
said, "If you dress the way you want, people compete and say you look like
a nerd and
stuff" (Pertman 1). Students would
make friends with people that have
common interests
with themselves, rather than people that dress like themselves.
President Bill Clinton is also for the dress
code. Commenting on the public schools
adopting school
uniforms during his 1996 campaign he said, "The dress code is one thing
that has served
to lower crime, violence, and increase attendance and increase learning at a
lot of
schools. And I think a dress code is
itself an important statement, because we want
our young
children, whether they're poor or rich or middle class, when they're in school
to
define themselves
primarily in terms of what's going on on the inside, not what they're
wearing on the
outside. And I think it's a very, very
good thing" (U.S. Newswire 1).
Although many students say they are against a
dress code in public schooling
because it
eliminates self-expression, most of them wouldn't mind it after they
experienced
it for a couple
of weeks. For example, many students at
the few public schools which have
a dress code are
actually for it. Second grader at Prairie View Elementary in North Central
Florida Tre Danzy
initially worried about the uniforms which he would be required to
wear. After a few weeks of wearing the uniforms Tre
said, " It's OK now. You don't
have to waste
time finding clothes" (Shedden 2). They feel, as I do, a dress code
eliminates
the hassle of
deciding which clothes to wear or buy for school.
Although most people are for the dress code,
some oppose it. Civil Liberties Union
states that the
uniforms punish low-income families by forcing them to buy special outfits
when their
children might otherwise have worn hand-me-downs or clothes from discount
stores (Pertman
2).
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