School uniforms should be phased out
They don’t allow self-expression, which is detrimental to student mental wellbeing
School uniforms only promote uniformity without any real benefit. (Pexels/Thirdman)
School uniforms, you either love them or hate them.
It’s a practice that has been adopted by Canadian and American schools. Traditionally school uniforms are favoured by private schools, but they’re growing in popularity and are seen in some public schools too. The percentage of public schools requiring uniforms increased to 20 per cent in the 2017/2018 school year, compared to 12 per cent in the 1999/2000 school year in the United States, according to a report cited by Briticannica.
School uniforms are meant to put every student on the same level, but some opposed to the uniforms believe they “emphasize the socioeconomic disparities they are intended to disguise,” according to a Britannica article.
I don’t believe in school uniforms, and that’s mainly because these uniforms prevent students from expressing themselves. Teenage years are a time of turmoil as youth discover their self-identity. Students often express themselves through clothes, hair, or makeup. Uniforms take the freedom of self-expression away.
A study published last year by the National Library of Medicine based in the U.S., found there was little evidence that school uniforms impact educational outcomes or improves academic achievement. It also cites a study in South Korea that found uniforms were “linked to stifling creativity, in spite of good academic performance.”
The study found that school uniforms had a positive effect on students’ self-esteem, particularly for students in a lower socioeconomic status. However, there are mixed results on the impact of uniforms on bullying. It concluded that uniforms appear to be both protective and harmful depending on the context, and any “psycho-social benefits will only hold if other psycho-social and physical harms to girls and minorities are addressed.”
For a society that is now trying to promote one’s individuality, school uniforms restricts students and promotes conformity.
An article in The New Yorker notes “as our society reckons once more with the costs and burdens of free expression, we should remember that not so long ago teenagers fought for their right to black armbands.” The author concludes, “we’ve stopped thinking of our sons and daughters as citizens whose independence we want to cultivate by, as much as possible, getting out of the way.”
School uniforms are an atrocity. The impacts of mental health on students are not considered when schools decide to require a uniform, and as youth face increasing rates of mental health issues, the uniform should be abandoned altogether.
