School Uniforms: Forced Conformity? Or Escape from Classism?

When considering the impact of school uniforms on today’s youth, it is important to look at the subject on balance, weighing both its harms and benefits for children.

Those in favor of school uniforms may argue that they allow students from all backgrounds to feel level with their peers, and maintain focus on learning rather than materialistic ideals. This perception is misguided and idealistic when looking at the modern world. Even if clothing wouldn’t place students into social classes, it is inevitable that students will find another way to do so, whether that be phones, school supplies or shoes, an escape from classism is both unrealistic and misguided.

When administrators make decisions for schooling, their main priority should be to focus on preparing students for the real world, and forced conformity will not do this for children. They will face a world filled with diversity and social classes, that school uniforms would have left them incapable of handling.

Allowing students the freedom to wear what they want opens up a flurry of possibilities for students. First, through expression. Many school-age children find expression through their clothes and presenting themselves in a way that feels true to their own character. Finding one’s style and things that students feel comfortable in, is key to fostering both a realistic and safe learning environment. Although critics of free dressing may say that it distracts those in low social classes from their ability to learn on a parallel plane to their peers, it prepares them for life outside of the school system, and free from unwanted conformity.