are school uniforms a good idea?
When I taught in Wales for a year, the whole family went. My daughters were in both middle and high school, and they were excited by the idea until they heard about the uniforms. Blue skirts, black shoes, white socks, blazers and school ties were required. The picture I took the day they started school shows three quite miserable students. We tried to convince them that uniforms were a good idea. We told them all the students would be wearing uniforms so they would stand out oddly if they didn’t. But when you’re a teenager, how you think you look is what counts. You feel vulnerable to critics even if everyone looks exactly the same. In the weeks that followed, our daughters came to love their uniforms. Even though they were Americans in a foreign country, they didn’t look any different so there was nothing to criticize. And they learned that the Welsh teens wanted to know about everything American. Is there any advantage to uniforms in this country? In the school morning rush there is.
