It would suffice to identify the team players if, say,...
School uniforms should be required
For this debate a "school uniform" is a specific design for clothing designated to be worn while attending academic classes at a school. The school context comprises grades one through twelve of public and private schools in the United States. Different schools and different grades within schools may have different uniforms, as determined by parents and school administration. The paradigm is that of Japanese schools, as shown in anime (http://answers.yahoo.com...). The reasons for requiring uniforms are: 1) It promotes identity with the school and class, which emphasizes the common educational purpose. It puts everyone in the same boat so they are more likely to help each other succeed. This is a reason why players on sports teams wear identical uniforms. It would suffice to identify the team players if, say, one team wore predominantly red and the other predominantly blue, or even just predominantly dark and light. Yet there is widespread agreement that having identical uniforms is important for the team psychology. 2) It removes the distractions of fashion trends and fashion competition from school hours, thereby reinforcing the educational purpose of the enterprise. It helps students focus. 3) It teaches boys to be neat and girls to be attractive. 4) It encourages students to evaluate people by their behavior and personality rather than by their manner of dress. 5) It allows individuals to express themselves in fashion outside of school, which reinforces the distinct nature of the educational environment. School uniforms in Japan coexist with cosplay outside of school. There are many factors that go into overall academic performance, so certainly school uniforms are not the only thing that counts. Nonetheless, the countries that score best on international tests (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan) are those that have the tradition of school uniforms. We may therefore reasonably conclude that it makes a positive contribution to having a serious attitude towards education. Uniforms contribute to the educational process.