10)(11) With freedom of choice relating to clothing,...
School uniforms should be banned
"Decreased time in the morning getting dressed" Even so, school uniforms deprive students of identification. Adults have the freedom to choose what they want to wear at any time, any wear. The average American lifespan is 79 years (6), and the average American public school offers 6.64 hours of education in the school day and 180 school days in the year (7). If a student spends his learning time from kindergarten to 12th grade, that"s about 15537.6 hours or about 2 years which is approximately 2.5% of their life spent in school. A good chunk of that time is spent during the stages of adolescence. Denying other clothing options from students may make them unprepared for the working world (8)(9). Finding a self-image is crucial during this period, and one of means of identification is clothing choices. (10)(11) With freedom of choice relating to clothing, students can find their individuality and develop it along the way as they reach the adult world, making them better prepared when it comes to dressing. "Uniforms are safe" Actually, uniforms can increase violence in schools. According to Tony Volk, PhD, an Associate Professor at Brock University says "Overall, there is no evidence in bullying literature that supports a reduction in violence due to school uniforms." (12) Also, a 2007 study found out that the average number of assaults that are increased by 14 per year in the most violent schools are caused by school uniforms. (13) Additionally, a 1999 study conducted by Texas Southern University concluded that school discipline incidents rose by 12% after introducing uniforms. (3) A similar situation in Miami-Dade County showed fights in middle school nearly doubled after one year of mandatory school uniforms. (14)(15) This conveys that school uniforms causes more harm than good, as shown by the examples above. Sources: (6) http://data.worldbank.org... (7) https://nces.ed.gov... (8) Grace Chen, "Public School Uniforms: The Pros and Cons for Your Child," publicschoolreview.com, Apr. 24, 2014(12 (9) Beth Asaff, "Pros and Cons of School Uniforms," kids.lovetoknow.com (accessed Aug. 20, 2014) (10) Melinda Swafford, Lee Ann Jolley, and Leigh Southward, "The Student Dress Code Debate," Techniques, Jan. 2011 (11) Erikson Institute, "Erik H. Erikson: Erikson Institute's Namesake," erikson.edu (accessed Aug. 21, 2014) (12) Shawn Jeffords, "Uniforms Won't Stop School Bullies, Experts Say," stcatharinestandard.ca, Mar. 14, 2012 (13) J. Scott Granberg-Rademacker, Jeffrey Bumgarner, and Avra Johnson, "Do School Violence Policies Matter? An Empirical Analysis of Four Approaches to Reduce School Violence," Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice, Spring 2007 (14) Charles Badger, "Report of Standard School Attire: A Look at the Issues," schoenml.org (accessed Aug. 20, 2014) (15) Lois K. Solomon, "9 More Schools to Have Students Wear Uniforms," sun-sentinel.com, May 6, 2000