Social Science – Sociology
Institutional affiliation-School Uniforms are Important for Students
Everyone can agree that educational opportunities need to be made available to each and every child. Regardless of their socioeconomic status or gender, they need to be given a chance to succeed. The benefit of introduction of the school uniforms to a learning environment is mainly based on the fact that it is important in reflecting this equality. Such an environment is crucial for learning to take place. This is because the students want to have a place that will make the focus on their studies and other factors that will contribute to their general well-being both at the educational institution, and at home. Also, the issue of uniforms was introduced to help students get various privileges within the community setting as the people show them some respect and refrain from engaging them into activities like selling hem drugs. The elimination of activities that are rather unnecessary such as worrying or focusing on the brands they are going to wear or the kind of fashion that they can afford to be able to fit in particular social group, class or cliques, they can then focus on their learning. This issue of school uniforms has also been faced with criticism as the parents incur the costs of acquiring them as their prices can range from twenty to fifty dollars with a discount. Also, the importance of uniforms has gradually degraded and lost meaning to most people (Johnston & Education Partnerships, 2009). In the context of Canadian education system, wearing of school uniform is bound to do more good in Canadian education system than bad as it will help in bringing equality to students, enhance discipline and improve their overall success and self-esteem.
School uniforms bring a sense of equality at school, which is important in ensuring success to every student at the institutions. In every school, there are students from different backgrounds in terms of the financial status and ethnicity. Without the school uniforms, these students can be told apart by the clothes they wear to school. Some would buy very expensive and trendy fashions to wear them to school, and go for weeks without having to repeat the same clothes over again. For some, getting something to wear to school is a problem, and have to dedicate two or three pieces in their collection to wear to school, at least the best they have. It would be difficult even to focus in class as they think about the new fashion that their classmate is wearing, or how poor someone appears to be from what they wear (John, 2017). When the students are in uniforms, it is hard to tell them apart. Also, the fear of associating with others is eliminated. The students do not have to keep on worrying everyday about the cloth they will wear to school, as they have uniforms. This equality creates a very conducive learning environment for all students.
Uniforms also help in enhancing discipline among the students. For schools to function effectively, it is crucial for students be well disciplined for their own success. When a school has a mandatory school uniform code put in place, the students get an opportunity to start evaluate themselves rather that evaluation of how they compare to their peers thus the classroom environment becomes orderly and more disciplined. Also, the uniformity brought about by the dress code significantly reduces the tensions between the students, violence and bullying, thereby raising the student attendance. When outside the school environment, school uniforms can become an automatic age identification of a person. People can clearly tell that the person in uniform I a child, and so should be kept away from certain behaviors. For instance, there is no one in their right mind who can dare sell alcohol to an individual in school uniform, or even drugs (Sanchez Yoxsimer, & Hill, 2012). Moreover, they cannot be allowed entry to some places, even when they are in company of an adult. This helps the students to keep off things that could be harmful to their health or educational affairs like cigarettes.
Uniforms help students to succeed in school and improve their self-esteem. In the society, the adults in most cases dress up in a particular way when they go to work. Even when the environment they work in is casual, they may still try to on their best clothes or outfits. They usually do this so that they can feel confident, and also make a good first impression to other people they meet at work. This is a way of boosting their self-esteem. In the context of education, school uniforms perform the same task on students. They tend to bring about the sense of making the student to feel like a “professional” in their own way, the same as their parents do or their guardians. Moreover, when a student is walking in the streets, he/she is able to communicate to other people confidently from the perspective of a person who is going to school to better their lives (Johnston & Education Partnerships, 2009). When they are in casual clothing, they may not be able to gather enough confidence for such talks. The connection between self-esteem and success in education is as clear as the connection between discipline and success in education. A confident student has a high chance of performing better than a student who lacks the self-confidence.
Therefore, from the general discussion, it is sound to conclude that school uniforms are significant in education as they help create a conducive learning environment by promoting equality. Also, they are crucial in helping students enhance their discipline both at home and at school, in addition to boosting the success and self-esteem. Therefore, we can generally state that it is important for students to wear school uniforms in Canada.
Johnston, H., & Education Partnerships, I. (. (2009). Student Dress Codes and Uniforms. Research Brief.
References
Sanchez, J. E., Yoxsimer, A., & Hill, G. C. (2012). Uniforms in the Middle School: Student Opinions, Discipline Data, and School Police Data. Journal of School Violence, 11(4), 345.
John, D. (2017, July 5). Top marks for school uniforms. Evening Standard. p. 12.
