A major problem with our schools is that we allow children to dress themselves. This creates many problems and has no obvious benefits. There exists many reasons for why allowing kids to go to school wearing their street-clothes is a problem. Many of my readers will probably disagree with me on this issue. They will claim: "it allows kids to be creative and individualistic". However, those points and ones like them miss 'the forest full of trees' when comes to this issue.
The first thing that I would like to point out is the social aspect. Being the social creatures that we are, we obviously place a great emphasis on social interaction. Naturally the state of students social-world is of the utmost importance to them; while this is not entirely a bad thing, it must not be excessively distracting.
Being that all of us have/are going to school, we all know how much time is spent thinking about the clothing we are wearing along with the clothing others are wearing. For many children (especially girls) clothing becomes an unhealthy obsession with appearance. This is why I see clothing as one of the great reasons for why children and young adults are particularly unempathetic compared to past generations. You may be thinking that my claim of an empathetically-retarded generation is ridiculous—if this is the case, then I urge you to read up on it (click me!).
Empathy is unarguably a very important attribute. I don't believe many would disagree that empathy can be strengthened or weakened based upon one particular cognitive discourse versus another. I remember buying this old highschool year book from the 1930s. Everyone had basically the same clothing and hairstyle. While they lacked superficial complexity—according to studies—they had more empathetical intelligence. Now why is this? Well, as previously eluded to, I believe that it is the obsession with physical appearance in general that has caused this phenomenon.
Hypothetically if all students were to wear the same style of clothing, then they would be forced to engage more of their mental capacity towards learning, and perhaps even better: their minds would engage more in empathetical-type thoughts by default (being that less thought is being wasted on the physical appearance of the self and others). While this suggestion is not a cure-all, it is certainty a step in the right direction to rid ourselves of the plague of shallowness that is causing (or at least contributing) great psychological harm to our society (anxiety, empathetical retardation, narcissism, self-esteem issues, depression, phobias, and so on).
Not yet convinced? Well, have you ever been bullied? Another thing which plagues our schools (and society) is bullying. I believe that bullying is caused—at least in part—by excessive contemplation of hierarchical dominance. While this will not end by merely getting school uniforms—it will at least make it much harder for the bullies to pick out flaws—being they typically attack the physical appearance. Having school uniforms would free students from the tyranny of the fashion police. The notion of having school uniforms seems on the surface to be very controlling, however that control is only physical, mentally it would be liberating. Students (girls especially) would not have panic-attack levels of anxiety over their physical appearance, thus reducing stress, improving mental focus, and so on. Students should not have to worry about what they look like at school, they should be worried about learning.
A lack of conformity in appearance causes students to create a perception that it is okay to treat others differently based upon what their physical appearance is. This is obviously harmful for the well-being of some students, who, for example, may not have the richest of parents. Such a cognitive discourse deprives the mind of deep thought which perpetually causes and is caused by a shallowness that seems to have enveloped our culture. The only way to liberate ourselves from this shallowness is to eliminate it at the source.
School is not playtime, it should be a place of work. Hierarchies based upon how rich a kid's parents are should be fought against if we desire equal opportunities for all. Some will claim that conformity in clothing will harm creativity and individuality (as stated before). But is it really that great to have students judge their own and others worthy based upon physical appearance? Can't that creative intelligence that all students possess be harnessed in more productive ways?
Not having school uniforms trains students to be self-centered and superficial. This is the consequence for socially pressuring students into worrying about how their clothing stacks up with others. While this may seem redundant, it is an important point: if all students wore the same clothes, kids would judge others based less upon looks, which generates increased levels of intellectualism in the place of superficiality.
As a side note: if we really want to cut down on school-aged kids using drugs, school uniforms are an obvious tool. Being that drug-use and high levels of stress go hand-in-hand, to lower drug use we need to lower the stress we put on students. Being overly stressed causes students to feel as if they need a way to escape reality. And obviously the stress caused by clothing is completely unnecessary.
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