School Uniforms

Outside of going to my local church for classes when I was younger, I have never worn a uniform in school. I'm really not a fan of wearing the exact same thing every day for an entire school year cause it clashes with my wanting to try on different things each day (I have huge OCD about this.) So no, I will never (ever) transfer to any school that requires wearing a uniform. If I was forced to go to a school that required to wear a uniform, I would adamantly refuse.

 

When I was in third grade, I went to a school that had a uniform. I didn't think much of it at the time other than "I don't wanna" but looking back, I really despise the idea of a school uniform on almost a moral level. It takes out all forms of individuality in appearance. Schools tell you "be yourself!" but then they do their best to make sure you look exactly like everyone else. That kind of hypocrisy disgusts me.

For reasons pointed out above, I have no "ideal uniform" and I would absolutely refuse to go to an institution of learning that mandated such foolishness.

 

Darn, Madness stole most of what I was going to say.

A part of my individuality stems via what I choose to wear, which is why many of my shirts have some sort of math or science joke on them. Being asked to wear a uniform would deprive me of that, and I would never stand out amongst any crowd, given how ordinary I appear. Then again, not standing out does have its charms.

While I was much younger I was in a school with a uniform dress code; unfortunately, the dress code was a jumper with the school's logo on it. As I have mentioned before a few times, I prefer colder temperatures, so wearing a jumper completely throws off the balance of that (which is why, today, I don't own any at all). There are many ways to handle school uniforms, some of them very good, but that was one of the wrong ways to handle it.

It's best for schools to just have some sort of dress code and adhere to that. That way no one gets in trouble, and there is more expression through one's clothing. I do have a work uniform that's basically a polo shirt with a logo on the wearer's left breast, but I keep forgetting to wear it, largely because my work doesn't really care that much. (It's not a bad shirt, by any means. It's just not something I remember.)

 

I'm a big fan of school uniforms aesthetically. Usually I wear very sloppy clothing and there are days I outright look like a drug addict or a homeless person. Wearing a school uniform would probably boost my self confidence by a lot and make me feel more comfortable at school too.
On the other hand, the values that are usually behind school uniforms are kinda eh to me. They were invented to create a sense of equality and solidarity among students. Now I'm all for equality, but solidarity doesn't sit right with me. Why should I be forced to feel connected with all these people I don't even know?? Would that also mean I'm apart from other schools with a different uniform? It discourages mixing with people outside of the school and in the worst case it could lead to social segregation, for example when one school is more wealthy than the other. Even without mandatory uniforms this is already happening. Of course uniforms don't cause this or anything, but it doesn't help the situation at all and the underlying thought is just stupid. My school doesn't have to stigmatize people who are going to a different school for me, I can choose who I want to associate with myself. Because it's literally physical stigmatization.
The other thing is obvious, it degrades individualism. People have already mentioned this so I won't go in detail, but that's definitely a big no for me.
There's plenty of good things about school uniforms too as they take away the social prejudice that comes with wearing clothes and like I said, it can make people feel more comfortable around their peers. Really it just depends on what country you live in and what the social values are there. From a Dutch standpoint I think the bad points of school uniforms definitely outnumber the good ones, but hey, that's only one country out of 196.

 

here in scotland it's standard for schools to have a uniform, so yeah, for my whole life i've worn them to school.

and honestly? i'm glad they're there. sure, i'd much rather wear my jeans and leather jacket and whatever i look good in imo, but i think uniforms look more proper, and i do like it. plus, on casual clothes days, SO many of the girls in school dress... immodestly, to put it nicely, and it's actually really disgusting and offputting imo.

so yeah, i live in a country where most of us wear school uniforms regularly and i like it.

 

I don't really care about what clothes I wear, so I don't think I'd care much for a school uniform. If I would ever go to a school where uniforms are required, I would hope they wouldn't have those ridiculous kind of skirts for girls. I really don't like skirts...
Because of that, my ideal school uniform would be blue (that's my favourite color), with easy-to-wear pants and an easy-to-wear T-shirt or blouse. I guess having shoes along with the uniform would be nice too.

 

Well that isn't true. That may be wherever you live but in England almost every official school requires a uniform. They're usually shown for equality which is a good and firm way for boundaries. No one can judge so I'm a great fan of uniforms.

 

I had to wear a uniform to school.

They're annoying and I never felt comfortable in them. :[

 

Our school has a uniform. I actually like it, and I believe it's better than wearing normal clothing to school. With uniforms, people will not be distracted with the clothes that other people wear, let alone judgement. I like the neatness of our school uniform, it makes the students look like mature people.

 

I've worn a school uniform back when I was attending private school, and it was bearable. I liked it because I didn't have to worry about what I was going to wear the next day or what my peers thought about my outfit because everyone basically wore the same thing.

I really respected uniforms because there are so many skippy clothing that girls and guys wear to school nowadays. I mean how are you going to sag with uniform pants.

 

I've never gone to a uniformed school, and complimentary/contrary to those of you above saying its good point is that it lets you dress dignified and classy, I did that anyhow without a uniform. I make my own dignified and classy wardrobe: the only time I wear jeans and a t-shirt is if I'm staying home all day or am doing manual labor. Otherwise I give myself a sportshirt with khakis or a sweater with more-solid denims or even go shirt-and-tie with slacks or grab a blazer, even when I don't need to. Fun fact: you can put a right-size right-color/pattern blazer on anything that's more classy than sweatpants and instantly look like you give 10x more of a crap about your appearance. Maybe even including sweatpants...

Anyhow, as for the concept of having everyone look the same, I think it's unnecessary in a school setting, so I don't see the point of uniforms. We're attending the same establishment and are, if anything, competing against one another, as opposed to being on a cohesive team. I'd even prefer a semiformal dress code than uniforms.

 

Haha. Ours were embarrassing on a national level! Whereas every other female/mixed school in the country let girls wear skirts that reached their knees or shorter, Limerick forces you to wear skirts that _went past your ankles!_ Horrrrible things to wear, 'specially in the height of winter when most schooling is done, ugh. In my first secondary school I had to wear a black jumper (</3), white shirt, navy skirt, black shoes and this hideous navy/black/pink tie. In the second secondary school I went to, the uniform shifted to all-navy; shoes, socks, skirt and jumper, again with a white shirt underneath and yet another tie - this time though it was navy and red coloured! In this school though, I kiiinda favoured wearing this zip-up fleece rather than the jumper -much nicer + warmer~!

It's actually quite funny how long we had to wear our skirts. I remember one time I had to go to Dublin on a school trip and at least five bystanders stopped me to ask why we wore our skirts so long, haha. Life's not like anime, random stranger...'Least not around Limerick, anyway, haha.