-- News Service – Winnie Hu’s article “School District Has Dress Code, and Is Buying the Uniforms, Too” published by New York Times on September 4, 2007, describes the development of school uniforms within the Elizabeth school district. The growth of uniforms throughout the country is large; however, buying uniforms costs money. Furthermore, giving them to students for free puts an extra expense on the schools in the Elizabeth school district. Uniforms are being provided for all of the poor and lower income families, as well as the people and families who can afford the required attire.
Hu, Winnie. "School District Has Dress Code, and Is Buying the Uniforms, Too." Nytimes.com. New York Times, 4 Sept. 2007. Web. 9 Apr. 2010. Web.
In the article, "School District Has Dress Code, and Is Buying the Uniforms, Too," written by Winnie Hu, I believe that this article creates a false need. The School Boards are buying school uniforms that are unnecessary for the schools. Other schools, like Batesville High School, don’t have a dress code and we have high academic levels within our schools. Therefore, I don’t believe that it is necessary to be forced to were school uniforms. Also, in the article, Hu stated, " critics have questioned whether the district should be getting into the clothing business while schools are facing budget cuts "(1). I agree with this completely. These schools that are paying for students uniforms need to be more worried about other events that are at stake such as cutting teachers and other items that have to be cut due to the budget cut. I believe that school uniforms are an unnecessary desire for the school districts that are providing and forcing the school uniforms.
ReplyDeleteErin, I completely agree with you. The schools that are cutting back their staff and cutting back on other budgets are creating even more friction between the students and their selves. Uniforms are, like you said, an unnecessary desire where schools are trying to conform with others schools because they believe it helps academically. As you also stated, Batesville does not have a required uniform and they have high academic standards where the students have no problem reaching. Erin if you read the scholarly journal by Darlene Williams, she forms the opinion on how in today schools are being used as “laboratories and our children. . . [are being] used as guinea pigs for new questionable fads founded in vanity and based on supposition” (Williams). She warns us on how the schools are now experimenting the use of uniforms just because they believe the overall behavior and academic effort will change in the students. There is no known study portraying that uniforms are the cause of better grades and behavior in school corporations. The outcome and results vary because there may be other underlying causes like there were in Long Beach, California. During the time Long Beach enforced the school uniform policy, the grades and behaviors of the students altered. They only told the public the uniforms created the change; however, a “$1 million grant from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation for the improvement of teaching methods” was given at the exact time the policy implemented (Williams). There is no real proof, only assumptions that uniforms are beneficial.
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