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From: sharon@world.std.com (Cerebus)
Subject: Re: Uniforms in schools
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Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die
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Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 22:38:48 GMT
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dawson@best.com (Dennis Dawson) writes:

>An issue that I haven't seen discussed in this thread is the effect of
>uniforms on student behavior. The middle school up the street from my
>elementary school instituted a mandatory uniform policy this year. The
>parents are very happy so far with this. I think one of the reasons is the
>effect on student behavior. The uniforms seem to be affecting student
>behavior. There are probably many reasons for this, but I think one reason
>would be that the uniforms affect the students' identities. When students
>wear clothing that imitates that of gangs, they are going to imitate what
>they perceive the behavior of gang members to be. Or if the clothing makes
>a statement reflecting rebelliousness, they are likely to act in conformity
>with that statement. When they wear preppy or private school-like clothing,
>they are going to act more preppy-like.

Not to mention the *Big* (for me at least) problematic element of this 
theory. If you, as a family, value non-conformity, non-preppiness (is that
an adjective?) and individuality, what does that say about the contrast
of the school values.  Middle and high school particularly make it very
clear that they value conformity *anyway*, and tend to be a struggle for
non-conformist students.  I find it disturbing to increase that trend - because
why I realize there are real problems of violence and competition expressed
by children's clothing, it seems first of all that the clothing does not
generate the conflicts, but rather expresses them, and secondly, that it 
increases ever more the school's attempts to turn adolescents into conformist
clones.

Sharon Astyk
