School uniforms - for or against?

Of course DaisyAnne, no suggestion otherwise. It's an opinion forum, we disagree.

My late mother in law was a tailoress. She altered all the Grandchildrens blazers. Lucky them ?

Now we have a lot of different hair types, dreadlocks, cornrolls and so on.
It opens up a whole new avenue of possible racist, sexist issues.

At primary school the kids had to tie their hair back to stop the spread of nits. Quite sensible.

Yes, there was a big hoo ha around here at one point, about how certain hairstyles were ok for some, and not others.
Long hair on boys, I think it was.

MissAdventure

I agree on the uniformity comment.
Even hairstyles are dictated; particularly for boys, and how short or long their hair should be.
I find that utterly ridiculous.

It's not just ridiculous. At one point it became quite racist with schools insisting on a level of "tidy" haircut that could not be applied to black hair.

Nannee49

DaisyAnne, I disagree uniforms create uniformity. I still see my lovely friends from high school 60 years ago. We all wore exactly the same uniform yet all eight of us could not be more different in terms of thought, opinions, creativity, lifestyles and political views both then and now.

You are entitled to your opinion Nannee49, as am I.

I agree on the uniformity comment.
Even hairstyles are dictated; particularly for boys, and how short or long their hair should be.
I find that utterly ridiculous.

DaisyAnne, I disagree uniforms create uniformity. I still see my lovely friends from high school 60 years ago. We all wore exactly the same uniform yet all eight of us could not be more different in terms of thought, opinions, creativity, lifestyles and political views both then and now.

MawtheMerrier

^Uniform does not mean equality, it means uniformity^
Whoulda thunk it
The clue is in the word..

My reply was oh - so much longer. But it means the same thing. One day I will learn to be succinct

I am positively against uniforms. Children can look sweet in them and China seems to think they are useful in moulding their society. I feel that uniform wearing creates uniform thinking. I don't think it fits students for the needs of our future society.

I cannot see how uniforms help young people to develop imagination, empathy, resilience, entrepreneurship or the ability to value your failure as much as your successes. If we want another "we won" generation or even a generation of robots on the production line, uniforms would serve you well. We are, however, well past the need for these.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Uniform does not mean equality, it means uniformity
Whoulda thunk it
The clue is in the word..

My grandson is at a school based nursery and has to wear a uniform. He likes it because he feels he looks like everyone else.

I'm aware he'll hate it at 15!

Riverwalk

^As for the poor child/rich child thing. That is entirely in the minds of the adults. If they didn't constantly harp on it, the children wouldn't notice.^

Well I certainly noticed Monica - as a young teen how could I not notice that I had so few clothes?

You obviously didn't grow up poor.

I certainly noticed as well when they laughed at my scarf which was probably old stock and they knew by our blazer badges were different. My parents shouted at me for caring and told me to tell them where to go. It was not my parents feeling inadequate in fact my father's job was much better than a lot who were laughing.

I would say, with lockdowns, my grandsons uniform cost me over £1000 to supply last year.
School socks, blazers, leather shoes, rugby kit, etc.

My parents didn't harp on about being poor. They didn't even know how much it mattered. But even in primary school I could see the difference very clearly. A generic uniform would have made me feel a bit confident. Confidence is important in developing personality and individuality.
I don't think you understand the problem Monica.

I don't know where you all live but I live in Midlothian and 2 DGC in East Lothian and this is what they wear at primary. High School is different but not got there yet.

None of the schools in my area have that kind of uniform biglouis. Only private schools. All the schools have is teeshirts or polos, sweatshirt and trousers or skirts. You can have the logo or not. Schools have uniforms for people who cannot afford it and Sainsburys do a collection of school uniforms for those who can't afford - seen the box in the store. All the teeshirts, sweats and trousers skirts can be bought in any stores - Primark, Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, M&S, Next etc. My DGC come home filthy every day from nursery and school - school has all weather pitch, climbing frames, tyres and huge muddy puddles. Nursery has lots of outdoor play including mud kitchens - children are encouraged to be outside as much as possible these days. White socks and white blouses are a definite no no ?

Children make up their own, varying reasons to judge, I think, just the same as adults.
It's very much in evidence on here at times.
Daytime tv.
Tattoos.
Not cooking "from scratch".
Mask wearing.
False nails.
Latest phones.
Holiday choices.
Perceived hygiene standards.
Daily mail usage.
So on,.

I am also a big fan of uniforms, particularly now that trainers can cost £180 pounds a pair and are worn as status symbols!

I was always amazed when I worked in a school how many parents moaned about the cost of the uniform yet couldn’t be bothered to sew name tapes in!

Children learn snobbery from the people they spend time with... parents, peer groups etc. I am glad I was able to leave my boarding school aged 12/13 & go to the local comp. I think I might have had a different outlook on life if I had stayed. Children brought up to be critical of others clothes, homes etc. & to judge people on their socio economic status will do that..uniforms or not!

Monica, I most certainly did notice when friends at school had mothers who’d often buy nice new clothes for them, whereas anything new I had - even including bras - after about 13 (before that it was hand me down) was bought with my Christmas/birthday/babysitting money.

We weren’t exactly poor, either, but most of any spare cash went to pay boarding school fees for the one boy out of four of us. Funnily enough I never thought to resent it at the time!

I'm for uniform, but not as it currently is at schools, where the cost is more than for designer clothes, and they have to wear socks that cost as much as jumper.

We didn’t wear uniform until high school my mum found it a struggle I always got hand me downs. We didn’t have many clothes either looking back at photos we always had the same clothes on.
My twin grandchildren’s uniforms cost nearly £500 that’s only for primary school. Because they have edging and badgers on the blazers and jumpers it’s expensive. I think uniform is a good idea but the cost of them needs to come down considerably.