DEBATE on Are Uniforms a Good Way to Improve Student Discipline and Essay

DEBATE on Are Uniforms a Good Way to Improve Student Discipline and Motivation - Essay Example In the US for example, it is observable that majority of schools prefer prescribing dressing codes as opposed to school uniforms, due to the lack of a strict national legislation to make wearing of school uniforms mandatory. In this context, 2006 statistics indicated that only 14% of public schools in the country had their students wearing uniforms, while 55% had dressing codes (Hamilton, 2008). A dressing code is different from uniforms in that students are allowed to wear clothing items of their choice as long as they conform with stipulated restrictions and guidelines, which, for example, may include and not limited to; length of a dress, colors, skin exposure etc. This paper is a critical evaluation on whether school uniforms should be made compulsory as a way of promoting discipline and student motivation. School Uniforms Wearing of School uniforms is a good way of promoting discipline among students as well as motivating them to concentrate on their studies. It is true to say t hat the contemporary world is full of diversity ranging from different types of cultures to social and economic disparities. This is no different in institutions of learning, where it is found that different students come from families which are different in terms of wealth. In this context, failure to impose uniforms on students would be a way of extending the disparities to schools, as each and every student would be motivated to outdo each other in terms of fashion, whereby it would be easy to tell which student comes from a poor family and which one comes from a wealthy one. This is one way of promoting inequality, which is a potential cause for student distraction as those wearing cheap clothing would be possessed by envy towards their rich counterparts (Cruz, 2001). This means that students wearing cheap clothing would have higher chances of not concentrating on what the teacher is saying, as they would be distracted constantly by the habit of evaluating each other’s ou tfit. In a mixed class for example, it would be easy to find ladies wearing provocative clothing in the effort to look sexy, which may be a major distraction to their male counterparts, who have a natural instinct of reacting positively to nudity. School uniforms are important in promoting teamwork (Cruz, 2001). It is said that birds of the same feather flock together. In this context, it means that there is a possibility of exclusion, whereby rich students may tend to form their own study groups whereas poor ones would have to form their own despite the fact that knowledge knows no boundaries. This means that coming from a wealthy family does not guarantee academic excellence, whereas coming from a poor family does not imply poverty of ideas. Uniformity in this context would be of great assistance as it would encourage students to bond and assist each other based on the fact that each and every person has his or her own capacity to understand and interpret issues, but as it is beli eved, two heads are better than one. For example, one may find that a poor student is well established and knowledgeable in a subject such as Mathematics while another from a rich family is good in Physics, but poor in Math and vice versa. If a uniform can play a major role in bringing together these two individuals to assist each other, then, the government and the society at large have a moral obligation to support