by Freya Pretty
It is most likely that you wear a school uniform when attending school – or did in the past. But do you think they are needed? Why can’t you dye your hair? Why do you have to wear a blazer inside? Do students feel like they can’t express themselves at school?
What are your opinions?
When asking the students in Temple Times their opinions, 30% said that they were necessary, while 20% said they weren’t. Another 30% said we should wear uniforms, but it should be less strict and the last 20% said they weren’t sure. Alex Clay (Year 7) told me her opinion: ‘I think school uniforms are not needed, but we should have something like a school badge which we can pin onto our clothes.’
Another student said: ‘We should be able to wear whatever we want, but it has to be appropriate and on school trips you should wear the school colours.’ Someone else suggested that we should be able to wear our own clothes once a week, or at least have more home-clothes days. Another opinion was that bullying may occur if students wear their own clothes.
Why do we wear them?
After doing some research, it seems there is a general consensus that they have here to A) instil discipline and a sense of community and B) stop bullying or creating a feeling of having to wear trendy clothes to fit in from occurring.
Conclusion
So, are they needed? This question is very hard to answer and people will have opposing opinions about this. I think this question doesn’t necessarily have a ‘right’ answer – but it definitely is worth discussing. Uniforms are very important. The sense of community it creates is good and not having to choose an outfit helps. It also makes non-school uniform days more exciting. Meanwhile, having the freedom to choose what you wear and express yourself could be considered very important. While wearing a uniform does seem to have many pros – which is most likely why we wear them – most students would say they enjoy wearing their own clothes to wearing a uniform. So, as a final question to you, what do you think?
