School Uniforms For the Win

Over the years, schools have become a playground for gangs wearing their insignia, fashion wars, and students displaying distracting media inspired apparel. Communities are becoming worried about the emphatic role that apparel is playing in the school environment. On a daily basis students face important decisions based solely on clothing choice. In school, clothing can be used for many things. Clothing can be a statement of socio-economic status, an attention grabbing tool, a rebellious act, a way to show which gang you belong to, and even a means to smuggle drugs and weapons on campus. None of these uses have anything to do with what should be students top priority, which is learning.

Although there is some support and agreement that clothing choice causes issues for students and staff at school, not everyone agrees that it's a problem that needs to be remedied. There are some that say limiting dress choice is against students' constitutional rights and freedom of expression. These proponents suggest that letting schools enforce dress codes is giving those in power too much control. Also, asserted is that putting standards on what students can wear increases the cost to attend school and gives parents more to worry about.

While the opinions of those who don't think dress choice should be limited are considered, the most popular solution to issues concerning students clothing is to institute school uniform policies. School uniforms solve most clothing concerns and issues. Students socio-economic status can be hidden behind a uniform making school a more level playing field socially for students who are from low income families. Also, when all students come to school in an expected attire, no attention is drawn to specific students who use their clothing as an attention grabbing tactic. Some students rebel through their clothing choice, maybe choosing to wear things they know make others around them feel uncomfortable. Annmarie Kelly Harbaugh, a school teacher, starts practicing what she will say to her students when they start a new school year wearing revealing trends that make other students uncomfortable by coming up with things like, "Before school, you have one chance to cover your body. If you miss, then it's my turn" (1). School uniforms decrease the amount of times she would have to say this. Furthermore, school uniforms make it unacceptable to wear gang colors and harder to smuggle drugs and weapons onto campus.

Since school uniforms solve so many problems at school it is rational to support schools in their choice to implement uniform policies. Showing support for uniforms can be done in many ways. Communities can educate their families and citizens about the positive things that come from uniforms. If a uniform policy doesn't exist, parent groups and advocates can hold informational open houses, pass out informative brochures, have meetings with local educators, and write articles on school uniforms and their positive contributions in local papers. Doing these things will help insure that school uniforms can be implemented and have a positive impact on school atmosphere for deserving students.

Cause and Effect

In the argument for school uniforms there is a cause and effect rhetoric at play. The school environment is very important to learning and needs to be maintained at a positive level. School uniforms are a cause of positive outcomes in the school environment.  School uniforms are responsible for positive environment in many ways.
School Uniforms have positive effects at school and at home.  They reduce violent behaviors and discipline problems, which in turn improves attendance.  Not only do they improve attendance, but while students are at school, school uniforms foster school unity, self esteem and motivation.  Academic achievement improvement has been a result of school uniforms.  School uniforms reduce stress for families that have children attending school by being cost effective, and a simple option.  These are not the only positive effects of school uniforms, but they would be enough for me to give them a try with my kids. 

Tools of the Opposition

In any argument there is more than one side.  For my topic there are those for school uniform policies and those against.  I am for.  My opposition has their own reasons for being against.
Those that are opposed to school uniforms claim that uniforms are against the constitutional rights of students.  They cite the first amendment and freedom of speech as backup to their claim.
Another claim by the opposition is that uniforms don't actually have any affect on school performance or environment.  They point to examples of testing done by David Brunsma that asserts there is little or no change in a positive manner that comes from students wearing school uniforms.  They also point to examples of schools that have excellent academic scores and don't implement school uniforms. They assert that any positive change from uniforms in schools is only perceived.  They cite psychologists who say that anything that looks good is also assumed to have other good qualities also.
I think they have some good points, but the points I agree with more are pro uniform claims.

It's Been Three Weeks Now....

It's been three weeks now that I've been delving into this topic.  Delving has helped me discover in depth why both sides feel how they do about school uniforms.  When I first started researching this topic I was swaying towards the "against school uniforms" side of the fence.  After about the first week though, I changed to the "for school uniforms" side of the fence.  The reason I changed my mind about which side of the fence I'm on is that I agree with the pro uniformers' chief claims.  I was uneducated before researching the topic as to why people would be pro uniform.
There are many reasons to be on either side of the issue.  If you are pro uniforms you could cite reasons like they positively affect family stress, they help create a positive atmosphere in schools, they decrease discipline issues, and they help facilitate safety for students and staff of schools on and off campus.  If you are anti school uniforms you could cite the reasons that they create more family stress, the positive atmosphere that is said to come from uniforms is perceived not fact, they create more things for staff to keep track of including who has opted out and who hasn't, that students will find a way to be violent if they want to whether they are wearing uniforms or not, and that they infringe upon student's rights to have self expression and freedom of speech.
Having decided for sure where I stand, now it is time to educate others why I did so and support my reasoning as firmly and clearly as possible.

Definitions

Sometimes as writers we need to define things about our topic for our audience.  Today, in class, we chose terms that may need definition and cited how other authors of our topic do this.  For my topic I chose the terms gang violence, school climate, school uniform, morale, and opting out.  These terms cover a wide range of the knowledge needed to understand the debate being covered.
It is important for the audience to know the definition of these terms so they can think about and analyze for themselves the argument being presented.  For example, it is important to know that school yard gang violence is just an extension of street gang violence and is just as deadly.  Knowing that, in most cases where school uniforms are the rule, there is a clause of opting out is important to the audience.  Morale and climate speak to the emotional side of schooling and inform that there is more to consider than test scores alone.  To make a successful claim these terms need to be addressed and illustrated before the argument can really be debated.

Cost Advantages of School Uniforms

This advertisement is nothing unusual.  The appeal is to needs and desires.  The needs and desires addressed are frugality, availability, and feeling unique. This store advertising school uniforms is easily accessible to most people in America.
Support for my argument in favor of school uniforms is obvious in this ad.  Highlighted points are easy access, affordability, and large individual choice available.  Opponents of school uniforms stress that uniforms are costly, hard to find, and limit your choice of apparel.

School Board Favors Uniforms

An article in News Journal informs about a school board in favor of district wide uniforms.  The author, Linda Tremble, is an education writer.  Tremble presents the process of the decision, focusing the most on the positives of the action.  In the conclusion Tremble cites a few of the negative opinions.
The argument style that Tremble uses is deductive.  Tremble introduces the broad topic of what decision was made and then details the steps taken to come to the decision.  Her focus on mostly positive aspects clues in the audience to her stance on the argument.
Tremble sets up the major premise in the beginning of the argument process and then spends most of the article detailing the minor premise. In the end, Tremble's use of a mother's negative claim on school uniforms gives the audience the knowledge that she is aware of the opposition and understands their claims. Doing so, Tremble furthers the belief that she is solid on her stance.

Article: Mar. 30, 2011 News journal.  Linda Tremble.

All You Ever Wanted to Know About My Sources

My first source is Pauline Wallin, Ph.D.  Wallin is a licensed psychologist, life coach, and author.  She provides many therapy services and coaches people with personal difficulties including school underachievement. Her claims are valuable because she has professional experience interpreting data from statisics and applying the data to given situations.  When she has a particular view on something involving school success we can trust her because she has experience working with school underachievers and has certainties about what is successful in those cases.
My second source is Carol Motsinger.  Motsinger works for USA Today.  She initially comes from a talent development program called Leadership and Diversity.  This program picks only the most promising and talented candidates for their opportunities.  Motsinger started to work with USA Today through this program.  The USA Today paper is extremely liberal and so are it's writers.  When we read a claim from Motsinger we can trust that it will be current, educated, and coming from a writer that is experienced and has amazing access to sources.

Topic of debate

Recently I was driving through an intersection where two different schools had just let their students out for the day.  I got the chance to see the students from both schools walking to their different destinations.  The transition looked normal enough so I started thinking about other things when I realized that the students at one school wore uniforms and the students from the other did not.   I started to wonder about the reasons for the two different stands on attire that the schools had made.  Thus I am going to delve into the debate going on with this decision.  My opinion at the onset is that students should have some restrictions on what they wear.  I also think that uniforms are an unnecessary demand.  Maybe my opinion will change.