I cannot but agree with the statement that all Texas K-12 public schools should adopt a school uniform policy. It is obviously of use to have school uniform policy to be implemented in all Texas K-12 public schools for a number of reasons.
Requiring students to wear school uniform affects the learning environment; moreover, it influences students’ behavior, motivation and academic achievements.
I feel really confident of this because school uniform policy would make it possible not to differentiate between all Texas K-12 public schools students or between classmates belonging to various backgrounds.
Wearing school uniform would also make students focus on the learning process, not their clothes or their interrelationship with each other. It becomes not important what they wear, but what their academic achievements are.
Wearing school uniform, students of all Texas K-12 public schools would become able not to hide their individualities behind the bright covers. School uniform would give a perfect chance to form and express oneself, to demonstrate academic effectiveness and achievements for each student.
In my opinion, focus on having school uniforms compulsory for all Texas K-12 public schools drives our attention away from the existing problems of education process. It brings too many participants of the policy implementation, which is not necessary at all.
At this point, it is also important to consider some other viewpoint as well. Thus, for example, according to Brunsma (2006), a uniform policy can be considered to be ‘analogous to cleaning and brightly painting a deteriorating building in that on the one hand it grabs our immediate attention; on the other hand, it’s only a coat of paint’ (Brunsma, 2006).
Personally, I think that much depends on how we comprehend and treat the surrounding reality.
Wearing school uniform sets up the opportunity to study in a team united by some common idea, which is to give preference to the learning process rather than to following the youth fashion trends. Moreover, it helps
One thing is certain, ‘student dress does not cause or will not cure all the ills facing our schools’ (Anderson, 2002). Wearing uniform would never make anyone study in the better way; neither would it improve attendance, discipline or class performance.
In other words, it is not about the question whether students look cool or not, whether school uniform has any influence of the result of the learning process. It is about the question what students’ minds are occupied with when at school.
References
Anderson, W. (2002). School Dress Codes and Uniform Policies. Reporting on Policy Issues in K-12 Educational Management. Fall 2012, Number 4. Retrieved from https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/3464/dress_code.pdf?sequence=1
Brunsma, D. L. (2006). School Uniform Policies in Public Schools. Principal – A Healthy Child – Special Section. Volume 85, Number 3, January / February 2006. Retrieved from http://www.naesp.org/resources/2/Principal/2006/J-Fp50.pdf
