At any school where there is more than one pupil, there will be peer pressure. This is not just hard on the child involved, but it is also hard for the parent. Some children come from families that are not very wealthy, and cannot afford to spend a lot of money on a new pair of trainers every time the fashion changes. This sort of situation can be very upsetting for the parent, as they may feel as if they are letting their child down, because they are unhappy with their circumstances. When the parent is aware that their child is unhappy, or being bullied, it is very distressing for them to feel that there is nothing much that they can do about it. School uniform would help mask income differences between families.
Some people have the rather extreme view that school uniforms are a lot like prison uniforms. They believe that having a school uniform will make pupils feel enclosed and under pressure. They say that any type of uniform will take away the students form of self-expression.
A problem with a lot of children is their short attention span, and the fact that they are very easily distracted. A drawstring on a sweatshirt might be fun to fiddle with, or the bright yellow gel in the side of a pair of trainers could be interesting to squish and push around. These are some arguments put forward by people who are for school uniform. The fewer distractions there are in the learning environment, the better. It might not seem obvious, but a child in normal clothes has lot more to mess around with, than a child in a shirt and tie, and suit. They could have earrings, necklaces, or other items of jewellery that they could be distracted by. This would mean that they would not be working as hard as they could, or listening as much as they should be, which in turn, means that they are probably not learning as much as they could be. Another thing is that some people could wear inappropriate clothes that would distract other people. Girls wearing revealing clothes would distract boys, just as somebody wearing pyjamas would distract everybody else.
A lot of clothes that children wear have significance to the sort of music they listen to, or the sort of beliefs they have, and this would incite people with contrasting beliefs to argue, and in some cases, physically fight. A lot of people who are into the rock genre of music, like to dress in dark clothes, or flares, dye their hair black, and have a lot of piercings on their faces. These people are called grungers, and would be picked on very often. Other items of clothing like this would include gang colours, hoodies with potentially offensive symbols on them, and belts with initials on the buckle. These are all things that would cause conflict in the school, and should be eliminated.
School uniforms also make it easier for members of staff at times such as on school trips, when students are less likely to get lost as they will always be able to find the people that are dressed like them, and teachers will find it easier to count the heads of the people that are there.
Schools need to be safe, and a school dress code can help by assisting members of staff to immediately recognise intruders who come to the school. It would be obvious that anyone who was dressed in the correct way would belong within on the school premises, but anyone who was not dressed correctly could easily be identified as an intruder. Because of this, anyone potentially harmful to the members of the school could easily be spotted and escorted from the grounds.
In general I do feel that school uniform is a good idea, however there is one particular aspect of it that I think could be rethought. At a lot of schools that have school uniform, there are strict rules regarding items of clothing with religious significance. Religious children are often forced to choose not to go to a certain school because of its policies on religious clothes. Schools are generally not allowed to prohibit the wearing of items such as yarmulkes, or force students to cut hair when their religion forbids it, but the attitude that some members of staff have towards things like this might be reason enough for choosing a different school.
