Uniformication - Isaac Sprague

Uniformication

by Isaac Sprague

    Many people know that I went to Australia last year. However, many people do not know that I wore a school uniform while there. When we think of school in the US we think of kids dressed in jeans and t-shirts. But, in Australia when thinking of a kids in school a person thinks of them dressed in their school’s colors; sadly my schools colors were green, white and black. Disgusting. Most kids in Australia, however, never get to benefit from a free dress code. They were forced to wear the itchy, uncomfortable and lame clothes that the generations before them had to wear. I do understand the benefits of wearing school uniforms such as everybody is the same so bullying lessens, people don’t have to figure out what to wear, and teachers can easily tell if someone is an outsider.

    The problem with some of those benefits is they are not necessarily true. When someone says that uniforms allow for less bullying this isn’t true because while at my school in Australia it was easy to tell the difference between people and their social groups. For instance, the “pretty” girls with all their makeup were in a group of their own and the weird kids were in a group of their own. However, it did help in some instances for a select group of people.

    Another negative part of a wearing a uniform for me was I had to make sure my uniform was always clean. Now most people say, “Wasn’t it nice not to have to find something to wear everyday before school?” Well, I say it was awful because as a guy if I do not feel like wearing something nice one day I just grab my jeans and a t-shirt and slip on a pair of shoes. The benefit of this is, it can all be done in seconds. But, when I had a uniform I had to abide by rules. I had to make sure that I had the right pants, the right shirt and that my collar was perfect when fitted with a sweater. I also had to make sure that I had black shoes with laces and that I was wearing black socks at all times otherwise I would be reprimanded by a school official.

When it comes to outsiders, the assumption is that kids will immediately tell an official that there is a person they do not know in the school area. But at my school in Australia I was not in a closed building. Our lockers were outside under a canopy and people walked freely in and out of the building. Another problem though was that not one kid was worried when a stranger walked onto the campus. This was because whenever a person walked onto the campus they were either a friend of a student or a parent of the student. So, really there was no way to tell the difference between friend or foe. At least with Australia’s laws I didn’t have to worry about someone coming to the school with an automatic rifle because they are a lot more strict than on gun regulations.

In the end I did not like uniforms and I will never like them. I enjoyed my time in Australia and my friends at my school there. Do I think that uniforms are right for our school? No.