Dear Mr Shorey,
In the last school newsletter you stated that you were thinking about getting rid of school uniform. I feel that getting rid of school uniform would be a big mistake and in this letter I am going to explain why I think this by stating my opinion in a balanced argument.
During assembly would you rather look upon a sea of blue jumpers and smart looking students or a muddle and mis-match of all sorts of colours and scruffy looking children’school uniform gives the school an identity and keeps it, as well as the pupils, looking smart. Our school’s school uniform should be worn with pride and we should be proud to belong to Court-Moor and not our rivals Calthorpe!
Another reason for wearing school uniform is that when we are on day trips with the school it is much easier for teachers to see who belongs with whom. If there are hundreds of people around and a teacher is trying to find his or her students in amongst such chaos it would be much easier to spot them if they are in school uniform.
There is also a much more serious reason why uniform should be worn: bullying.
People are bullied because of their skin colour, if they’re fat or thin, ugly, spotty, if they have no friends, a slightly up-turned nose, a big nose, big ears, large lips, no lips, slanted eyes, if they smell, the list goes on and if you get rid off school uniform you’ll just be increasing this list. People will be bullied for not having the right clothes; these people probably don’t have enough money to buy clothes in fashion. There will be others who wear the same thing over and over again and will get picked on for that “No wonder you smell, you’ve worn that top for the past week!” It’s not fair, but having school uniform stops this kind of bullying because people can’t be judged on the clothes they wear as everyone is wearing the same.
This, surprisingly, takes me to a reason for getting rid of school uniform; all the students wear the same thing. A number of people say everyone has a right to be their own individual but wearing school uniform suppresses one’s individuality. It is a human right to have freedom of speech and some would say this freedom of speech could be expressed through the choice of clothes someone wears. Does that mean the wearing of school uniform is wrong and goes against human rights?
If we, the students were to wear our own clothes everyday I guarantee that people would be stuck for what to wear and back to what I said earlier, no-one wants to be seen to be wearing the same thing twice in a close period of time. This means buying more and more clothes, which is just too expensive. School uniform is much cheaper and more hardwearing as well so lasts longer. The clothes the students wear at weekends would be ruined and become tatty much quicker than before, which again leads to the buying of more clothes or coming to school in rags and that just isn’t smart or even casual, just grubby and untidy.
Most students would agree with your decision to lose school uniform and they would just nod along with your reasons for getting rid of uniform pretending they agree but actually the girls don’t like uniform because you can’t see their figure underneath it, so they can’t flaunt in front of the boys and vice-versa, the boys want to impress the girls. This seems to me to be a good reason for keeping school uniform.
The only commendable reason for getting rid of school uniform is the fact that it suppresses one’s individuality and everyone has a right to express themselves but it’s not only clothes that allow a person to express themselves but their hair as well. If you get rid of school uniform students will then start to argue that because there isn’t a uniform anymore they should be allowed to wear their hair the way they want. You wont be able to argue; if you do, you would make yourself a hypocrite. If you then relax rules on hair, the girls are then going to start arguments about make-up and why shouldn’t they be allowed to wear it, next comes jewellery. It’s like a chain-reaction. Imagine you have visitors or prospective parents looking around the school, what would you rather they saw. A mob of scruffy looking students with strange hairstyles and girls skimpily clad with makeup to match or some smart looking students, ties done up properly, skirts not too short, model pupils that are an excellent representative for your school.
I admit it is much more pleasant to be in your own clothes than school uniform, I feel much more relaxed in normal everyday clothes and occasionally I can feel quite uncomfortable in school uniform. Even so I would rather wear school uniform at school than my normal clothes because school is a place for working and when adults go to work they look smart, so why shouldn’t I look smart too?
A good way of raising money for charity is by having mufti days but if you get rid of school uniform we wont be able to raise money this way and will have to think of other ways but none will be as successful as mufti days. Having mufti days has always made the students hyper-active and excited, will everyday at school be like that if we don’t have school uniform or will we get bored of wearing our own clothes? The excitement will wane and all that will of happened is that we’ve lost a fantastic way of raising money for charities.
The only worthy argument for getting rid off school uniform I can find is that uniform suppresses one’s individuality and everyone has a right to express themselves. If you think about it this isn’t really true though, everyone has his or her own personality and uniform can’t restrain that, everyone can shine whether or not they are wearing their own clothes. Every single person is unique even if they are wearing the same thing, people will just have to find a different way to express themselves than through their clothes. Therefore, I see no reason why you should get rid of school uniform only reasons to keep it, I hope I have given you something to think about and hopefully persuaded you to reconsider your decision to liberate school uniform.
Yours sincerely,
Clare Fenwick
