Ban the Blazer

Ban the Blazer

 At precisely 6:30 every morning an army of zombie-like teenagers trudge towards their wardrobes and grasp a crisp white shirt and pair of neatly ironed trousers. They fumble with their buttons, mumble and groan. They systematically fasten their ties firmly around their necks before heading to rhythmically brush their teeth and pack their ten tonne bag. Finally the zombie militia, slightly more awake now, walk out the front door, while placing a midnight blue – previously black- blazer, filled with needless objects. This is the tediousness of a tired teenager, which they experience until they are 18. In this rant I will cover 5 reasons as to why school uniform should be abolished: the fact it doesn’t affect performance of a school, the absurd cost, the bullying “created by not having a uniform”, the fact that uniform is simply a ridiculous concept and the point that it is an obviously sexist ideal.

So, first of all, the argument that by not having uniform the grades of students improves, especially in failing schools where a new head teacher has been brought in. The fact of the matter is the new “super head” is actually making students do their work, as well as enforcing the horrendous draconian uniform, by forcing the unfortunate children not to double knot their laces, as it looks untidy, and making sure they have precisely 12 buttons on their blouse or shirt. How is spending hours being so pedantic about the number of pockets a blazer has going to help a child get a higher grade?

Furthermore, research shows that a child in their own choice of clothes is more likely to get higher grades. According to Professor Ludvig Billtoft, who is a behaviour analyst at Öre University in Sweden: “a child is more relaxed and focused in their own choice of clothes, and due to this they often achieve higher grades. Moreover, a fixed uniform encourages a child to have a fixed mind-set, which is often more pessimistic, instead of inspiring them to be more creative with a growth mind set.” By forcing children into scratchy shirts you are actually lowering their grades, just because you want them to look smart.

Uniform is unreasonably priced. It is £45 for a blazer that a child takes off most of the time due to the stifling heat of a cramped classroom. Over the 5 years a child is in secondary school you are expecting parents to fork out over £225 on one item. Next there are the blouses, which are around £20 for 2, and you need 4, so that’s £40 girls have to spend on blouses, while the boys could get their shirts much cheaper. You could get all of a child’s clothes for much less if you bought items on the high street.

The cost of items depends on the size required, meaning larger students have to pay more for their uniform due to something out of their control. This is ridiculous. I understand that it takes more material, but not £7.25 more! Then there’s the “its VAT money” statement. If the government had seriously thought about this, they would realise that no adult is going to wear a student’s blazer, especially when they can get one cheaper elsewhere.

“Getting rid of uniform is going to increase the amount of bullying that occurs in the school.” What a load of rubbish. This often in reference to the fact that it will show the financial wellbeing of a student, but you can already tell by what bag they have, as well as many other give away signs, such as: what phone they have and most obviously what they wear on non-uniform days.                                                           Furthermore, referring back to non-uniform, Schools are preventing children from conveying certain aspects of their personality, which is often done via their fashion sense. Often the reasoning behind this is to prevent people being bullied because of stereotypes, such as being “non-trendy”, “emo” or “provocative”. Firstly I believe that somebody’s dress sense should affect whether they are viewed as promiscuous. By telling a young girl that she should cover up their body because she sexualizing herself is wrong and something cannot be sexual unless it is perceived as sexualized, the blame lies solely on those who view them as sexual objects. Effectively, by telling young people this you are enforcing  rape culture by saying if people are dressed as a promiscuous stereotype, it is okay to view them as sexual objects.                                                                                                                         Uniform doesn’t prevent bullying, but it can prevent bullying being dealt with. If you are spending over an hour correcting students uniform because they haven’t ironed their shoe laces, you are most definitely missing out on other issues that you could devote your “valuable” time to, such as paying more attention to students who are being. IN addition, not many people would question another persons dress sense to their face, often it involves slandering a person you dislike and having a snicker with a close friend about it, rather than hurling abuse at someone - just because you think that they shouldn’t wear that t-shirt with those jeans.