SHOULD SCHOOL UNIFORMS BE REQUIRED?

Wearing school uniforms was a very common thing decades ago, it was compulsory to wear it
at every school. However, over time, schools have been leaving aside the use of these and
nowadays it has become a very controversial topic, since people do not stop wondering
whether schools should require the use of uniforms or not and it usually leads them to argue
about it. It is said that the insistence of these is to avoid inappropriate clothes with offending
words or sentences or even to avoid girls wearing clothes that are considered inappropriate
for them, such as shorts skirts and tops. Some studies have also said that it improves the
students’ school performance. They can also be used to advertise certain schools. Inquiring the
use of uniforms has, as everything, its negative and positive parts and in the lines below I will
tell why I think that schools should stop demanding using them.

First of all, when children are demanded to wear the same clothes every day, they may feel
limited at the time of self-exploration. What is their own style? What do they like wearing?
What kind of clothes do they feel comfortable in? It imposes the idea that there are certain
clothes that are made for girls and other ones for boys and makes more harder than it is to
some people to understand that there are no determined clothes for each gender. Everybody,
both boys and girls, is allowed to wear the clothes they want to and it should not be a
problem.

Secondly, it is completely sexist and stereotyped since schools that inquire their students to
wear uniforms take for granted that only girls can wear skirts and boys trousers. They will
always make objections whenever a boy wants to use a a skirt, because according to them they
are made so girls can wear them and will treat them like they had some kind of problem or if it
were a stage on their lives which will pass eventually. Why cannot a boy wear a skirt if he feels
comfortable in it? We live in the 21 st century and we must make progress in our society. Also,
the fact that skirts must have certain measurement and if it is shorter than allowed most of
the times students will be grounded because they are considered to be a distraction to other
students.

Moreover, they are more expensive than conventional clothes. Uniforms can be worth $99 if
you buy the cheapest ones but it can be also worth up to $250 or more and some families
cannot afford spending that amount of money for their children and there are some others
that simply do not want to. It may appear to be cheaper at first, since students only need one
or maybe two uniforms for the whole year, or even for two. Otherwise, it is not cheaper than
buying two pair of trousers and some shirts, which you can buy at a thrift shop that can cost
$30-40 or less.

In short, we have to understand that we must move forward as a society and the fact that
some schools still force children to wear uniforms, limiting their personal exploration, leads us
to understand that there is much that remains to be done. I sincerely hope that someday
schools are done demanding children wearing clothes they may not feel comfortable in taking
for granted that this way children will not be laugh at because there is equality between them
and that they are wearing the clothes they have to as an excuse. People who think this have a
serious problem in their minds.