Mark Zuckerberg is one of the wealthiest people on the planet yet is often seen wearing the same plain clothes. This isn’t by accident or a lack of taste, but merely a lack of interest. Mark and many other successful people quite openly state that their wardrobes are full of the same plain outfits, purely because it makes choosing what to wear easy, saving them one less decision that they must make in their hectic days. Some also argue it’s because they’re not interested in impressing people with their expensive attire.
Cast your minds back to own clothes day at your school: you probably laid out your outfit the night before or spent the morning rushing to try on 9 different T-shirts before reverting to the 3rd option. It’s this unnecessary and time-consuming decision which is eliminated with school uniforms. By making the choice for pupils, we can keep their stress levels to a minimum and ensure they start the day off free from doubt, indecision, and pressure.
Speaking of pressure, we all know what it can be like to pick an outfit for certain social events. The thoughts start creeping in as you look in the mirror, ‘I had a photo in this top 2 months ago’, ‘My arms look too muscular’, ‘My feet will hurt in these shoes, but they look nice’. For many students, school can feel like a social event, so without a uniform they’d be repeating this process 5 days a week for around 40 weeks a year. The pressure that uniforms can relieve is unquantifiable. With mental health at the forefront of our thinking these days, the last thing our next generations need are to be second guessing menial decisions or suffering teasing or bullying over something avoidable.
Uniforms not only provide a sense of belonging, organisation, and togetherness, they’re an equaliser. Underprivileged children or families may not have 40 tops and 10 pairs of shoes that they can rotate – but maintaining and rotating a few sets of uniform is far less of a strain, especially if the initial purchase of school uniform is aided by government funding. Schools like Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, Florida, for example, implemented a uniform policy that led to reduced socio-economic pressures and increased inclusivity among students.
The use of uniform means that, aside from social interactions between lessons, students can fully focus on the tasks and activities in front of them. By removing the aforementioned stress and decisions of picking out an outfit, students in uniform are more relaxed and likely to engage during lessons, rather than adjusting their jewellery or sleeves. A study conducted by the University of Houston, for instance, found that schools with uniform policies reported fewer disciplinary issues and improved academic performance in comparison to schools without uniforms.
Now, let’s look a couple of the cons of school uniforms.
You could argue that school uniforms limit students’ ability to express themselves and explore their personal style. By mandating specific attire, schools may inadvertently curb their students’ creativity and discourage self-expression.
It’s also been suggested that uniforms promote conformity among students and suppress diversity as individuality is less celebrated. Consequently, this can hinder the development of critical thinking and discourage students from challenging norms.
There will be a number of students who do not see themselves settling down in to office jobs or wearing shirts and ties every day. This can lead to some students trying to ‘add their own twist’ to their uniform, like wearing their tie shorter or untucking their shirt. So while everyone may be wearing the same uniform, you’re likely to have a small number of students who dislike or even rebel against it.
While we can’t be certain if a school uniform is or is not the right thing for students, we can be sure that the right MIS does make a difference to learning outcomes. Our cloud-based MIS is the most fully featured on the market, enabling teachers and staff to carry out all their tasks quickly and easily in one intuitive system rather than waste time moving between third-party apps and their MIS. With less time spent using their MIS, they have more to dedicate to teaching and supporting their students.
You can learn more about Bromcom MIS here. Or, if you want to find out how our advanced system is having a direct impact on learning outcomes for students across the country, check out our case studies.