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I think it's a good thing because it reduces bullying but a bad thing because the clothes you were eexpresses who you are.
My first primary school was uniform and we all did quite well academically where as after we moved house and I went to another one it was non uniform and most lessons descended into chaos or never started getting going at all because it didn't feel like we were at school to learn.
When we went to secondary school the kids from non uniform schools took a bit of a culture shock at having to wear a uniform and took a while to adjust.
the only fashion
> trend we could set was the type of shoes we wore (Doc Martens
> were banned outright the day after they first appeared) so we
> were limited somewhat.
At my school we have to wear the uniform or we get put off timetable which basically meens we stay with our tutor (register teacher) all day and not see our mates all day as well as that we have to stay one hour after school. Also we have to wear plain black shoes (not even timberlands) or we get put of time table even if it only has one little stripe on it!!!
Despite going to a Grammar School there was a lot of bullying and a differentiation between 'cool' and 'uncool'. Within the uniform it meant leaving a shirt untucked, rolling it out of your trousers the second after a teacher had told you to tuck it in. For the tie it was worn as low as possible, and many people just replaced the tie with their own. As for the suit jacket, anyone that didn't wear it was forced to get one out of the school office.
In year 7 the thing with the jacket was to have the flaps tucked in, for no real reason, and there was a game to take them out the pockets. In the earlier years of the school everyone also conformed with wearing grey socks but a few years in and almost everyone wears any colour of sock. Only trousers were allowed and they were supposed to be grey and match the suit, yet many people stretched this with slightly different shades.
Hair was always supposed to be short and jewellery not expected to be worn. Bearing in mind it was a single-sex school with a girls school a minute walk away, with the same field. Most people went through a long hair phase, and although the school made threats about the length no one was particularly scared of the threats of detentions.
In the sixth form the rules became less tight, allowing any colour of suit and shirt to be worn with any length of hair, as long as it was 'clean and conventional'.
Uniform was good in that conformity didn't encourage people to bully each other, however, it does constrain you, not just in your freedom to wear what you like but by the warm and annoying nature of the clothes themselves. Squeezing eleven year olds into suits will never be the best of ideas. Having said that, it does prepare people for a 'grey suit' type job.