Individuality at risk

The strictest form of school dress code is the generally hated school uniform, for the girls it is usually khaki or plaid knee length or longer skirts and coordinating polo or dress shirts, for the guys khaki pants and polo or dress shirts too. Everyone looks the same, and it’s harder to be an individual. Yet even when everyone supposedly looks the same, and it is harder to tell the haves from the haves less, or the have not’s, the thing is you can still tell. When I went to middle school, and wore a uniform every day, along with the rest of the students it was blatantly obvious who was popular and who was a nobody.

Anybody could see it, even with the hated uniform; in fact I think the uniforms actually made it worse in some ways. For instance it made it considerably harder for the majority of the students to stand out, and be an individual, and the few people who subtly did not adhere to the dress code were generally more popular, than those who actually did listen to the rules. Do we really need uniforms? From my point of view and experience, they are pointless and do basically nothing to ease social pressure; in fact I believe they make it worse in many ways. So finally do we really need them? I think not.