School Dress Codes

My thesis is that uniforms are a good idea in public schools because they are far less distracting than the kinds of clothing students wear today. They allow students to focus on their work and not be distracted by girls in short skirts barely covering their underwear and spaghetti strap tops, and boys in heavy metal T-shirts with violent slogans, and baggy pants almost dropping off their hips and showing their underwear. Uniforms promote a sense of belonging and togetherness, of cooperation with fellow students. They show that everyone is alike, that they are all in the same boat, all pursuing the same goals. This reduces tension and competitiveness and encourages the students to concentrate on their studies.

Research so far has shown no clear link between how students dress and their behavior, but "anecd

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roblems yet, but they want to avoid them in the future. Twenty-five percent of parents were very supportive of it, 50 percent were very ambivalent, and 25 percent were totally and completely opposed," says McDonald (Niedermair). "They felt we were impinging on their constitutional rights and they just didn't think there was a good reason." However, the schools allowed students to apply for a waiver if their parents objected to the uniform for religious or philosophical reasons, and gradually more and more students asked for waivers until the program had to be dropped. June Million, spokesperson for the National Association for Elementary School Principles feels individual schools need to make the decision on uniforms, but notes that, "It's my feeling that if the school gets together with parents, teachers, and students and they all come to agreement that uniforms would be beneficial, they usually end up being pretty well-received" (Niedermair). Reni McLemore, a founding member of Citizens for Parental Rights, a group based in Lafayette, Louisiana, feels that school uniforms destroy an individual's right to be different. "Basically, we are against mandatory school uniforms," she says. "It sends the wrong message to chi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2440
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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