…just mayyyyyybe it’s beecause they sell the uniform supply contract and make a lot of money for their budget from it? Dunno.
That’s often the case in the UK. The government here issued some flimsy guidelines about uniform policy but many schools are still gouging parents on restrictive and expensive uniforms.
Do all schools in Australia require uniforms or is it just some?
Definitely not all. I know I had some schools (mainly private) that required uniforms,byut all the public ones didn’t.
Really? Which part of Australia?
ACT. Maybe I’m a bit hyperbolic saying all of them. But all the ones I can think of.
Conformity, the theory is that kids will behave better when they all look like each other and can’t single each other out. Which is completely wrong, as we’ll always find ways to separate ourselves from each other.
Schools are full of bad administrators who are poor at managing those they’re responsible for, and a hallmark of bad management is blanket policies, dress codes are an example of this, and dress codes begin a slippery slope of what a student can or can’t do, including hairstyles, extracurricular activities, what they read, and more.
The flip side of the coin is, if parents buy cheaper uniforms they don’t have to buy more expensive, name brand clothes for their children. The school also avoids situations where kids with wealthy parents bully kids from poorer families.
There is probably also an argument for it helping to build school or team spirit, unity etc etc
I went to public school. I never noticed anyone being bullied for wearing cheap clothes.
Kids were more likely to be bullied for how they acted, and it was normally stuff which kinda made sense (not justifying bullying).
I also went to a public school. Kids were definitely singled out for the brands and perceived value of the clothes they wore. There was definitely a pressure to keep up with the latest trends and styles, including those at other schools around the city.
Because public schools have to compete with private schools, the uniforms make them look comparable and has more of an effect on the parents perception of value of the school.
Each public school gets funding dependant on enrolment, the end result is absurd pricing for single income parents. When I was in High School we could get a $7 shirt from Big W and look identical to other students minus the logo.
Nothing is as draconian as school uniforms. School uniforms don’t solve the inequality problem at all as there are always other personal belongings where it can be demonstrated. That being said, any institution that decides what clothes someone else should or should not wear is deeply authoritarian. Of course, there may be certain scenarios where such authoritarianism is necessary. Schools however do not fit such scenarios.
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Have you considered that your kids might protect stuff that they like (in this case, their clothes?). I never gave two shits about my school uniform because I hated it. However, my favourite clothes were always in the best possible condition… cuz uk… I actually liked them?
Fine, your kids might be young/uncaring when it comes to their belongings. Even in that case, you would still need to replace the cheap school polos after they’ve been soiled, right? Who says that non school uniforms have to be expensive? Can your kids not pick clothes when they’re made aware of a budget? You could still have expensive weekend clothes while having cheap weekday clothes that your kids have picked for themselves.
This reads like someone who has never spoken to a kid, much less had one.
I don’t have kids, but I usually am always in close contact with them (babysitting, soooo many younger cousins and so on). But whatever… kids are dumb and cannot possibly have complex thoughts and emotions, eh?
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Okay, so sorry for being extremely rude below. This topic (about the oh so poor parents raising kids) hits home hard, and is a trigger.
dealing with a mortgage and trying to juggle both parents work schedules, drop offs and after school sports
Clothing is one of the most important factors that make up the identity of someone. Humans aren’t supposed to be stormtroopers, you know. Our clothing choices make us unique individuals with differing and interesting personalities. Therefore, if you cannot tend to these extremely basic needs because of your “mortgage and blah blah blah”, maybe you shouldn’t have had kids in the first place. They’re not puppies, you know. Kids may be dumb, inexperienced, etc., but they still share all feelings and desires like us all. And you know… why not extend the logic of “I don’t want my kids to be less cool than the pop kids” to everyone then? Let’s just have a living uniform for all citizens of the country. Poor, rich, whatever… everyone would wear the same clothes. No pop people anymore, huh. Why don’t we do that? It’s because it encroaches upon our freedom to be ourselves, which we hold very dear to us. KIDS DO THAT TOO.
Stifling your kids’ identity “because it’s convenient” is absolutely horrific. I’m not asking for you to buy expensive shit. I’m just asking you to allow your kids to have some basic human decency. And fine… You don’t wanna do that? Why force your draconian bs on other kids? Just send your kids to school wearing the same clothes. Noone would mind. Why then force other kids with parents that are willing to spend time on them to also live a life like your kid? Why should my kid dress in that ugly ass school uniform every day because you were lazy?
I absolutely don’t buy the “poor parents struggling to raise kids” bs as an excuse for shit like this. Me and some of my friends come from lower middle class families. I have seen tremendous differences in our lives as kids despite coming from similar economic backgrounds. The difference was because some parents respected their kids and treated them as independent human beings instead of cattle.
Yeah you’re right I don’t know shit about my own kids. Sure I’ll try that thanks love.
Yeah, all knowing parents like you definitely don’t know shit about your kids. Such people are too egoistic too even question their behavior with their kids. They’re too egoistic to even consider that they can ever wrong them. The kids of course, find the easiest way to combat this: dishonesty. I’ve seen so so many of my friends be a part of this phenomenon. But whatever, from your statement, you have implicitly made it very clear that you don’t want anyone else talking to you about your relationship with your kids. So whatever…
Listen… I’m not saying you are a bad parent because of the school uniform thing. It is relatively very inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. I know I’ve been very hateful and inappropriate above. I’m sorry for that. You might be much better than the turds that I’ve seen as parents. What however absolutely maddens me is the approach that parents take with their kids (that you demonstrated as well). This very approach has caused a tremendous amount of pain to myself and people that I love. KIDS ARE NOT CATTLE. THEY ARE HUMANS. This approach of treating them like cattle has led to a sexual abuser working in my former school for over 20 years (he’s still working there till date, and would be retiring next year from what I’ve heard). Why did nothing happen to him? Well, because parents liked the guy cuz he would “discipline” the kids. Of course, any teacher who would discipline the kids would be hated by them, no? Hence, all allegations of sexual abuse against this guy are obviously fake, right? This approach has led to one of my friends attempting suicide (but surviving thankfully). He skipped a grade, so we lost contact. However, from the time that we have interacted after that, he is a completely different person. I think it is because he is heavily medicated or whatever… Again, why did that happen? Cuz his dumass parents thought he was being lazy wherein he had actually burnt out from the studying (he was very smart, which made them push him a lot in academics).
So to recap, the school uniform thing was left behind in the discussion. I was very mad at you for being willing to cut off an entire branch of your kids’ identity simply because it was more convenient to do that for you. This is degrading the humanity of kids and making their rights akin to that of cattle. Also, I was pissed at the snarky “Yeah you’re right I don’t know shit about my kids”, as that demonstrated your tremendous ego, something that I’ve seen to be extremely destructive for kids (which have been me for some time and my friends).
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Are you reading over what you’re writing?!
Yes I am very aware of what I’m writing.
You’ve come very close to telling a complete stranger on the internet that they’re acting as a sexual abuser does towards their kids.
You are creating a straw man of what I said. I never accused you of anything remotely close to that. Don’t put words in my mouth. You don’t have to be a sexual abuser to hurt kids. There are many seemingly minuscule and silly ways that one can do that. I have already clarified this above.
They’re happy
This is what matters after all. I’m very happy for them, for you and your family.
It calls to mind Elon Musk calling that cave diver a paedophile when he couldn’t get his way.
There’s a huge difference. As you said, he did it because “he couldn’t get his way”. He did it because of his ego and because he wanted to “get back” at the diver by insulting him. My harsh comment above was because your views are dangerously authoritarian in my opinion. I and the people that I love have had to go through a lot of pain because of individuals who share similar views. I absolutely cannot stand anyone promoting such views, which is why I have been extremely offensive.
Thank you for doing good things like risking your life to provide disaster relief and whatnot. Thank you for volunteering at the community groups and stuff. Remember, I am not calling you a bad person. However, just because you are a “good person”, it doesn’t make you immune from doing bad things, knowingly or unknowingly. If you talk to Republicans, many of them are not as villainous as one would imagine. Many of them volunteer for church and are overall very sweet people to be around. However, either because of their prejudices or sheer stupidity, such people knowingly or unknowingly promote genocide, don’t they? They make the lives of millions of people a lot more miserable, don’t they? So my point is, sweet and nice people can do quite fucked up things. Which includes you and me.
As for my argument above, I am very confident that I am not just barking at you blindly. I have made my position very clear in my previous comment and I stand by it. The pain that the policies you promote has brought on people around me and myself, is far far far greater than the pain that my comment might have brought on you. Hence, I won’t delete anything. I’m sorry.
Agreed. At the my kids’ school (this was years ago), shirts and pants were part of the uniform, but socks weren’t regulated. Saw so many kids wearing goofy socks and carrying other things to just to differentiate.
The parents that had pushed for uniforms to be adopted (the principal relented to their demands while my kids were attending) admitted they mainly wanted uniforms so they wouldn’t have to deal with their children’s clothing choices/wishes. Reaction among parents was split, largely on gender lines (not the parents’, but their kids’ gender).
I had uniform shirt, tie, slacks, socks, jumpers, blazer, bag
The shoes weren’t uniform but were of very limited style.
You could pick something about wealth by how neatly kids were dressed (and the state of their clothes; the cheapest were nearly worn out), and the toys they brought to school
Hats weren’t regulated because it was the '80s and '90s and we didn’t wear hats. We had a uniform hat in our sports uniform but it wasn’t popular
Tell me you’re not a parent without telling me you’re not a parent.
Draconian? My kids wear a school polo over regular blue shorts and sneakers, public school isn’t like Hogwarts.
I’d much rather get them to wear that than fuck around making sure their favourite shirt is washed or having to buy some name brand shirt because the cool kids all have one.
I’m not a parent, but I graduated from highschool a few years back. Our school had compulsory uniforms. Clothes and general appearance are integral to one’s personality. After I got out of high school, I had absolutely no dressing sense. I had no idea what clothes I liked, what styles I liked, what colors I liked n so on. School was my life. Outside school, I didn’t hang out with my buddies outside of sports related activities. Hence, casual wear was an afterthought.
After I got out of school though, I began to explore and unlocked a part of my identity that had been forcefully locked away by school. Today, I don’t buy any expensive or branded clothes at all. I choose my clothes based on their color and style. I’m not the show off type in any sphere of my life, because I wasn’t raised that way. I was told “no” whenever it was necessary. You know… Parenting?
Don’t your kids do their own laundry? Also, can’t you say “no” to kids for that hypothetical expensive branded shirt?
Is it really worth stifling your kids’ identity for convenience?
Did you wear no clothes in the evening or on the weekend? I have a lot of residual shame from dressing “poor” in comparison to peers at school. Also, there’s going to be dress codes regardless, which is also stifling individuality. That is usually packaged in sexism as well.
School uniform for me back in the day was a white shirt, grey pants, and leather shoes. The only “school” part of the uniform was a tie and blazer with the school crest on it. And I even went through all of high school never purchasing said blazer.
This was in NZ nearly 15 years ago.
My point being, uniforms shouldn’t be breaking the bank. If schools would simplify the uniform as to not be that unique to the school, they might be able to drive down cost as more readily available clothing could be used to make up the uniform.
There are many reasons to have school uniforms. Growing up in a school system that does this for elementary and middle school:
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it allows the wardrobe to be much more simplified so students don’t have to figure out what to wear that day.
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Kids don’t have to get jealous of others for wearing fancy brand names or maybe in some bad areas they’ll do gang colors or something.
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The prices are generally ok, I was never complaining at the prices.
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It might reinforce dressing up professionally even if the clothes aren’t the most comfortable.
The way my school district worked it never looked for the brand names or anything, just so long as it fit the guidelines.
All those are perfectly good reasons for school uniforms in general.
And then your school implements a uniform policy that requires you to buy a blazer for $225 that your child will wear three times a year, and monogrammed socks that are 3 pairs for $45.
That’s some serious graft. But nothing to do with uniforms as a policy. My daughter’s public school has a uniform of sorts but it I just color and style based, not specific required brands
Uniforms as a policy enables the graft. It has everything to do with the policies.
Try and have a logical discussion. Graft is the problem and a system that allows it will produce it however it is easiest to express.
A uniform is just an idea. It can be an excuse for graft, or it can just be a simple dress code with multiple competing vendors. I’m sorry your system is corrupt but many aren’t.
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There are exactly two reasons why schools mandate uniforms: greed and/or authoritarian leanings.
