The Benefits Of Mandatory School Uniforms

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"If it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require school uniforms"(Woolley). Former President Ronald Reagan said this in 1996 during his presidency. The issue of schools across The United States of America having mandated school uniforms has been on the rise, but the controversy over whether or not uniforms actually accomplish anything is far from over. School uniforms first originated in Baltimore, Maryland at Cherry Hill Elementary School in 1987, believing that it would lead to better students with better grades, attitude, behavior, and self-esteem (Brunsma). This idea that started less than thirty years ago is now increasing steadily. In the year 2000, only …show more content…
The uniforms still cost less than having to buy an entire wardrobe each year for your growing child. They are still free to wear whatever they want outside of class, so the clothes that they have don’t go to waste. There has been no proven downside and they have been in place for decades, but people remain to fight it. Since there is no concrete evidence either way, it is hard to initially pick a side. It’s not until you look at what each side believes in that it starts to make sense. One side believes that it helps the children, and the other side believes it causes no effect on them. So therefore I believe that if it can’t hurt the kids and it may help them, it’s definitely worth it. The nation seems to side with me as well. The United States has seen an increase in uniforms at an increasing rate ever since the beginning. The most recent survey in 2009-2010 concluded that 18.9 percent of schools in the country implement school uniforms (Toppo). The Supreme Court itself has yet to make a ruling on the uniform policy: however, many local courts have recently sided with the districts that implement school uniforms. A Louisiana federal court that passed the policy gave the following explanation, “The School Board’s purpose for enacting the uniform policy …show more content…
Mũthoni Ngatia, David Evans, Michael Kremer conducted an experiment in Kenya in 2009. They started the experiment in 1996 and continued it with great precision and accuracy throughout 2009. Their main goal was to increase the attendance of students in school, since children were not attending. This was a major problem in Kenya. According to the scholars who performed the experiment, school absenteeism at the beginning of the program was fifteen percent (Kremer). Through the experiment, it was concluded that the students who received uniforms had an increased attendance of forty three percent (Kremer). Although it wasn’t the main purpose of the experiment, the experimentalists also tracked the test scores of the students. The students showed an increase of a quarter standard deviation in test grades so far in the project. That is a very significance increase, especially in a country such as Kenya where education is most needed. This study is very important to use as proof that uniforms will help children across the world. The table below is proof that the study was successful

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