Blog post 12/22 Dylan Mazzella
Pros and cons of school uniforms
Pros:
The issue of bullying seems to be exaggerated in television series and movies, with large kids seemingly attending school solely for the purpose of harassing kids smaller than them and taking their lunch money. Most times, when people feel that a situation is a bullying situation, it is their friends who are putting them down, and something that makes this happen is the types of clothes kids wear. The easiest solution to this issue is taking the diversity in clothing selection out of schools. Another positive effect of school uniforms is a perceived sense of unity and identity. The unity is achieved through the sameness that is present with a school of students who dress the same, and the identity is achieved because it gives some type of consistency to a student who otherwise may not have it. He or she can look forward to wearing the same thing daily, which is something that one can rely on to be the same. From a school perspective, which of course is also important, it gives a positive image for the school.

Cons:
    This issue could be seen as a bad idea because of the freedom of expression that is taken away from students. Though it provides with some type of artificial identity, students could be seen as stripped clean from identity, and put into a cookie cutter community. Students can see this move by school boards as an attempt to keep students from making themselves unique which could negatively affect learning experiences of students. From the very important perspective of the school board, it is a budgetel nuisance to provide shirts and ties for each student, and if the school were to require students to purchase their own school uniform, it would lead to anger in families in the particular town in which the uniforms are being introduced.