Dresscode
...is influenced by student dress and grooming. In order to help insure proper and acceptable behavior on the part of the student, it becomes necessary to establish certain guidelines to aid parents and students in selecting the proper attire for school wear. Many administrators agree and have tightened up student dress codes or begun requiring students to wear uniforms as a way of reducing the risk of violence and creating a positive, productive learning environment. I also agree with an enforced dresscode and more specifically school uniforms. As I will show from many reports that more schools and states have seen the benefits to school uniforms and dresscodes and the positive affects such has on the classrooms.
Many public schools adopted dress codes and uniforms after then-President Bill Clinton endorsed uniforms in his 1996 State of the Union address:
"I challenge all our schools to teach character education, to teach good values and good citizenship. And if it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms."
The National Association of Elementary School Principals points out that uniforms once were the trademark of a private or parochial school; today "the number of public schools adopting uniforms and strong dress codes is growing annually" (NAESP 2000). In a national survey of elementary and middle school principals conducted by NAESP in May 2000, 10 percent of the 755 respondents "said that their schools already had adopted a uniform policy and another 11 percent were considering the concept" (NAESP). Like private or parochial schools, discipline is what is normally taught to school age children at home and it would more likely have a greater impact on the child if enforced at school as well.
Concerns about school violence have...
View Full Essay
