Uniforms

For eight years in a row I put on a uniform in the morning and went to a small private Catholic school. I never wondered why I had to put on a uniform, I just knew that kids that went to private school did and those that went to public school did not. The shirts were white and we could choose between navy blue pants, navy blue shorts and for girls a plaid jumper. When we got to the fifth grade the girls could wear skirts instead of jumpers and the boys could wear ties. Then there were full dress days where the girls had to wear skirts and the boys had to wear pants, long sleeves and ties. Full dress usually meant that we had a school wide Mass. My classmates and I found the uniforms to be boring and so we would try to sneak things in like pink hair clips, colorful socks and nail polish, all of which were forbidden. That is why the quote in “School Uniforms and Disciplining” from the Archbishop resonated with me. While discussing the uniforms he said there should be “…no gaiety of color, no trifling ornaments permitted; nor any distinction between them and the other children in which they can possibly be tempted to take pleasure.” The teachers made sure that our shoes, socks and hair clips were only blue white or black, apparently they shared a similar mindset with the Archbishop. While I still do not like uniforms, I can see why they are used to this day. It eliminates distraction or tries to anyway, so that the students come to school not to compare themselves with others, but to learn and be ready to do what the teacher requests of them.

Another point in the reading that struck me was the mention of hierarchy. Certain parts of the uniform can identify someone as being more important, such as in the military. I thought of how the older students were made to wear different clothes than the younger ones. Also I remembered how each year the eighth grade class got to choose a color and then had sweatshirts made with their name sewn into the front. Now it sounds sort of lame, but back then we were the oldest kids in the school and we thought we were pretty cool in our customized maroon hoodies.