Dress Codes and School

How students dress affects attitude.
Share Article | Sep 12, 2006 Barbara Pytel

What if students were allowed to wear anything they wanted to school? Are the dress code regulations necessary?


Dress Restrictions
Most schools have regulations on how students dress. The intent is to keep students safe and focused on academics. Teachers have enough on their plate to motivate learning without having to monitor which slogan is affecting who today.

Baggy pants and bandanas could be interpreted as gang dress. Dressing as a gang member intimidates other students and spreads fear instead of focusing on academics. Pants with large pockets are often restricted because a weapon or drugs could be carried in them. Certain colors are often banned if gang colors.

Coats and bookbags are often only permitted in lockers. Again, guns and drugs could be in coat pockets and bookbags.

X-Rated
Dressing seductively is a great distraction to the opposite sex. It only makes sense to put restrictions on what can be worn to school. Sexual thoughts are already frequent in middle school and high school. Most students do not need visual aids. The imagination is active enough. Schools have banned MySpace.com during school hours because of the suggestive content and predators lurking. MySpace has tried to make the site safer but students still make themselves vulnerable by being on MySpace.

T-Shirts
Clothing with reference to cigarettes or alcohol are usually not allowed. Television restricts commercials on these subjects so it doesn't make sense to allow students advertise in school. T-shirts from Hooters are usually not permitted because of the reference made to waitresses. But a new craze is emerging and it is not making administration and law enforcement very happy. The t-shirts say "Don't Snitch."

This latest trend tells students at school to not cooperate with teachers, principals and police. So, you witness vicious harassment--don't snitch. You witness a gun in a locker--don't snitch. You see drugs in the lunchroom--don't snitch. You overhear someone talking about a bomb--don't snitch.

Only Wrong If Caught
This new craze in t-shirts leads already confused middle school and high school students to believe that they must stand behind their friends at all costs. Doesn't really matter if it is morally wrong. You stand by your friends even if they could blow up the school, shoot your friends, or die of a drug overdose. The worst thing you can be is a snitch and cooperate with the police. Police rely on citizens to assist them in investigations. No leads, no arrests, less safety.

The Damage Has Been Done
Even though these t-shirts are no longer being produced, other companies have copied the slogan and sell on the black market as knock offs. But, more and more schools are saying "no" to these slogan t-shirts.

Uniforms
More and more public schools are switching to uniforms. This custom used to be reserved for private and Catholic schools but public schools are finding some positive results. When students wear uniforms to school, no one can tell who has more money. The latest expensive jeans can't be shown off along with the designer polo.

The results have been better attendance because students always have something acceptable to wear. Studies uncovered the fact that some students were missing school because they didn't have "cool" clothes to wear or the one pair of jeans that was "cool" was too wet to wear to school. And, since students are not distracted by who is wearing what, students focus better on academics and their own business.

How we dress does matter. Even entrepreneurs that work out of their home feel their workday is more productive when dressed appropriately rather than working in pajamas.

How we dress does affect our performance.



Read more at Suite101: Dress Codes and School: How students dress affects attitude. http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/dress_codes_and_school#ixzz0kQanYLn1