<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/25/why-do-we-force-our-kids-into-ties-and-blazers-when-not-even-bankers-wear-them-any-more>
"Recently I dropped off my daughter at school. Dressed up in a tie and blazer,
she squirmed with discomfort in the late summer heat. After she disappeared
through the gate, I headed to my office in the City of London. Walking from the
tube station to my building, I was surrounded by bankers wearing open-necked
shirts and no blazers. Some wore trainers and jeans. This stark contrast
reminded me that uniform policies – and much of the excessive discipline in
schools – are moulding our children to fit into a world of work which no longer
really exists.
My daughter later told me that she was given special dispensation to take off
the blazer – but only during the 30C heat of the first week of term. She was
one of the lucky ones. Other schools are far less lenient when it comes to
enforcing uniform rules. Children from a school in Cornwall were given
detention for taking off their blazers in the sweltering heat. A 12-year-old
schoolgirl from Hull was placed into isolation this year for wearing a skirt
from Asda. Kids at one school were excluded from class for wearing the wrong
kind of sock.
The list of absurd rules around how children should look in British schools is
almost endless. The Mumsnet website is full of stories of complicated rules
being enforced by schools that seem to be increasingly intent on micromanaging
the most minor aspect of children’s appearances. When schools are asked to
explain their strict policies, the most widely used justification for uniforms
is that they help to prepare children for the “real world” of work.
But while schools have become increasingly strict about what children wear, the
world of work has, by contrast, become much less exacting and increasingly
informal. Only about 5% of workplaces actually have uniforms, and over half of
British workplaces require either business casual or casual dress. Thirty
percent of people working from home admit to having worked in their pyjamas.
Sales of formal work attire like suits and ties have declined by 40% in the
last five years. A YouGov survey found that 92% of people now say it is
acceptable not to wear a tie to work, and 66% think it is OK to wear shorts.
Even chief executives are dressing in increasingly informal ways. The work
attire of the most well-known business leaders of our time, such as Elon Musk
and Mark Zuckerberg, consists of jeans and trainers.
What actually underlies uniform policies is the belief among educators that
making children wear uniforms means they will be better behaved and perform
better at school. Sadly, this is only partly true. The largest survey of
studies on the impact of school uniforms found that they do tend to improve
classroom management and make teaching more efficient (because students settle
down more quickly). However, there is no consistent evidence that uniforms
improve student performance.
The survey also found that uniforms have a negative impact on student health.
This was often because they restricted students’ movement, which restricted the
physical activity they engaged in during the day – an impact particularly
pronounced for girls. In addition, many uniforms are made from uncomfortable
material, which some children find irritating and distracting."
Via Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
