The Great Monotoniser

The other day I was talking to my mom about UNIFORM.  She was lucky enough to have never had to wear one, and she supports me thoroughly in my debate over the subject. School uniform is completely overrated. Hasn't anybody ever thought that if there was no uniform, so many fewer people would get told off for not wearing it?

As we were listing the good and bad points of school uniform (mostly bad. Good only for the sake of denying them) my mom brought up the 'good' reason that many pro-uniform debaters give - that it prevents children from feeling unequal to other children because they cannot afford 'fashionable' clothes. She does not agree with this opinion and neither do I. I said, "What about my old school?" At my old school, we had to wear blazers and ties and tuck in our shirts. There was constant pressure from the teachers to look respectable and wear our uniforms correctly; there was also a constant, bigger, pressure from fellow students to wear it wrongly. Shirts had to be untucked, ties short and loose, and top buttons undone. I once had a girl in a higher year come up to me and actually bend down to shove my socks all the way to my ankles, because it was how everyone else wore them.  

By wearing your own clothes you begin to develop your own sense of style. At my current school the uniform is fairly open to interpretation, and you can wear any kind of socks - blue, pink, spotty, stripy - and any kind of skirt as long as it's black. I have a black skirt which I love and wore all the time last year, when I was being home-schooled, and occasionally I wear it to school. Now I hardly ever wear it at home: it feels like I am wearing my uniform.

School uniform is not, never has been, and never can be 'the great equaliser'. All it does is create monotony. You're unique, they say... Now dress the same.