The Junior View: 2

Topic: . Yes? No? Personally, I wouldn’t make a huge fuss of it if Benicia High decided to enforce it because having the freedom to piece together my own outfits isn’t really that important in my life, and having uniforms would also just make mornings that much simpler. 

But, considering the different perspectives, I’d say that enforcing school uniforms shouldn’t be made a top priority at BHS because all it would be is a big, unnecessary change at our school that would lead to too many angry students. Yes, there are many students who wear shorts far too short to be respectable, shirts too low, or any other sloppy clothing that reveals a bit more than they should, but I just feel like those people aren’t reason enough to make such a big switch at our school. 

I asked around to get some other student opinions on the matter, and it was a pretty unanimous vote: ‘nay’ on uniforms. “This is public school and it’s not right to impose that on kids. Some kids express themselves through their clothes,” junior Maddy Williams said. And I think that’s the biggest problem: it would upset the students most because they would feel like one of their few freedoms is being taken away from them. Because, as many times as it’s said, clothing is a way to express oneself. “It takes away from the kids’ individuality,” junior Paige Daniel said. 

On a small tangent, I just want to stop to wonder aloud what the main reason is behind the effort to stop teenagers from dressing inappropriately. Is it that parents don’t want other people to think negatively about their child for dressing bad, or they don’t want their kids heading in the bad direction that sloppy clothing appears to lead them to? Or is it that adults don’t like the influence inappropriate attire has on other kids around them, or do they just not like looking at it themselves? Or is there some other reason I’m missing? 

So, looking for a solution to any of these issues, the ultimate difficulty I’ve learned is that it’s nearly impossible to change someone’s mind by force- and you can’t force a teenager to stop doing something they want to do, which I’m sure many of you know. And forcing a teenager into a uniform every day isn’t going to change their mindset about what they really want to wear, and ultimately what is appropriate or inappropriate. I feel like the best anyone can do is work [very] hard to positively influence their kids, teach them the facts, and then allow them to figure out themselves what is good and bad, right and wrong-- and hope they make good decisions.