Lion’s raw thread; should Wesley College abandon school uniform?
Allusions to the school uniform are made in almost every assembly held at Wesley. It is referred to as if imbedded in the school’s culture, reputation, and every individual student’s identity. This may not be an unreasonable claim, as the ambitious colour of the uniform certainly does make its students more recognisable, and whether good or bad it definitely does have an effect on its reputation. Given how long Wesley has payed homage to tradition by preserving uniform, it may feel like the end of a winning streak if uniform is abolished now. However, as the world outside Wesley College evolves a growing angst is pervading across the students, parents, and possibly even teachers.
A student wearing a Wesley uniform, on public transport is the most likely to encounter a nudge, or subtly coughed obscenity. Of course, it is easy to conclude that this is the result of dressing in a traditionally feminine colour, or looking far too much like Willy-Wonka, however a deeper consideration of the motives behind the public transport offender may reveal their actions are not completely unjustified. Many students have to travel long distances to school and encounter public and private school students alike. It should be remembered that as well as a compulsory item of clothing, a private school uniform is a status symbol, it represents that the wearer is entitled to an expensive education, and an exceedingly high degree of opportunities. To pass a group of opportunity-bereft public-schoolers with an educational status symbol, and to do so in a colour as bright and obnoxious as purple is no different to driving a Rolls Royce through a slum. For the sake of both students, and the school’s humility; uniform should be abolished.
From as young as twelves to as old as eighteen female students are constantly being reminded to “keep their dress below the knee”, and never have too many of their upper buttons undone. Of course it would be both untrue, and immature to describe this approach to how women ought to dress as slut-shaming or misogynist, however when these attitudes echo from the teachers above to students below they tend to do so in a much more critical and often hostile tone. From as early as year 9, I can remember a number of alarmingly judgmental comments being made about the leangth at which girls wear their dresses, on both casual and regular days. This is not an attempt to insinuate, that the ostracising and branding of female students based on how they choose to dress is necessarily caused, or even linked to the way teachers punish girls for wearing their dresses too high. However it certainly doesn’t help to reduce it, and I don’t feel it’s a sentiment that any school should still be reinforcing in the twenty first century.
Perhaps behind all the rhetoric about honouring the past and feeling like part of a community, Wesley’s true motive for preserving uniform, is the bullying that casual clothes may provoke. Perhaps it is feared that it will just add one more set of differences between students. It is possible that casual clothes will provide an opportunity for students to dress in a way that allows assumptions to be made about students sexuality, or self-perception of their own gender. Not surprisingly it may be feared that this will promote bullying. There are two reasons that this is not the case. One is that Wesley College has already put unparalleled measures in place to perceive and respond to bullying when it occurs. It has a comprehensive yard duty and counselling service, as well as a number of layers of home room teachers and house captains that individually consult students in order to ensure an unobtrusive and helpful way of responding. As would the self-expression that casual clothes allows abate bullying through letting individuals group with those who are accepting of them, and allow them to discover and express their own identities to an extent that they would become confident enough to overcome bullying.
Of course it can be asked that if the opponents of the Wesley uniform feel so deeply about the numerous accusations that have been made about it in the past few years, why don’t they just leave? However, the reason that leaving is not an option is that despite its clinging to uniform Wesley college has become the most socially progressive school of its league in every other aspect. Its religious education is so open-minded that it teaches a range of faiths that spans Islam to Atheism, its sex-ed classes are far less hetero-normative than at most schools, and its actions in Yirimalay show a contribution to indigenous reconciliation that by far exceeds those of the Baillieu government. It is this encouragement that students are given to not only respect but celebrate diversity that assures me that there is a moral compass at the heart of the school’s values that is pointing forward to where the school will finally abandon it backward policies on uniform.
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