School Uniform Could Raise Discipline
According to Indonesian law, students have the obligation to wear school uniform. For example, for the elementary school students must wear white shirt and red skirt or red short pants. The junior high school students must wear white shirt and blue skirt or blue short pants, and the senior high school students must wear white shirt and grey skirt or grey long pants. Many schools have addition school uniform as their identity. Yet, there are still many students who dislike wearing school uniform. Even though many students dislike wearing it, it has its own benefits such as teaching them discipline and preventing bullying.
One of the benefits of school uniform is it could teach students about discipline. In 2006, Youngstown State University found that school uniform policies improve rates of attendance and graduation in Ohio’s eight largest schools. Similar thing was found by University of Houston in 2010. They found that the average absence rate in middle and high school decreased by 7% after the introduction of uniforms. This thing could be a disaster for those who love fashion because their freedom and passion to express themselves would be suppressed. Well, they can express themselves outside the class. In addition, let’s say the students later want to be nurses or pilots, they can start learn how to wear a uniform in such a young age.
School uniforms are expensive and could create extra efforts, especially if a student attends school 6 days a week. There will be more uniforms to buy and extra efforts in washing and ironing them. Although they are expensive, school uniform can be an identity of a school and wearing it could enhance school pride, unity, and community spirit. In 2007, peer-reviewed study found that after uniforms were introduced, teachers perceived an increase in the level of respect, caring, and trust throughout the school. The students were also made to feel important and as if they are a part of a team by wearing a uniform.
In Indonesia, especially in Jakarta, there have been many fights (tawuran). One of the causes of this is school uniforms. By identifying other students’ school uniform, certain students could see that they are the target of the fights. We may have heard stories about how tawuran is hereditary. Students from School A never like students from School B and they would always fight whenever they meet. If they could identify the opponent, it would be easier to attack. This is of course a sad thing, but if we look further, wearing school uniform can actually prevent bullying. Many students who are unable to afford the newest fashions or name brand clothing are ostracized and made fun of. School uniforms put everyone on an even playing field and prevent this type of bullying from happening. In 2003, a survey by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and uniform manufacturer Land’s End, 86% of school leaders said that uniforms make a significant, positive impact on peer pressure. Arminta Jacobson, founder and director of the Center for Parent Education at the University of North Texas agrees on this. She stated that uniforms put all kids on the same playing field in terms of their appearance. She even thought that it gave them a sense of belonging and a feeling of being socially accepted.
Not only preventing bullying, but also preventing other bad things. A data that was made by M. Sue Stanley showed that in Long Beach, California, after two years of a mandatory uniform policy, reports of assault and battery in the district’s schools decreased by 34%, assault with a deadly weapon dropped by 50%, fighting incidents went down by 51%, sex offenses were cut by 74%, robbery dropped by 65%, possession of weapons (or weapon “look-alikes”) decreased by 52%, possession of drugs went down by 69%, and vandalism was lowered by 18%.
In a nutshell, we have explained that wearing uniform brings many benefits to the students. Commonly, students do not like to wear uniform because of some factors such as limiting them to be creative and wasting their parent's money. Indeed, in this case of wearing uniform, without considering the purpose behind it, students think that it is better if they do not wear uniform. On the contrary, we found that a school which has policy to wear uniform is better not only in the class but also outside the class than a school which do not have that policy. Although wearing uniform has some benefits, the school still have to help students who do not have enough money to buy uniform. Besides, it will be better if the school make an option to the students about the design of the uniform.