School dress codes have been a highly controversial topic for quite a long time now causing the legislative authorities a hard time. It seems that ever since Mary Beth Tinker, a 13-year old junior high school student decided to join a group of students that were protesting about the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school (aclu.org), the Court has “struggled with balancing the interests of students and those interests that are meant to be protected in a classroom environment” (nesl.edu).
A research conducted and published in the Journal of Law & Education (January 2000) as a means to determine the nation's principals' view point concerning dress codes in public schools, has clearly demonstrated a strong trend that favors the existence of dress codes, although the use of school uniforms did not meet much appreciation. In fact, the majority of the 240randomnly selected and surveyed principals ”expressed strong support for dress codes, with 85 percent reporting that dress codes were needed at their schools (…) "improve student behavior, reduce peer sexual harassment, prepare students for the work world, and are worth the trouble that it takes to enforce” (keepschoolssafe.org).
[...] Education Bug. “School Dress Codes”. . Judson G. “Education: Uncool in School: Dress Code Debate”. The New York Times. October 1995. . Lumsden L. [...]
[...] Other than school principals it is interesting to take people's opinions into consideration as well. When debate.org, a free online community that debates online about the topics people are more puzzled with, asked the people to state their point of views on the school dress code matter said to schools enforcing strict dress codes (debate.org). Trying to analyze the most representative answers people gave and the reasons they used to back up their decisions, one can clearly see that the need to be free to choose what you wear is very intense. [...]
[...] Set aside that, dress codes are also effective when students want to carry concealed weapons in the school's premises (educationbug.org). That being said, school dress codes may also involve the use of a safety outfit as a means to protect students in specific classes, such as laboratory classes, where students may need to wear the proper attire and/or safety goggles alongside with keeping long hair tied in some way and also physical education, where pupils need to wear uniforms or abide to other guidelines as required by the school they attend to (educationbug.org). [...]
[...] It makes clear though, that a huge majority of students, teachers and parents oppose to school uniforms, while they appear more elastic and acceptable towards the concept of following certain rules when students are getting dressed to go to school. Ancient Greeks used to say that modesty is wise and perhaps that should also be applied in this case. After all, extreme measures have shown to be ineffective throughout history, so there is no need to test them in education and the world's future citizens. Works Cited ACLU. “Tinker v. Des Moines (393 U.S . Debate.org. “Should schools strictly enforce dress codes?”. . [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
