They bypass complex dress codes; many schools are opting for\u00a0uniforms just to avoid the headache of deciding on and enforcing what students can or cannot wear.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nOne more reason occurs to me in light of Heath’s article about gender and uniforms. For teenagers and children entering adolescence, obtaining a stable self-image and identity become salient and sometimes formidable challenges when, for the first time, they struggle to understand their place in the world. (This phenomenon may or may not be a peculiarly modern or Western problem.)<\/p>\n
Of all the possible objects of value with which youth could identify themselves (e.g., family, country, race, occupation, religion), at the bottom of the list should be clothing, not because it is unimportant, but because its true purpose is not to bestow identity but to reflect it. Clothes aren’t supposed to define who a person is. When they do, we become slaves to fashion, lifting up our souls to a vapid and corruptible idol.<\/p>\n
Uniformity in clothing can’t wholly vanquish the temptation to worship clothing, nor can policies\u00a0on hair length, jewelry, or\u00a0make-up expel all lures to showiness or vanity.<\/p>\n
However, school uniforms can help children grow up with a little less distraction and noise amidst the myriad voices vying for their association, attachment, and allegiance.<\/p>\n
But what about gender-specific uniforms? If uniformity in dress points students away from identifying with their clothes, wouldn’t gender-neutral uniforms likewise help kids avoid getting caught up in identifying with a certain gender?<\/p>\n
Compared with one’s faith, gender is secondary, and it should no more become an idol than any other thing created by God or contrived by man.\u00a0Uniforms can work against the push in our post-Victorian age to throw away modesty as prudery and give license to sexual exhibitionism and voyeurism. Modestly tailored uniforms, both gender-specific and gender-neutral, can alleviate these problems.<\/p>\n
Yet gender differences\u2014that is, as they correspond to the differences between the human male and female\u2014should not be erased, nor treated merely as a preference to be decided by the individual (as in the case of the students at Newtown Performing Arts High School). Rather, gender should be acknowledged, while not being too highly exalted. Schools\u00a0who choose to adopt gender-neutral uniforms (e.g., for the sake of comfort) should\u00a0apply other policies to preserve gender differences. If we erase all distinctions, we forfeit the beauty and goodness of diversity. And beauty and goodness are, after all, qualities to which children should lift up their souls, not in idolatry, but in delight coram deo\u2014<\/em>in the presence of God.<\/p>\nWhat are your thoughts? Please share in the “comment” box below\u00a0whether your students wear\u00a0uniforms (or plan to) and what you consider to be their pros or\u00a0cons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Brett Vaden In “It’s 2016. Why are school uniforms gender-specific?”, a recent article posted on the Australian-based Special Broadcasting Service’s website, Nicola Heath argues that school children shouldn’t be forced to wear uniforms that limit them to a particular gender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[241,239,238,240],"yoast_head":"\n
Are we hurting children by making them wear uniforms in school? - Classical Latin School Association -<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n