uniforms and exams

golden gal

my little sis's school has just introduced new uniforms and she absolutly hates them but i think uniforms are quite a good idea. the way i see it is it would be soo much hassle to pick out a new outfit everyday and very stressful too. their unifrom is ok in comparison to so of the major ugly coloured ones that people are forced to wear.
Also she just came home from her first day of fifth year and already the teachers are filling her and her classmates heads about the leaving cert and how important fifth year is. its driving her crazy!!wats up with that?the junior cert results aren't even out yet!!! they should chill for the first week and then ease them into study stuff. wat do ye think??

Stark

Yeah they should give them time to warm again alright. That said a lot of people take can take a year and a half to "warm up". By drilling it into them early they have some chance of getting through to the students that a week before the pres is not an okay time to start studying.

Uniforms - okay it's handy not having to pick an outfit everyday, on the other hand they're a way of curbing freedom. They should make the rules less restrictive as kids progress to senior years in order to make the pupils feel more mature and therefore in theory act more mature.

golden gal

that is a really good idea. but do you think in practice it would work?it might make people be lazier cuz there would be a kind of loophole in the rules dont ya think? i know that on no unifrom days there is sooo much tension and bitchiness between students. its a hard one to call i guess.

Lafortezza

I think schoolgirls wearing uniforms in a fine idea.

Hello Kitty

I hated my uniform.. I think theyre really annoying and very uncomfortable, especially around summer time when its quite hot and your sweating...
It would be hard to choose a different outfit for everyday... but schools should have comfortable clothes for students such as a tracksuit and they could stick the school crest on it.

simu

I think they ought to have a dress code rather than uniforms in schools.

sci0x

simu wrote:

I think they ought to have a dress code rather than uniforms in schools.

Would that not be pretty much the same thing as a uniform?

If they say where black trousers, any pair you buy are going to look the same.
Same with a white shirt, wine tie and black jumper.

simu

No - you wear fairly smart clothes, no ostentatious brand names or silly gimmicky styles like that silly Goth look every second teenager seems to have nowadays.

dudara

I wouldn't quite agree there Simu, because if you do have a dress code instead of a uniform, they will always push the rules to see what they can get away with. Also someone will have to dictate the dress code, which is a personal choice in itself.

The easy solution is a uniform. In the long run, it's the easiest and most sensible solution. But it should be made easy to wear, with seasonal options. In my secondary for instance, girls were allowed pants. Very useful in winter.

Sarky

Female gothlings in tartan miniskirts were hot, once... Sigh...

Mewzel

i didnt have a school uniform in primary or secondary school, and i think it worked pretty well. there was never any bitchiness about what other people chose to wear, or anything like that, in fact it was a very relaxed atmosphere.
besides, if you cant cope with picking out your own clothes every morning in school, how are you gonne deal with it when you get to college?

dudara

Mewzel wrote:

i didnt have a school uniform in primary or secondary school, and i think it worked pretty well. there was never any bitchiness about what other people chose to wear, or anything like that, in fact it was a very relaxed atmosphere.
besides, if you cant cope with picking out your own clothes every morning in school, how are you gonne deal with it when you get to college?

A lot of people use that argument as to why they didn't need uniforms, but it doesn't apply to all people. There will always be pressure on some kids to wear or want certain clothes.

Anyway as someone who wore a uniform throughout primary and secondary, I never had any problems picking clothes to wear once I got to college. In fact that's a bit of a weak argument to use because all students dress as they want on saturday and sunday anyway.

leeroybrown

I agree with the idea of schools having a set uniform for day to day school attendance, although I definitely think that a bit more effort could be put into selecting more comfortable clothing to make it up. The uniform prevents any problems with people feeling left out because of their clothes (people may not be 'bitchy' about it but the person sitting in the corner wearing the 'crap clothes' still feels bad.) and it alleviates a lot of the pressure on parents to spend lots of money on clothes.

As for the Leaving Cert, my opinion is entirely different. You're in the middle of sitting the the most important/pressurised set of exams you're likely to sit. You want to be sitting there in the most comfortable set of clothes you have and you certainly don't want to be worring about changing into a uniform in the last few minutes you have before an exam.

Cabaal

As much as I hated school uniforms when I was in school I can see the point now and I'd back the whole idea, though in saying that schools should have more no uniform days as its adds something different now and then.
My school used to only have one no uniform day a year which in fairnwas was a joke.

Exam wise, you should be allowed wear whatever you want

Seraphina

tbh the only problem i had with the uniform was that is was uncomfortable and impractical. old itchy woollen jumpers and shirts? i think if the uniform was updated a little, and maybe girls were allowed to wear trousers (i know they are in some schools, but if this was more widespread) and decent trousers, not the ugly, non fitting male trousers. then there'd be alot less against the idea of the uniform. the idea is fine, but often the actual uniform itself is the problem

Stark

What about close-fitting black numbers like in the movies?

simu

Students should dress like ninjas. Twould do wonders for the country's education levels.

ecksor

I think they tried that at one school but the kids kept sneaking out of class.

Agent Smith

altho i wore a school uniform for 15 years, i think it's a good idea, i never ONCE had to worry about desideing what to wear,

shiv

the fact that there are still schools where girls are not given the option of wearing pants (trousers) is totally ridiculous and sexist.

i'm in full favour of wearing uniforms (and did), my only concern lies in the fact that they seem to be a direct throwback to several decades earlier for girls. nowhere in the world have i seen uglier clothes forced upon young women in the name of conformity, than in this country. it really is appalling! what's with the skirts, anyway, and their hideous in-between length???

Blisterman

They shouldn't have uniforms. It gets rid of any individuality. Plus, you have to decide what clothes to wear after school anyway.
Glad that's over for me.

blondie83

In my school we had a code of dress, which was a pretty good idea cos it allowed some individuality. You had to wear a white shirt/blouse, a kilt of any colour, and a jumper or cardigan of any colour (didn't have to be wooly). It was actually possible to look slightly stylish, by wearing an ankle length thin kilt with a fitted jumper or cardigan. then again most people (myself included) couldn't be that bothered about it and just got the standard kilts and v-neck wooly jumpers. There was never any bitchiness about it anyway, which was a relief.

Every year my school would have inter-year basketball and hockey tournaments with the winners getting to play the teachers. We were allowed to wear what we liked for these, with each year usually coming up with a sort of "uniform" for their own year. One year my class just went and wore the most ridiculous clothes we could find at home (leg warmers, mothers purple tracksuits ect!) just for the laugh Another year we all dressed up as farmers, and hired out a cow costume for someone to wear as our mascot!

The point I'm trying to make here, is that while I went to a private school in the middle of D4, no one really cared too much about what they wore there. That said my school was single sex, had it been co-ed I'm sure things could well have been different! We got to wear what we liked during JC and LC, and everyone pretty much turned up in tracksuits/jeans and hoodies or t-shirts. I think that students should be allowed wear what they like during state exams, its a stressful enough time so they may as well be comfortable!

Fysh

leeroybrown wrote:

I agree with the idea of schools having a set uniform for day to day school attendance, although I definitely think that a bit more effort could be put into selecting more comfortable clothing to make it up. The uniform prevents any problems with people feeling left out because of their clothes (people may not be 'bitchy' about it but the person sitting in the corner wearing the 'crap clothes' still feels bad.) and it alleviates a lot of the pressure on parents to spend lots of money on clothes.

I disagree with this line of thinking. Because the reason cited for uniforms is "it avoids bitchiness about clothing". Had to wear uniform until LC at the school I went to, and there was the exact same bitchiness towards people who didn't buy brand new uniform every year or who had hand-me-downs. Or who didn't have the flashiest trainers in PE. Or who didn't have the best-looking haircut, or the newest designer glasses, or whatever.

My point is, if it's pettiness about appearance you're concerned about, the only way of avoiding it is to standardise everything. Allow people no individuality whatsoever, and then you might avoid it. But then you lose one of the most valuable things that people should be learning from school, which is to think for themselves.

The fact that most if not all uniforms I've seen look like they were designed by a cataract-suffering nun on the verge of kicking the bucket doesn't help, either. A basic sense of aesthetic design should be a requirement for anyone specifying a school uniform; maybe that way we could start to overcome the generally-accepted (and incredibly stupid) opinion that high prices and brand names are the only way of looking good.

p2p

Have you still got the uniform blondie?

Did it look anything like this?

blondie83

My principal would have had you shot!

snickerpuss

I dont believe all that stuff about everyone thinking less of you or whatever about what you're wearing, i had no uniform in primary school and no body cared what anyone else wore and everything was a lot more relaxed. In secondary school i hated wearing the uniform, not to mention the big namebadges we had to have stuck on our jumpers, there was no question of us being allowed pants and it was the same uniform they had when the school opened in the 50s. Thats madness really. In summer you'd be roasting and they wouldnt let you take off your jumpers, some teachers would complain if you even rolled up your sleeves. Not to mention that we had t have our tie over our top button at all times, resulting in semi-strangulation.
Thank god im off to college.

Shoolaboola

in my school, girls can wear trousers no problem but the guys get alot of trouble from teachers for having long hair! my bro has long hair and this really annoys me.