Some ideas about the relative merits of uniforms and the value of allowing children the opportunity for self-expression through clothing.
“We leave such a trail of bodies through our teens that it is hard to tell which one is us. How many versions do we abandon over the years?” (Among the Missing by Dan Chaon)
It would take my younger daughter hours to choose what to wear for playgroup – or rather hours to decide what not to wear.
She used to scream with frustration or just stare at the pile of clothes and cry. Eventually my wife would sit with her the night before, sifting through her trousers and tops and they would lay out only two sets of clothes. In the morning Megan was allowed to choose one or the other. It still took her an age but at least we got to kindergarten on time without her having her regular meltdown.
We were never sure whether she struggled because she was worried about how she might look or whether she was incapable of making choices. She was able to decide about all other aspects of her life but it seemed as though having to make choices about clothes paralysed her. Neither of us wanted to protect her entirely from the need to make decisions. We were conscious of the value of bringing up our children to take responsibility for their own lives, and we supposed that deciding what to wear each day was part of that process. So we found ways to support her in her daily trawl through her relatively small wardrobe.
My elder daughter never had difficulty in deciding what to wear. It was simple. She just took what ever was nearest her when she fell out of bed, or what ever was comfiest, warmest and most practical. Though that has changed since she has become a teenager, she still approaches clothes very differently to her sister, but they both have their own unique styles and value being able to wear what they want, be that a lion suit ‘onesy’, Doc Martin’s, 70’s sheep skin coats or jeans and sweat tops. There are days when we still arrive late for school because the eye-liner won’t go on or because of some other fashion disaster but as they have never been to a school where there is a uniform, deciding what to wear each day has been part of their childhood experience.
They have many friends who attend schools which do have uniforms. It seems that these friends all face similar dilemmas about fashion but they have to work within the confines of the subtle variations that can be applied to ties, shirts and skirt length without falling foul of the staff. But invariably they still try to express their identities within these limitations.
In a world where there are children who can’t even afford clothes, it seems indulgent to worry about the importance of
allowing teenagers to choose what they wear, but I am still left with a sense that the debate about the value of uniform is
worthwhile. There is something about the potential for selfexpression through dress, the sense of identity that comes with it,
the artistry of treating clothing as more than protection against the elements that seems a great resource for an age-group who value autonomy and freedom.
Both my children are now at Sands School where every day they are confronted by seventy-five teenagers wearing whatever
they want. We have Goths,70’s retro, sloppy, tweed, the odd punk; someone may even wear an old school uniform; anything is possible. Some new arrivals immediately experiment with dress in wild and exaggerated ways as if seeking some sort of catharsis. Others spend their days in pyjamas or dungarees. There is no consistency, but Sands is a happy and colourful place.
I have taught at Sands since it was opened in 1987. Children and adults designed the school together and from the very first
conversations it was clear that having the right to choose what to wear was important to us all. The people who were most vigorously opposed to uniform were staff and children who had come from schools which had elaborate and strict dress codes. Such codes were condemned as petty, divisive and the cause of irrelevant conflict. At Sands we all wear what we want.
Megan still considers what she wants to wear the night before. It is no longer a struggle, in fact, she loves designing her look and has become fascinated by fashion, making her own clothes, researching styles and genres on the internet and even going to London to scavenge retro-fashion at Camden Market. She has an old Singer sewing machine which she manages to break every few weeks. She loves the fact that she can take her passion to school every day. One of our ex pupils has gone on to work in film as a costume designer and ‘dresser’ on films like Sherlock Holmes and Les Miserables. Her work featured in our Art exhibition celebrating twenty five years of Sand’s art.[www.sands-school.co.uk]. And as a result, this generation of pupils have been inspired to attempt similar things. Teenagers are just fascinated by what clothing can say about the human condition.
A few of the children who come to Sands do so because they have refused to conform to uniform codes in their previous schools. When I speak to adults about their experience of their school life and uniform, the majority recount that they constantly broke the dess-code in order to conform with the latest sock or tie fashion. Irrespective of the schools attitude to skirt length or shoe colour, as teenagers, they needed to reject adult authority and at the same time express their allegiance to each other. The desire to be individual and yet conform defines the contradiction and the challenge of being an adolescent.
‘The young always have the same problems – how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents [and teachers] and copying each other.’ [Quentin Crisp,1954.]
For these teenagers who join us because they have fought against their schools uniform code , rebellion has become their default setting. They have been labelled as difficult and uncooperative. They tell us time and again that the uniform rules were petty and their respect for the adults who upheld those rules was diminished. This meant that it became harder for them to respect those adults as teachers. Poor behaviour in the classroom was often connected, they say, to the conflict over uniform, jewellery and make-up that seemed to absorb much of teacher’s time outside the classroom. Raging against the system, against adults, wasted much of their time as students as well. So the very thing intended to encourage better behaviour, allegiance to the schools identity and then better results, had exactly the opposite effect on these particular children.
Not every child who comes to Sands has this attitude to uniform, but they all say that being able to wear what they like
each day makes them feel more relaxed. And certainly, the absence of uniform has no effect on behaviour or concentration in class. We never really expected it to, as we have all witnessed our own children out of school behaving well. They are able to commit to study at home wearing, jeans, t-shirts or pyjamas. I have never found that a uniform helped my studies either. I did some of my best work at University wearing an ancient sweat shirt. There have been attempts to study the correlation between uniform and improved performance and behaviour. ‘Mumsnet’, a significant force in’ parent voice’ is involved in some practical debate about it, but the research seems to be inconclusive and my best guess is that the proponents for uniform are able to quote evidence to support their views and vice versa. However, the ‘Sutton Trust’ have produced a fascinating document in which they argue that presence of uniform has a lower impact on school performance and behaviour than once thought and that money would be better spent on things like reducing class size, peer mentoring and giving teachers the time to give quality feedback about children’s work.[www.sutton trust.com] Similar research in the States has come to similar conclusions. [Joshua Reed has undertaken an M.A into this in his thesis, ‘Effect of a school uniform policy on an urban district school’…and concludes that uniform has no impact on behaviour in Junior and Middle schools and is perceived by students to have no impact in High School]
So, schools full of people wearing what they want could be both vibrant and relaxed and successful. A lack of uniform need not affect the quality of education or how well children behave. It could make people feel that there is equality between staff and pupils. That may breed a mutual respect that is felt throughout a school. Something as visible as a ” no uniform policy ” could be a potent symbol of democracy in action and remove one of the ‘flash points’ when relating to teenagers.
Conversely, latest trends in uniform have become a potent symbol of something else: corporate identity and branding.
Recently, when we were asked to attend a seminar for training teachers, the deputy head of a large and very successful
comprehensive announced to the young trainees that the single most important aim for the school was to create ”a clear corporate image.” He stated that the uniform was an inherent part of this objective.
”Heads and Deputies are increasingly looking at well designed uniform and sportswear as vital tools in the development of a
distinct brand identity…
”We chose a clear evolution of the existing uniform, moving the jacket into a more modern feminine style with a subtle red piping. We added a real wow factor with the red lining giving a genuine sense of identity and distinction.” [ ‘Uniform equals Branding”. The Independent Schools Magazine. 2014.]
Very few European schools have uniforms and in Scandinavia, where their results and academic achievements far outstrip even our best schools, the idea of a uniform would be an anathema.
Of course, in a world where self image is controlled by the media and fashion industry, we may be doing our children a favour by releasing them from having to choose what to wear. For a few hours each day the uniform frees our children from the clutches of the fashion magazines and the TV, even if they are still in the clutches of the school image consultants. And it saves us the terror of watching our teenagers fretting about fashion, spending hours in front of the mirror, grooming and worrying about their figures. Maybe we protect them from potential bullies and we may be able to reduce the obvious inequalities that arise when fashion favours the rich. We live in a world in which so many children don’t fit in.
We can all sympathise with the torment of not knowing what to wear, how to be and who to be with. The fear of getting it wrong and being ostracised and humiliated. Maybe removing the problem of choosing how to present oneself is an obligation we have in the present climate of anorexia and cyber bullying?
”She is a loner, too bright for the slutty girls, too savage for the bright, haunting the edges and corners of the school like a sullen disillusioned ghost” [The Rehearsal by Eleanor Cotta.]
At least a uniform homogenises, removes the very anxieties that my youngest used to suffer and creates an equality around clothing. It maybe that the uniform itself encourages children to rely on qualities other than image to reveal their true personalities. Maybe fashion becomes a crutch and allowing them to choose what to wear panders to the insecurities of our children and they are liberated by the uniform?
”For in todays generation of teenagerdom finding acceptance is hard, especially for those who dare to be different.”
Homogenising need not be a terrible thing if the intention behind it is good, but reducing our children to mannequins
projecting the school’s ‘corporate image’ denies them a wonderful opportunity for self expression in order to satisfy an increasing obsession with turning schools into businesses at the expense of the staff and children within them.
Maybe this is part of the reason I am so interested in schools allowing children and staff to wear what they want. Our students
tell us that they believe it is a basic right for people to be able to express themselves through their dress. I believe that this is particularly true of young people and teenagers. Experimenting with one’s identity is a fundamental part of growing up. For me, Sands, is a place that recognises that need, valuing the right for self expression above any need to project corporate image or group identity.
‘A thirteen year old is a kaleidoscope of different personalities, the colours reflected in what they choose to wear.’ J. Mitford.
‘As a teenager, I didn’t want to be me. I wanted to be many different people. Maybe I realised that they all live in me and that
if I managed to connect with them ,they would become aspects of me.’ [ Marion Cotillard, actress and civil rights activist.]