Good behavior in school kids is probably more fostered by excellent leadership, admin and teachers alike, and sound policies, AND GOOD PARENTING than by what the kids wear or dont wear to school ie uniforms.
If there are school based discipline problems that some think need fixing with different clothes, I would say look first to see if there are good role models at the school, and at home.
Ok Crew Chief, I am back with a new quote, hope you like it! and Happy moving!!
A great proportion of the misery that wanders, in hideous forms, around the world, is allowed to rise from the negligence of parents. – Mary Wollstonecraft
My husband went to a private school where uniforms were required, and he is against uniforms in public schools. They did nothing, according to him, positive for the kids. The richer kids still wore nicer clothes, while the less fortunate still had to wear "bargain" clothes. And the richer kids still teased the poorer kids. Jocks still beat up on "nerds" and all that. The uniform was khaki pants and white or blue oxford, I believe. Keep in mind, though, that this was an all-boys high school, so you might not necessarily expect great behavior there all the time.
Our school district had the school uniform debate two years ago. The superintendent actually brought the topic to the school board. This topic arose because of concerns how the girls in high school were dressing, also, kids that didn't dress "cool" were getting picked on (most incidents were girls making comments about other girls if they were dressed well).
Soon, a survey was sent home to every parent asking basically the same that you mentioned. The responses in the majority were that people wanted to open debate and research the idea.
The superintendent put together a committee to study school uniforms of parents, teachers, business leaders. They reviewed material and met many times over a 3 month period. The end result, for our school district, was NO.
The reason; the committee didn't feel that we "needed" school uniforms. They felt that the biggest problem was in the high schools and they were all against uniforms at that age. Also, our school district was not facing many of the "problems" that school uniforms might fix (which you can easily find in researching the web). So, at a school board meeting, the committee presented their findings and made their statement against uniforms and that was the end of it.
I really didn't have an opinion about whether we had uniforms or not. It wouldn't matter to me...if the schools wanted them, I would've been fine with the decision. One thing that the committee did suggest was that in the future if our school district wanted to pilot uniforms at one school, they would only support it at the elementary level.
P.S. One of our PTO fundraisers is selling school shirts with our logo (we're an arts magnet school) on it. These are allowed with pants and shorts. We make some money--we sell them pretty cheaply and they are very popular. I don't know if all schools do this. The uniform is chosen by the school here (within guidelines, I'm sure).
