Do school uniforms promote discipline and a sense of belonging, or are they a pointless, outmoded tradition? Two school pupils argue the pros and cons
This week the coalition's new behaviour adviser, Charlie Taylor, advised schools to enforce stricter uniform codes to encourage better discipline. Oliver Laughland brings together Karan Varjivan, 15, a uniform-wearing pupil from Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney and Mabel Richards, 16, from non-uniformed Fortismere school in Muswell Hill, to ask if doing up your tie and tucking in your shirt is a key to educational success.
Karan Varjivan: I go to school in Hackney, which is a really rough area. There's lots of people from abroad, lots of single-parent families with kids who don't get to see their fathers and mothers enough. A lot of pupils have really disorganised lives. I guess the uniform helps them organise themselves. Even being told off for not wearing a tie properly, not tucking your shirt in, that's a little bit of organisation that impacts on their school life as well as helping them to be more organised. Organising your apparel is a bit like organising your mind.
Mabel Richards: Do you not think that teachers are so stretched already that it's a bit of a waste of their time to always be having to police undone top buttons, undone ties – why does that matter when you could be dealing with more important things?
KV: I don't think it takes up a lot of their time.
MR: But what Charlie Taylor is advising is that schools be really strict with their uniforms. If they're going to implement a uniform then they should really enforce it – I agree with that. I think whenever a school sets up rules, of course they should enforce them, or the kids won't listen, but I see having a uniform now as regressive. It sends out the message to children that people in authority have the power to tell us to conform. I don't really think they do. Uniforms were first introduced in the time of Henry VIII with blue coats; education used to be about learning facts and never questioning them. I think today our education system has a lot more creative values, and not having a uniform reflects that.
KV: But my uniform hasn't stopped me being creative.
MR: Maybe through having a uniform you've learned to express yourself in other ways?
KV: Yeah, and I think that's a good thing. You can be a productive member of society and be creative without having to focus on thinking, "Oh, what am I going to wear to school today?"
MR: Like you, I think that discipline is really important, but I also think that there are things that aren't so important, and uniform is one of those things. I have friends who go to uniformed schools and they seem to spend so much time trying to fight the system and rebel; they find tiny ways of expressing themselves such as piercings. Not so long ago I was out with some people who go to uniformed private school and we went to Camden to get their nipples pierced. To go to that kind of length seems a bit mad to me.
KV: [At our school] they know that whatever happens you will get found out, and you will be punished for it.
MR: Even with a nipple piercing?
KV: They'd find you in PE! Believe me – they have their ways!
MR: Your teachers seem omnipresent!
KV: I guess they are. It's almost like it prevents challenging authority.
MR: Doesn't it promote teacher-student conflict, though? If I was constantly being told by my teacher to do my top button up, do this, do that with my clothing it might damage our relationship.
KV: Teachers learn to build up a relationship with you, and it's almost like you can approach them to talk casually as friends. We do joke about.
MR: So, because you wear a uniform, you feel that it encourages your teachers to get to know you more, and it makes you feel more confident?
KV: Yeah, it makes you feel like you come from a small community. It gives you a sense of belonging.
MR: But even though I don't wear uniform, and my school is really big, I still feel part of a community. I think people equate liberal for lax, but it's just not true. We are still united as a school, and as a community. People say uniform is a great tradition, but I don't think it reflects many of the values of today's society. I think to keep it for the sake of tradition is mad.
KV: But I don't think uniform is for the sake of tradition. I think it's more psychological – organise your apparel and your mind will follow. It's more that sense of belonging somewhere. Having this kind of business type of uniform, it makes us feel part of that business world.
MR: But they're children, they're 11 – why should they have to feel like they're part of a business world? Shouldn't we enjoy our childhood, and enjoy getting to wear what we want and express ourselves through our clothes?
KV: It gives me a sense of belonging somewhere, of being a part of something, because all this time I've felt like an outsider, and now it feels like someone's let me in, like I belong somewhere. It's improved my confidence – from being that kid who started off in nursery who, up until year 9, didn't exist at all.
MR: I've never worn a uniform, ever, from four until 16, so I don't know what it's like, but I think as a society we're always striving to celebrate how different and diverse we are – dressing everyone in the same clothes doesn't reflect that. By not having a uniform, I think I've been able to recognise that me and my peers are all different, we've all got different characters and different abilities. And I think it makes teachers recognise that as well I think.
KV: But your differences can be defined by you as a person, like in Martin Luther King's speech "I have a dream". He said that "I dream of a day when people are judged by the content of their character rather than the colour of their skin", so I think the same applies here. In Hackney there's a huge gap between the rich and the poor, but we all go to the same school, and by wearing the same uniform I think it helps people socialise, and helps you judge other people by their character – because it's not like, I dunno, people who wear this brand from Bond Street in one area and people who wear brands from the high street hanging out together.
MR: Do you not feel babied when someone else is telling you what to wear? You grew out of having someone else dress you when you were, what, three or four? With freedom comes responsibility, and with the freedom of being able to dress yourself, you become more responsible – it's made me think about how I present myself to the world – I have worn the wrong stuff sometimes, not unfashionable stuff, but things that are inappropriate and at my peril – it's taught me an important lesson. The sad truth is a lot of the time you might get judged on your appearance – say, at a job interview. Yet if you never really had to learn to dress yourself for a formal environment, you've just been given the clothes, then if you go in dressed inappropriately, you're not going to get the job are you?