You walk into school with your favorite pair of jean capris and Aeropostale t-shirt. Your confidence level drops as you look around at the girls walking in with you. They are all wearing tight, short jean-shorts and tight spaghetti strap tank-tops. All of them are complimenting each others outfits, how cute they look. But you just stand in the corner, alone. No one says anything about your clothes or if they look good . But what if you came to school wearing the same thing as everyone else? There wouldn’t be as much judgement. This is why schools should get school uniforms.

“School uniforms put all kids on the same playing field,” says the director of the Center for Parent Education of the University of North Texas. School uniforms can make a lot of positive changes happen in just eleven years, which we saw at Long Beach, CA. Long Beach was the first school district to require all kids in kindergarten through eighth grade to wear a school uniform. (NevadaToday) And, since then, they have seen nothing but positive changes happen to the school. Fighting went down 51%, assaults with deadly weapons dropped 50%, and sex offenses went down 74%! Not only were kids not bullying and hurting other kids, but they were starting to not hurt and hate themselves as much, possession of drugs went down 69%. Also, the University of Nevada conducted research on the Washoe School District, in which they conducted a 49 question survey about how students felt about school uniforms. The survey revealed that 42 percent of students care less about how others looked. And 41 percent said that there was less gang activity at school. And after conducting the research, Sanchez (one of the researchers) said, "If a simple change in attire can positively influence 30 percent, or even 25 percent of a school's population then perhaps administrators, teachers, students and community members find it worth the effort."  (ProCon.org) So, like Sanchez says, if it such a simple thing to change, and to change for only the better, why not make that change?

Have you ever worn something to school and then be insulted for it. Told you it wasn’t “cute” or “stylish”. What did you do after that? Did you just forget about, brush it off? Probably not. You might say, “whatever”, but after that, when you go home and are trying to pick out your outfit for school the next day, you're not going to forget that comment. It will stick in your head and influence you to wear different things. And every night or morning you will find yourself spending so much more time picking out your outfit. Before you know it, you're spending all your time thinking about clothes, becoming obsessed. I know that this has definitely happened to me and some of my friends. Occupy Therapy says that with school uniforms “Children are free to concentrate on their lessons.” (OccupyTherapy) But if we had uniforms, this wouldn’t happen. I would know what I would wear tomorrow and all the days after it. The NASSP (National Association of Secondary School Principals) also noticed the distraction and said, “When all students are wearing the same outfit, they are less concerned about how they look and how they fit in with their peers; thus, they can concentrate on their school work.” Also, they will not cause as much drama as would happen without them.” “Provide less distraction, less drama, and more focus on learning” - Says Chris Hammons (Principle of Woodland Middle School) (ProCon.org) when he talks about the schools uniforms. Prejudiceness is in everyone. But when you grow older, you learn not to say the things that pop into your head. But when you are a kid, you haven’t yet learned not to say those things. So when kids come to school all wearing different things all they can think about is what other people look like, and what people have said to them. So, adding all these factors up, without school uniforms clothes become a big distracting part of kids’ lives and not letting them focus on school work or other more important things in life. Adding school uniforms would end all the distractions, and keep kids concentrated on the important things.

When you are a child or a teen all you want is new clothes to impress your friends, that girl/boy you like, and even the people you pass by on the street. And when different trends change, so do your clothes. I mean you don’t see people wearing parachute pants or leg warmers do you? No, you don’t.  7.7 billion dollars. That is the amount of money, that families in America, spent during back to school clothes shopping. But how much would America spend on uniforms? With uniforms the back to school shopping would be a lot easier and a lot less spending. With only spending around 1 billion dollars. (UnitedStatesCensus) School uniforms will provide an easy outfit layout for every day of the school year instead of a different outfit every day. French Toast, a popular school uniform website, says that an average school uniform would cost $45. (ProCon.org) This saves a lot of money, instead of buying trendy, fresh clothes from popular stores. In the end school uniforms pulls through to save you money.

When people talk about school uniforms they say that kids won’t get to express themselves. In the years of being a teenager kids are always growing and trying to figure out who they are, always changing their style to be something new.  But what a person wears, doesn't determine who they are. So when all kids are wearing the same thing it lets them be who they be want to be. It lets them be who they are on the outside, but on the inside. And what's on the inside counts more than anything. So with school uniforms kids will be able to be more true to themselves than ever.

Now you walk into school with your white polo shirt and navy blue skort. The girls and boys walking in with you are all dressed the same, no ones complementing each other on their new shirt or boots. Instead everyone is having a normal conversation about all sorts of different things. Things that are more important than how Beca is wearing a Justice t-shirt, or that David is wearing a sweater vest.

“Hey Alex! Did you see the school play last night?” Says Ron, one of your old fifth grade buddies.

“Hey! Ya I did. Doug did such a good job as Binky.”

“Oh my god, I know!” You guys continue to talk as you walk down the hallway. Before you part you make plans to go have some ice cream after school. Before uniforms Ron hadn’t talked to you, besides the occasional head nod or hi passing in the hallways, in three years. With school uniforms things were finally starting to look up.

Work Cited:
"United States Census Bureau." Facts for Features: Back to School: 2012-2013. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.

"School Uniforms - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

"School Uniforms – 51st Website from ProCon.org Explores Pros and Cons in the Debate - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.

"Pros and Cons of School Uniforms Statistics." OccupyTheory. N.p., 04 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

"News." School Uniform Study: University of Nevada, Reno. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.