Jose Luis Aviles
Can Uniforms be Beneficial for Students?
It might be time for American students to accept the idea of dressing alike. Mark
Mathabane in “Appearances Are Destructive” thinks that students today are
focusing more on fashion than education, and they’re not learning. He states that
“the greater use of dress codes [is] a way to protect students and promote learning.” I really
like the idea of dress codes required in schools for students to wear. It will help the students
who are wearing the same uniforms to focus on education more than fashion.
Education is really important for students. Most students go to school to learn
something new as opposed to some students who are only checking their hair, their
nails, sneakers, jewelry, clothes and their face and distracting other students who are
trying to learn and also teachers who are trying to teach in class. In this article, two
sisters came to America from South Africa for a better education and they came home
from school crying because they were wearing uniforms and other students were
wearing expensive clothes and jewelry. I feel bad for the sisters. I had a friend in high
school that really cared about his Michael Jordan sneakers so much that he had to take
care of them carefully in class while the teacher was teaching. It was really distracting
because my former classmates and I looked at what he was doing. He was cleaning his
sneakers which were dirty because someone stepped on them. When this happened,
he got mad. My classmates and I were trying to pay attention to the teacher but he was
distracting us. He didn’t pay attention to the teacher. He just stared at his sneakers. We
wanted to learn, but the distraction was there. Education is what students need the
most. They’re not going to school to learn about clothes, jewelry, how to comb their hair,
polish their nails or clean their sneakers. That’s not important. Who cares? Most
students want to learn, get good grades and graduate. That’s why all students should
wear uniforms every day to be the same as others.
In addition, Mathabane says “when students are asked why they attach so much
importance to clothing, they frequently reply that it’s the cool thing to do, that it gives
them status and earns them respect.” I disagree with what the students said because
that’s not enough of an answer. I don’t think it is really cool about earning respect based
on clothes. How does wearing expensive clothes and jewelry earn them respect from
other students? They’re not the king or queen or being worshipped like gods and
goddesses. I don’t understand students these days. I’ve seen girls wearing tight jeans
that get boys attention. They have Louis Vuitton, Coach, Gucci and Prada bags, and
they wear too much makeup and perfume to smell good. For the boys, they wear brand
new sneakers from Nike, Gucci, Jordan, and Diesel and they wear expensive clothes
from many different fashion designers. They want to look cool for the girls. It’s
ridiculous. “And many students now measure parental love by how willing their mothers
and fathers are to pamper them with money for the latest fads in clothes, sneakers and
jewelry.” This means many students are expecting their parents to buy whatever they
want to know that their parents love them. That’s also ridiculous because the students
have to think that their parents have to pay for rent, gas, the mortgage, electricity, water,
phone bills, college, if their kids are planning to go, and insurance. The money that their
parents work so hard for is not for their kids to get what they want. And most parents
cannot afford to buy their kids expensive items.
The students need to understand that education comes first before fashion. They
also need to understand that clothes and jewelry don’t last long. Clothes and sneakers
become worn out. Jewelry becomes old and rusty. So, for those students, who are not
focusing on education, get your head straight and start to focus rather than looking at
yourself. Don’t ask parents to buy you more expensive clothes to prove that they love
you. Of course, parents love, but, with their hearts, not their money. Uniforms are a good
idea for students in all schools. No one should feel superior because of the clothes on
their back.
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