As featured in November 1996
Our Sinking Ship
School Violence Needs More Than a New Suit
By John Q. Simms, Jr.
School uniform policies are being debated as an answer to many problems seen in today's schools. The government states varied and valid concerns the school uniform notion addresses. These concerns, which I share, need to be dealt with. Uniforms may be an excellent quick-fix for some of their concerns, but this solution must be examined further. The policy targets the effects of our youth's lack of priority, not the cause of it.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Education, and a good number of parents, uniforms in our schools will: decrease violence and theft, instill discipline, reduce peer pressure, and promote concentration.
A school uniform policy may soothe some of these immediate concerns, but the reason for these concerns are being overlooked. Bailing water from a sinking ship will not stop it from sinking. The leak begins outside the educational system, so what will we do to keep our youth from going down with the ship? In the end, uniforms will improve the picture we paint of our youth, but the reality will not have been changed.
Uniforms are portrayed as a godsend for reducing
school violence because of the statistics that are cited. Information on
North Carolina State University's web site indicates that high school students
carry an estimated 135,000 guns to school everyday. The number of male high
school students carrying weapons was steeply rising to almost 50 percent...
in 1993. If the rate continued, the number would be well over 60 percent
by now.
A government release on mandatory uniform policies reports results from several school districts across the nation that have had success with uniforms. Long Beach, California, saw overall school crime decrease 36 percent, fights 51 percent, sex offenses 74 percent, etc. In a school in Norfolk, Virginia, fighting has decreased 38 percent.
All the success stories from the U.S. Department of Education take place in rural, middle-class ELEMENTARY schools. But the violence they are trying to suppress is at the middle to high school level. This misrepresentation is becoming commonplace as reductions in hostile behavior attributed to uniforms in elementary and middle school levels is used to validate a policy spawned in response to high school gang activity and violence. This misrepresentation carries over into economic and social stratas as well.
Instilling discipline, which used to be the job of parents and teachers, is listed as another reason for this policy. Child rearing is a full-time job. What is learned in school on subject material and life, needs to be reinforced once the student gets home, and vice versa. Part-time involvement in their lives is not enough. Neither parents, nor teachers can do it alone.
Are school uniforms really necesary to reduce peer pressure over appearance and promote concentration in our schools? There are alternatives. Most if not all schools have dress codes that were created to enforce just the ideas that sparked the school uniform notion. However, they are taken so lightly that some parents don't even know they exist. There are countless levels of affordable dress between sneakers and sweats, and a school uniform that can be outlined through a dress code.
Instilling a sense of pride, priority, and appropriateness in how our youth dress is a must. In preparing for their place in society, students should learn to feel good about who they are and how they look. Their individuality does not have to be compromised to accomplish this. The freedom to choose within certain guidelines enables students to dress in a practical fashion within their own particular comfort zone and is conducive to their individual learning styles.
If a dress code is not adequate now, revise it. "No sneakers, no sweats" is a start. Tailoring and adhering to these codes will ensure a student's own persona, raise the general level of dress promoting a concern for their own personal grooming and etiquette, and increase the awareness of their self-image and self-respect.
Our youth's image of senseless violence, gang
involvement, and disrespect for teachers, education, and parents is being
seriously scrutinized. However, this image is for the most part created
by the mass media. It has a tendency to show only the negative because controversy
sells. The question must be asked, are all our youth so prone to violence
that we must implement school uniform policies in all our schools?
Most students attend school regularly, study, get good or adequate grades, and realize the full potential an education can provide. We risk alienating those students who have shown they are fully capable of learning over the concern of what clothes one is wearing by handing down an edict to those completely unworthy of the indictment.
Uniforms also can make negative statements. Do our youth really need to conform to some image of what is a good student? Must they be controlled? Do we have no faith in their ability to decide what is appropriate for themselves? Will the rift widen between students from areas deemed unfit to choose what clothes they wear versus students in other areas whom society deems do not need to wear uniforms to learn?
This is not the positive reinforcement our youth need, especially those who do need the reinforcing. Uniforms placed within problematic areas can cause resentment towards the educational system we want them to embrace.
Do we honestly believe a student with the disposition to bring a gun to school and pull the trigger to obtain a designer jacket will put on a uniform? If we give these students an ultimatum to, "Wear your uniform or be suspended," they may welcome the opportunity to leave and never return. The end simply does not justified the means.
The execution of a school uniform policy is only covering up the true ailment in the socio-educational triangle that exists between our youth, their parents, and our educational system.
Look at what causes this lack of respect for peers, parents, educators, and education itself. From the start, truly explore the relationship between parents and their children in order to effectively change the course of our educational system... our sinking ship. Somewhere along the line our youth are not being made to understand that if the "system" is designed to hold them back, an education enables and empowers them to exploit and manipulate the system fruitfully.
There was a time when a child knew not to act up in class, because they knew they would be reprimanded by the teacher and the parent. No student wanted to challenge this team. Our community's most important team has been split down the middle. A recent study showed that 50 to 70 percent of teachers felt parents were responsible for the students' lack of educational resolve. The same study showed the same percentage of parents felt the same thing about the teachers.
Somewhere along the line, some of today's parents went from "Let nothing hold you down!" to "Wait a minute, I'm busy." Likewise, at some point a mentality grew that stripped teachers of the power to command attention and respect in the classroom.
We must all take responsibility and remedy this situation. School uniforms are just that, cover-ups, because the real dilemma is a lot harder to face and rectify. No problem has ever been corrected by covering it up.
Our educational system is the ship carrying our community and this country into the future. If it sinks with our youth onboard, where does that leave us all?
| |
Join readers who want a unique perspective on issues that affect the African-American community and keep up with the times. To have inspiring feature stories like this as well as other newsbriefs, commentaries, reviews, and special reports delivered to your door every month, subscribe to about...time Magazine today and save up to 68% off the newsstand price! |
|
