School Dress Code

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The first standardized dress code is believed to have been recorded in England during the early 1200’s. Their uniforms consisted of very distinctive scarves, handkerchiefs, waist coats, and heeled shoes. School uniforms in England were used as a representation of social status. It was later adopted by many schooling systems in other countries, such as Japan and Africa. Japan is now known for having almost all schools in the country enforcing dress code policies. The United States later followed suit in the late 1900’s, limiting dress code policies to mainly private and parochial schools. School dress code is rarely seen in public schools in Europe and Canada, though you may see one enforced in many private schools in the area. A uniform is …show more content…

The topics of her articles focus mainly on education and school environments. Throughout her article ‘Do uniforms make schools better?’, she speaks on the impact dress code policy has made in certain schools around the United States and how it reduces the amount of gang-related violence on campus. In her article, Wilde states, “... when the researchers looked into school discipline and local police records and compared them to the prior year’s data, discipline referrals were down 10 percent, there were 63 percent fewer police log reports, and graffiti, fights, and gang-related activity were all down.”(Wilde 20) In other words, enforcing uniform code contributed to the reduction of violence and vandalism on school grounds, making it a safer place for students working to gain an education and allow them to focus more without having fear. She also gave a quote from President Clinton expressing his approval for the uniform policies being enforced throughout the nation. The quote stated, “If it means teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms” (Wilde 4). Over time, officials of district schools around the country have seen large amounts of improvement after dress code policies were enforced into public schools, including higher academic achievements and attendance rates. Marian Wilde’s credibility as a source is …show more content…

In his article, Constitution Check: Do school uniform policies violate the First Amendment?, he speaks on the issue of school uniforms violating students’ rights of free speech. In the piece, Denniston states,”...it not the business is of the government to decide which views are acceptable, and which are not, and the right to speak one’s own views is matched by protection against having to utter someone else’s views – especially, views favored by the government.”(Denniston 3) The first amendment protects students from having to be restricted from expressing themselves instead of following after others opinion, such as the government. School uniforms are a violation of the rights entitled to students because it limits their freedom of expression and comfortability through clothing. Though some countries do not have freedom of speech, such as North Korea and Cuba, most do. Later in the piece, he talks about different Supreme Court cases concerning uniform policies and the violation of the first amendment. Denniston’s credibility is increased as source throughout the article as he states that he has reported on the Supreme Court and constitutional issues for over 55 years, basically imply that he has a decent amount of experience to support his argument. The source appears to not have any

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