I think that school uniforms are a good concept (though getting parents to freaking pay attention and care about what their kids are wearing would be better...) I went to a VERY conservative little private school from 8th-11th grade. The experience was a great one. I made a lot of friends and found that the classes weren't dumbed down for the masses as MANY public schools are *shudder*. There was a very strict dresscode the entire time I attended, and they ended up changing to uniforms my Junior year. My biggest gripe with uniforms and sometimes tight dresscodes is the cost. Do you know how difficult it is to FIND articles of clothing that adhere to a strict dresscode if you can't afford to buy all your clothing at stores such as Abercrombie? The school charged thousands of dollars a year for tuition but didn't even give a penny towards the insane cost of uniforms. They provided a catalogue, but I'm pretty sure it was from Land's End, so everything was enormously overpriced and not at all fitted to young shapes. I think that if a school is going to adopt a uniform code then they should at LEAST offer the clothing at a discounted price. Take the Air Force way for example- everyone has to wear the same thing from the same place, but we recieve a clothing allowance at least once a year to help out in the purchase of uniforms. I understand that part of the reason that the school charged so much was to make sure that only "serious" students attended, but come on, not all serious students can afford to spend all their money on freaking ugly clothes just so they can get a proper education. Don't even get me started on the policy that allowed for a teen father to stay in school while the pregnant teen was immediately expelled. If they're going to expel the girl they sure as anything should've expelled the guy too... *deep cleansing breaths*

Originally posted by catnapper
That way, everyone is on a level playing field... nobody is showing off their wealth or poverty while the dress the same.
By the way, at least in my experience this statement is completely false. There were two main subdivisions in the school- the students who could afford to buy their khakis and polo shirts at Abercrombie, American Eagle, Aeropostal, etc. And then those students who couldn't afford to spend $50+ on a polo shirt. In my experiences there, there was even more division into cliques when we had the uniform code as opposed to just a strict dress code.