Plaids Out Again as Schools Give Up Requiring Uniforms Ny Times

Allowing students to wear spirit wear instead of school uniforms, reflects their school pride, instead of forcing them to look akin, experience policed and under guard; denotes freedom of expression; and creates a community of trust from student to schoolhouse leaders and staff.

Modify is necessary.

Approximately five or half-dozen years ago, high school students from two of our districts challenged our leadership with our said vision and mission to develop self-expression and innovative bookish mindsets, thereby developing the independent learner. Liberating our students and developing contained thinkers and learners is what we strive to do at U Prep Schools. We not only welcome pupil vocalism; we actually value it. Their ask was if Leadership might consider relaxing the wearing apparel lawmaking, allowing them to activate their freedom of expression and liberation in all tenets of their learning experience.

When I was asked to contribute to our monthly CEO Blog with the topic surrounding our decision to move away from school uniforms at the high school level, my initial and very direct thought was, "school uniforms are disproportionately required in low income or urban schools, where the population is predominantly comprised of black and brown children." I am aware, however, that the history and implications of school uniforms are far more than nuanced than that and deserve in-depth linguistic communication to back up my very informed, withal, opinion. If I may have just a few minutes of your time, I'd like to walk yous through the history of traditional schoolhouse uniforms, dispelling the myths that followed, and U Prep'due south charge to change.

The History of Schoolhouse Uniforms

Nosotros can trace schoolhouse uniforms back to the mid-1800s when the offset Native American Boarding Schoolhouse came into beingness on the Yakima Reservation in the Country of Washington. European immigrants traveled from the east declension to the west to begin colonizing the native people in very intentional ways, start with strict boarding schools. Per the American Indian Relief Council, the goal of the boarding schools was to "utilize education every bit a tool to "assimilate" Indian tribes into the mainstream of the "American manner of life," a Protestant credo of the mid-19th century. The reformers assumed that information technology was necessary to "civilize" the native Indian, and make them accept European, white male person-dominated behavior and value systems. In other words, the goal was to destroy Native American civilisation in favor of the new "American manner."

Past the 1880s, there were more sixty of these boarding schools promoting the "prized values of white order": club, subject field, and cocky-restraint. In 1879, the well-nigh well-known boarding school opened in Pennsylvania, The Carlisle Schoolhouse. The motto for the Carlisle School was "Kill the Indian, relieve the human being". The typical student was between the ages of xiv-eighteen, although some were much younger. The institution sought to exercise away with all outward signs of tribal life that the children brought with them. The long braids worn by Indian boys were cutting off.  Boys and girls were segregated by gender, and forced to wear school uniforms mandated past the school'due south leadership. Boys wore armed forces-fashion uniforms and the girls had European-style dresses.

The students were given new European names, including surnames. Traditional Native foods were abandoned, forcing students to larn the nutrient rites of white society. In addition, students were forbidden to speak their Native languages, even to each other. Audio FAMILIAR? The Carlisle schoolhouse rewarded those who refrained from speaking their own linguistic communication; near other boarding schools relied on penalisation to attain this "aim".

The expectation of the schoolhouse to its graduates was that they serve as models upon returning to their reservations. Instead, the Carlisle students returned adrift, trained for jobs that did not exist, ostracized by their peers, and notwithstanding victimized past white prejudices.

School Uniforms in Urban Schools

Now, let'south fast forward 110 years or and so to the mid-1990s, when former then Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton reintroduced the idea of school uniforms in "low-performing" (urban) schools as a cardinal focus during his campaign. President Clinton leveraged a rash of vehement crimes that were allegedly committed over designer wear to push his schoolhouse uniform agenda. A 1996 New York Times commodity captured this quote from President Clinton: "It'south tragic when young people without a balanced upbringing, without grounded values, without a secure education, current of air up assertive that it's alright to kill somebody for a pair of sneakers or jewelry or a designer jacket."

My query post-obit his statement, similar many intellectuals in this work for improving the educational experience for all children, was, "How do school uniforms solve the systemic issues in America that atomic number 82 to black and brown youth disproportionately experiencing 'unbalanced upbringings, no grounded values, or insecure instruction"? Peradventure you are now beginning to recognize the myth backside the mandate of schoolhouse uniforms, peculiarly in underserved communities.

The reality? Schoolhouse Uniforms have never proven to influence student accomplishment or behavior. I believe the misconception of some parents, derived from their child's school mandating a compatible, is the belief that their child attended a "good school."

U Prep's Accuse to Change

In the Summer of 2020, as part of our network'south Culturally Responsive Education training, our senior leadership led professional development sessions for all school leadership teams with the guiding text, Mail service Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy. The text introduced the idea that African Americans suffer from something called Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome or PTSS which focuses on three concepts:

• Vacant esteem

• Always-present acrimony

• Racist socialization

For the purpose of this mail service, I'll focus on Racist Socialization. Dr. DeGruy writes that "many of us accept adopted the attitudes and views of a white, racist America. Many of us see ourselves, and our community through a European, or white, lens. We both mold ourselves to accommodate white prejudices and endeavor to adopt their standards."

This manifests itself in a myriad of ways. Many African Americans have adopted white standards, including those of beauty and cloth success, as well equally violence and brutality. "School uniforms are a very articulate case of a beauty and cloth standard created from the lens of white people and largely accepted past black people. The violence that allegedly inspired school uniforms tin likewise be directly attributed to the aforementioned violence white people have inflicted upon communities of color since the nascency of this nation."

At U Prep, we seek to develop the critical thinker and innovative trouble solver who recognizes a community challenge and offers solutions to ultimately improve the whole. This is a epitome shift and one that follows our practise of culturally responsive educational activity and learning. Assuasive our students to walk the halls in spirit wear that reflects their school pride, instead of strict or conservative outerwear that forces them to look akin or feel policed and under guard, denotes freedom of expression, builds school pride and creates a community of trust from student to school leaders and staff. We are a community in every way!

Author: Jerry Lawrence is the Assistant School Director at UPA High Schoolhouse. He has dedicated his career to improving the lives of black and brown children both on the Eastward and Due west coasts. Jerry is a graduate of the University of Maryland – Baltimore County, where he earned his Bachelor of Science caste in Social Work. He received a Masters in Educational Leadership from Grand Valley State Academy. Jerry has been with the U Prep Schools network for half dozen years and has served as the Internship Coordinator, Dean of Civilization, Banana School Director of Civilisation, and now the Banana School Director of the 11th and twelfth form.

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Source: https://uprepschools.com/school-uniforms-dont-have-to-exist-reimagining-the-landscape-at-u-prep/

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