Bring Uniforms into Every American School

In America, the way students dress and respect their authority figures have gone out the window.  Not only do students pretty much wear what ever they want, they disrespect any person who tries to enforce the dress codes upon them. In Japan this is very seldom a problem.  There students wear uniforms to school every day and are proud, well mannered, and respectful.  Maybe this is the answer the American school systems need.  Maybe uniforms need to become the American way also.

The dress code at Sano Junior High in Japan where Bruce Feiler, author of Learning To Bow based his book is very straight and narrow.  The five page dress code precisely describes each detail of what the uniforms should look like and how it should be worn. For boys, this consists of black pants and a tight fitting black blazer with brass buttons and a high neck that scraped the chin like a clerical collar.  The girls must wear a matching navy blue skirt and blazer. Also, the code goes even as far as to say how their shirts are to be worn: "The white shirts must be pure white, with no wrinkles, no decoration, and no buttons on the collar" (77) Clearly the Japanese have a very strict code.

The way American students dress at school has started to become a problem.  Many students nowadays tend to dress in a more disgraceful and disrespectful manner compared to how they dressed over six to ten years ago.  Girls tend to dress in a way that is more risqué and sexually revealing whereas boys seem to have become more and more sloppy.  To be sure, every school has some sort of dress code that is presented to the students, but how likely is it to be enforced? Most of us would answer that it’s not very likely.

The high school that I attended did have a dress code.  It was normally handed out to every student the first day of school.  Under it, girls were required to make sure their shirts didn't show any of their stomachs or cleavage. Boys were not allowed to wear hats, and their pants needed to be pulled up far enough so that their boxers didn't show.  However, our school dress code was never enforced.  Students wore what they wanted, and if someone didn't like it or tried to step in and enforce the school dress code, they pretty much got ignored.  There was a specific incident that sticks out in my mind.  I remember when a friend of mine showed up to school wearing a black shirt. Printed in bold, white letters on the front were the words a four-letter word.  He was asked more than once by a few teachers to either go home and change it, or have some one bring him a new shirt.  He never did it; he always just laughed it off and went back to what ever it was he was doing.  The end result was nothing.  He received no punishment and no phone call home to his parents. 

One of the challenges for American schools is that, in America we have such tremendous cultural and ethnic diversity.  Each culture has its own beliefs and mores, so it makes it hard for the school systems to enforce what is acceptable and what is not, without the parents waiving their rights.  In Japan, however, they have a homogenous culture.  As such, it is easy for the parents to trust that the school system will enforce the proper ways of their culture.

Sakamoto-sensei in Feiler’s book is the school principal at Sano.  He is a great example for the American school authorities and parents to emulate.  He requires that every student carry a copy of the five-page dress code with them at all times in their shirt pocket across their hearts. To emphasize the dress code even more, Sakamoto-sensei did the following:

“He regularly monitored the shoe racks in front of the school to see which students were stepping on the heels of their sneakers instead of slipping them on all the way. This behavior, he said, was a sign of delinquency. To drive his point home, he hung an old student uniform outside his office decorated with various warning signs . . . . On the rope above the limp body, he had written his Shakespearian motto in script.”  (77)  This type of authority and enforcement could really do American students some good.

School uniforms could have such a great impact in the American schools.  With every student dressed in the same uniform, so much of the taunting and teasing from student to student would decrease.  In my senior year in high school I knew a young woman who was in almost every one of my classes.  It was quite clear by the look of her clothes and the way that they fit her that her family was not very well off.  Throughout the day she would get laughed at and made fun of, and what they wouldn't say to her face they whispered behind her back.  When it came time for P.E. and we all dressed in out gym clothes she became almost invisible.  It was hard to pick her out from all the rest, because she was dressed just like every one else.

Uniforms would also make it harder for students to single out the wealthy from the indigent.  The designer-dressed students wouldn't stand out over the "Wal-Mart" ones. Not letting students wear whatever colors and different logos they want would help out with those schools that have high gang activity.  In this day and age it seems girls want to show off more skin then cover it up. As a result of this, sexual harassment and advances are up, but with uniforms it should bring them back down.

Sakamoto-sensei says it best when he says, "If we start to let the detail slide, every thing will get out of control.  If we relax, all the students will become outlandish" (84) This is a prime example of what has happened to the American school systems.  The students in American schools have been given way too much leniency; it is time to take it back.     

Works Cited

Feiler, Bruce.  Learning To Bow.  New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.