Friday Poll No.8: School Uniform

[Rob McCow]

Kids!



Should kids wear school uniform?

Does it help them grow up to be respectable, sensible adults that are well-adjusted and smart?



Or does it have an altogether more sinister effect on youth?






And why is it so popular in Asia?



School Uniforms!

[SiHart]

Yes they should wear school uniform. This way it takes the pressure off parents who can't afford to clothe their kids totally in the latest fashions. I can remember being mocked for my clothes when I was at primary school. At least wearing uniforms cuts out this kind of bullying.

Si xx

[Pip Madeley]

School uniforms are good, but I prefer nurses oufits.




















(pause)













This isn't the Temple, is it.... oh dear.

[Paul Clement]

Yes they should wear school uniform. This way it takes the pressure off parents who can't afford to clothe their kids totally in the latest fashions. I can remember being mocked for my clothes when I was at primary school. At least wearing uniforms cuts out this kind of bullying.

I think uniforms are a good thing for exactly the reasons Si mentioned. I had the same experience too.

[Ralph]

This thread is a paeodophiles dream come true

[Larry]

I voted yes - but I've got a few unprintable thoughts/fantacies running through my head at the moment so I think i'll just leave it that.

[Carol Baynes]

It's a good thing- for all the reasons mentioned. Gives kids a sense of belonging and takes the pressure off the 'class' element.

I've still got mine! I last wore it in 2000 for a 'School Disco' night when I was visiting a friend in London. It was at the same club they filmed Pulp's "Common people" video too! Does it all still fit seven years later though....

[Pip Madeley]

Does it all still fit seven years later though....

I'm sure if you asked nicely there's a few people here who would give their opinion.

*cough* Tim *cough*

[Carol Baynes]

I wouldn't like to bend over quickly or breath in too deeply in it, that's all I can say, or you might be seeing more than the school badge!

[Pip Madeley]

There's something I could say to that but it's one for the Temple!

[Captain Tancredi]

I'm not sure. My primary school had a uniform but nobody had to wear it except on school photo day, so pictures of me wearing it are rare in the extreme. Then I went to a private secondary school and it was the other extreme- uniform, house ties and an excessive fussiness about overcoats, as I seem to recall, anything other than black or blue being frowned upon.

At primary school, clothes weren't an issue- nobody's family had that much money anyway so everybody pretty much wore the same things. I think what's happened with primary school uniforms in the last 15 years or so is that schools have tried to make them closer to what children will actually wear in terms of sweatshirts and polo shirts rather than jackets and ties. Neither do I particularly buy the argument about some kids being picked on because their parents can't afford certain clothes- while it's evidently happened, I don't see that much of a difference between buying your child casual clothes and the annual trip to buy a new blazer, jumper, five shirts, two pairs of trousers and a new PE kit because they've had the audacity to grow since last year. Having been picked on for most of my life for every conceivable reason apart from my clothes (which are generally as neutral as possible anyway) I think it's probably more that uniforms today tend to be sold through the schools and are therefore a nice little sideline.

But Carol's point about a sense of belonging is interesting- I have an inbuilt loathing of anything which identifies me with another group of people so it never worked for me, but then I was never part of a crowd either. If you look at the education systems which don't have them- America, some European countries, sixth form colleges- what seems to happen is that kids form their own tribes with their own uniforms. I'm just not sure what it has to do with education in terms of either getting facts into children's heads, or preparing somebody for the adult world where you have to find your own identity.

[Dirk Gently]

I agree with everyone else, uniforms are the way to go & I wish we had them when I was younger.

I also agree with Pip, Carol should let me give her mine.





And my opinion.

[Carol Baynes]

I'm really liking this new Hunt-esque 'don't f*** with me' persona that Pip is throwing around!

Tim, how come you didn't have a uniform at school?? Also, what are you going to give me???

[Dave Tudor]

Aside from the less savoury connotations hinted at by Ralph, school uniforms, as they are, are really not sexy, are they?

Oh, and I voted 'yes', for the same reasons Si put so well.

[Pip Madeley]

I'm really liking this new Hunt-esque 'don't f*** with me' persona that Pip is throwing around!

It's a distillation of my evil side, somewhere between my twelth and thirteenth incarnations.

[Alex]

There's a part of me that agrees about the whole thing with it putting kids on the same level, and not showing who's poor and who isn't etc, but then it becomes pretty clear after a few weeks who's well off and who isn't, and kids will tend to find a reason to pick on someone if they want too anyway.

The only reason I'm against them is how uncomfortable I used to find them, I've never been that happy in a shirt and tie, I remember when I first went to college and how liberating it felt to be wearing my own choice of clothes - and how much more comfortable it felt too.

But then again, sod it, if I had to go through it, they should too, so I'm voting yes as well.

[Dirk Gently]

Tim, how come you didn't have a uniform at school??

I'm not sure why they stopped having a uniform. There was one at my Secondary school about 5 years before I got there, then it was phased out & then came back again about 3 years after I started & was only applicable to new students. It's almost like they did it deliberately so I didn't have to wear it.
It's one of those things that has helped me think that there is a conspiracy that is being kept from me.

Also, what are you going to give me???

What do you want?

[Carol Baynes]

What do you want?

A school uniform that fits! Just don't ask...er... what for...

[Dirk Gently]

No, no, no, I like the "one size too small" look.

[Carol Baynes]

No, no, no, I like the "one size too small" look.

Thats no good at all. You'd see all my private parts through the straining gaps.

Although maybe that's the plan!

Seriously, I'm not sure what the sexual thing is with school uniforms. Maybe it's the going back to adolescent fumblings...

[Pip Madeley]

Yes, possibly, but to be serious for a moment I think it's just a harmless fantasy, really. Innocence and youth are attractive to straight men. Sadly that brings comparisons to sick perverts and paedophiles who would lust about children, but for regular normal men who like their missus/girlfriend/proper full-grown woman in a uniform, I guess it's just a fetish like any other, most likely because it's a 'forbidden pleasure'.

Yes, I did Freud during my time at uni.

(this conversation may be better suited to the Temple?)

[Trudi G]

I've never met a straight man who doesn't have the school uniform/ nurse/ PVC, stockings etc fetish, it's very common. What does that say about men in general? Lol!

[Captain Tancredi]

Seriously, I'm not sure what the sexual thing is with school uniforms. Maybe it's the going back to adolescent fumblings...

I blame Lalla Ward myself...

[Dirk Gently]

Thats no good at all. You'd see all my private parts through the straining gaps.

Although maybe that's the plan!

Am I that transparent?

Ian probably has a very good point, but I don't know him that well..

[Jeff]

I had to vote against. I never had to wear a uniform and I wouldn't have wanted to. To me uniforms seem a way of taking away individuality. I'd rather be able to stand out as an individual rather than be taught uniformity. Or maybe I've just watched 'The Wall' too many times...