Every year before Herron Homecoming, Riley Dance Marathon, and Prom, there’s always one week that pretty much everyone in high school looks forward to: Spirit Week. For a few days, students are excited to come to school and plan outfits out with their friends. Whether it’s pajama day, America day, or school colors, the energy in the building feels completely different. We get to dress up and show off our personality in what we wear. And honestly, it proves something important, which is: students don’t need uniforms to have a positive, focused school environment.
Herron Deans and the school board usually argue that uniforms help with things like reducing distractions and making everyone equal. But if you look at what actually happens during Spirit Week, those arguments don’t really hold up. People come dressed in crazy outfits (like dressing as the Lorax), or their cozy pajamas, or even just our school colors, and despite the deans’ arguments, everything still works. Classes still happen, teachers still teach, kids still learn, and the school doesn’t fall apart. If what we wore really had such a big impact on our learning capabilities, wouldn’t everything fall apart during Spirit Week?
When people feel comfortable and happy, they’re more likely to engage in class instead of just counting down the minutes until the bell rings. Being able to wear comfy sweats or an expressive outfit gives us so much more of a personality, and looking around the class and seeing all of the bright colors and fun ideas peers thought up truly brings light back into the dullness of a classroom. High school is a time when teenagers are trying to figure out who they are, and what they wear is a big part of that. Uniforms take away from this experience by making everyone look the same, every single day.
You also notice that people who don’t usually talk to each other start interacting more. Someone might compliment another student’s outfit or realize they’re dressed for the same theme (like dressing as the same teacher), and suddenly there’s a conversation between them that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Or, if two students come to school as characters from the same TV show, they may form a bond that they never would have before. If everyone is wearing the same thing, there’s no chance you’ll find someone wearing a t-shirt with your favorite band on it, or a hoodie from the same brand. Instead, everything is from School Belles. Spirit Week shows that differences can actually bring people closer to one another, rather than causing issues within our school community.
A huge argument for uniform is that it prevents students from dressing inappropriately and distracting their peers. Mainly, this is aimed towards the female sex, but during Spirit Week, students are much more focused on matching with their friends and coming up with cool ideas rather than dressing inappropriately. Speaking from experience, I have seen a lot more kids in blow up banana costumes or huge items of clothing than I have seen in inappropriate clothes. If anything, students wear MORE clothes with more coverage during Spirit Week than the school uniform provides. There is the possibility to have a dress code without having a strict and monotonous uniform, and Herron should take it.
At the end of the day, if our school can handle a full week where everyone dresses however they want (with certain rules, of course) and everything still runs as smoothly as it normally does, it’s extremely difficult to argue that uniforms are absolutely necessary to the learning experience. Students don’t need to all look the same to succeed, they just need the chance to be themselves.
