🚀 go-pugleaf

In la.general Joe Freeman <joe@freemansoft.com> wrote:
: My comments on your "blast" are attached below.  I apologize in advance for any
: text wrap issues.

Joe, not a "blast", just sarcastic flamgae... a Usenet tradition... :-)

: J.M. Ivler wrote:

: > In la.general Joe Freeman <joe@freemansoft.com> wrote:
: This must really be a hot issue for you. 

So hot that my mother (a child psychotherepist) and I have been having
heated discussions on it for over three years it seems... :-)

: I never said you were wrong. Let me paraphrase my point.  "There may be
: subtle side effects from uniforms that are beneficial"

An arguement that she makes. My point is that these same issues were there
when I grew up. Some of the kids have Levi's, others had Wranglers and
then there were those that wore that crap from Caldors (a general cheap
department store in the north east where I grew up). Of course that didn't
include the squares who wore cords and sweaters... :-)

In the midwest a friend once said that you were known by your hat and
boots.

Competition will always happen. Being a male I missed out on the stuff
dealing with jewelry, but my girlfriends were *always* competing in dress,
makeup, style, accessories, etc. with the other girls. And then the
compitition sometimes swapped about and it was about who had the more
raggedy look... I couldn't keep up even then...

: They were more focused on the reduction of tension and competition among sudents
: in an effort to leve more mental cycles for learning.

If the school system were to get back to the job of focusing on basic
educational processes, like making sure that kids could do the basic stuff
they need to do before they move from one grade to the next, then we would
see public education make a drastic gain in quality.

: The time I spend with my kids isn't going to help when there are
: other things going on in the school system. 

Um, wrong. If you reward proper behavior, if you spend that time
explaining why the compitition is uninportnat now. If you work with your
kids to help raise them above that, then there is a greater chance that
they will not stoop to the level of competing over materialistic things,
but over things that use their talents and abilities. Each time a parent
takes the time to move the kid away from competition on meaningless
things, to developing skills and competing with those, they enhance their
kids lives and the lives of other kids as well.

: Uniforms can, in some situations, reduce the obvious differences between
: students and act as a kind of money and social equalizer.  (I'd submit
: that competition and attitude cause more strife in schools than race.)
: Your comments imply that you see no merit in this idea.

My wife spends quite a great deal of time teaching my daughter about
proper clothing, mixing and maching, getting a "look" that fits her. My
daughter is very proud of the skills that she has developed. I see no
reason for her to not use these skills anymore than the skills she is
developing from using the web-site I developed to teach math
(www.wwinfo.com/edu/flash.html). 

It is not the schools place to be a social equalizer, anymore thn it is
their place to teach ethics, values or multi-culturalism. Schools should
focus on teaching our children how to ead, write and do basic math. They
are failing at that in great numbers. They should teach our kids "how to
learn" so our kids can continue to teach themselves. They should give our
kids the basic skills to succeed. AFTER they have done that they should
expose our kids to as many differnt ideas as possible. They should teach
them how to study new ideas and how to find and process information. And
remember, this isn't done in a vacume. parents should be very much a part
of this process.

What has all this to do with uniforms? A child in a uniform isn't going to
get any more of the above unless some of the basic underpinnings of the
school systems change. Changing the outside of the package isn't going to
effect what is inside, you have to change the manufacturing process to
modify the contents, not just relabel it and call it "new and improved".
Uniforms are an attempt to say that things have changed by "relabeling"
and not through a remanufacture. We have to change HOW we teach our kids,
what we reward, what is success. We have to instill compitition in them,
but not over materialistic things, but over how they leverage their inate
and learned skills. Uniforms don't do that. It is not a panecea. It won't
do anything but let the current crop of problems continue as people think
the blemishes are gone.

Solve the basic educational problems and you will find that the time and
energy of this issue will go away.