School Uniforms Are The Way To Go

by Ben Sobel, age 11, from US

Recently, there has been a hotly debated issue regarding whether or not school
uniforms should be mandatory in public schools. My opinion is that uniforms
should be mandatory in public schools. There are many reasons why people
feel uniforms should or should not be worn in public schools.

To begin, the following are arguments against the use of school uniforms: First, some say the use of school uniforms might eliminate a warning system that would tell teachers when students need help. For example, if a teacher sees a student wearing gang colors or logos, the teacher would know that the student needed help with some problems that they had. If everybody wore the same thing, no one would know if a student needed help.

Some people think that a school uniform policy violates the first amendment in the U.S. Constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; …" People argue that the uniform policy violates the right to freedom of speech, because students are not allowed to wear whatever they want, which some people believe is a form of free speech. There have been many court cases about this. Judges have ruled on both sides of the issue.