Step Four (First Draft)

             Whenever walking by middle schools and high schools in Korea, all we can find are students in deformed school uniforms. Girls mend their skirts to be as short as Abercrombie shorts, and boys make their pants be as skinny as Hollister Co. super skinny jeans. What likely to happen is their getting detention for violating dress codes. Then, what is the whole point of assigning school uniforms? This is a problem that is not only applied to Korean schools; this is a matter for all schools with school uniforms. School uniforms should be banned because there are not justifiable reasons to support them.

To start with, the school uniform should be banned primarily because it is too expensive considering the use of them. According to Guardion.com, Toby Helm states:

With millions of  children preparing to return to school, a study from charity Family Action, which supports disadvantaged families, says many poorer parents will have paid out 40% of their monthly income in August on "back-to-school costs" alone. It calculates that the bill for equipping a child for the first day of secondary school now averages £191.96 when clothing and equipment are included (Helm).

This would be a huge financial burden for middle or lower class parents. They would even have to buy more and more whenever their children grow. Even if there is a financial aid from the government, most of them would still have to pay. The line between whom to support and whom not to, is not certain. Even those who are not as poor to get financial aid might feel it too expensive. Although there are school uniforms, students still need other clothes even if we already have school uniform to wear. Uniforms are just for school. It’s not like we’re going to wear school uniforms for the whole day. School normally ends at 3~4 p.m. Parents would have to pay for both school uniforms and other clothes whereas they would have had to pay only for normal clothes if there were no school uniforms.

Furthermore, children should be able to express their creativity freely. Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” (The) According to suite101.com, Rebekah Richards argues that “Forcing students to wear school uniforms reduces their individual expression and free choice. Many teenagers express themselves through their clothes and accessories. Limiting free expression can be compared to limiting the freedom of speech.” (Richards) Schools are keeping children from developing their own creativity and expressing their individuality by making them wear the same clothes. Some say there are other programs for creativity. But, those programs are unnecessary if the schools are not allowing children to express their creativity from the most basic thing like what to wear. Clothes are the fundamental ways of showing themselves.

Some say that if there is no school uniform, poor kids would tend to wear cheaper clothes and that can be a reason for being bullied. But there is also a similar bullying problem caused school uniforms. According to the BBC News, Citizens Advice chief executive David Harker said:

"The costs of taking part in school life can place a great deal of pressure on the budgets of low-income families.Not having the money to buy the correct uniform, join in activities outside the classroom, or go on school trips can mark children out as being poor, and lead to them becoming isolated within school.” (Harker)

Moreover, conformity is not the only solution to the bullying problems. Schools should try to teach children that everyone is different and that each one should be respected equally. That’s what education is. Making everyone look the same is only a short term solution; there are other factors of bullying, too. Learning conformity at school is what makes children turn discriminative towards people who are only a little bit different from them. They should try to teach the difference between people and how they all should be respected equally. That is what the education is in long term. If school uniforms are important in a way of conformity, the enforcement for wearing them cannot be justified.

             To sum up, school uniforms should not be forced at school for three big reasons: they cost too much, they kill students’ creativity, and they pursue conformity. If the schools could not give a better and logical reason than to argue that uniforms help unity of the students, there is no justification they can make in order to keep the uniform policy. Uniforms only cause bad effects for both the students and their family by wasting their money and suppressing their individuality. It’s not time to think more deeply on this issue. Sometimes, accepting every single rule without any doubts on them is not the answer.

Works Cited

Harker, David. "School Uniform 'bullying Risk'" BBC News. BBC, 09 Jan. 2005. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4204594.stm>.

Helm, Toby. "School Uniform Costs 'break the Bank' for Poorer Families." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 03 Sept. 2011. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/03/school-uniform-costs-break-bank>.

Richards, Rebekah. "Cons of School Uniforms." Suite101.com. Glam Family, 19 Feb. 2010. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://suite101.com/article/cons-of-school-uniforms-a203837>.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/>.

Quotes

1. Cost 
With millions of children preparing to return to school, a study from charity Family Action, which supports disadvantaged families, says many poorer parents will have paid out 40% of their monthly income in August on "back-to-school costs" alone. It calculates that the bill for equipping a child for the first day of secondary school now averages £191.96 when clothing and equipment are included.


2-1 Creativity: 
Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.”


2-2
Forcing students to wear school uniforms reduces their individual expression and free choice. Many teenagers express themselves through their clothes and accessories. Limiting free expression can be compared to limiting the freedom of speech.



3. Conformity
U.K. Citizens Advice chief executive David Harker said
"Not having the money to buy the correct uniform, join in activities outside the classroom, or go on school trips can mark children out as being poor, and lead to them becoming isolated within school."

Short comment after reading "The Lottery"

Nowadays in Korea, actually since WWII, there is a trend of driving some people into “Reds from North Korea” to make them executed or to blow up some witch trial, (or to win the presidential election, or to cover up the troubles that shouldn’t be revealed like the Watergate.) And the victims are usually those who speak against the mother******* stupid policy made by the govt. The supporters of the victims are trying urgently to prove that they are not reds. Of course they are not. However looking deep inside, we can see that both the supporters and the f****** conservatives have already set the precondition that “reds should be executed” in the first place, that’s why one side tries to make some people seem like communists and the other side tries to prove they are not. What’s more important is that there is no logical reason that all communists should be murdered or kicked out of the country. The only reason they could ever think of is that it has been that way for a long time! it’s like the lottery tradition. There’s no damn logic there. They just think and act that way because they were brainwashed to think and speak only in that way. Anyone ever speak of communism is considered very “dangerous” to the society. (Of course dangerous to the riches and the republicans because communism is probably going to make them less rich!) But then, what’s the point of all these? If this brainwashing education and everything keep going on, how are we that different from those “useless shitty animal like” North Koreans who try to brainwash the citizens to keep the dictatorship and power of the government? I’m not saying we all should take one side between two parties. It’s a more fundamental problem. It’s time to wake up. Why are we living the McCarthy America in the 1950s? Seriously, what are we afraid of?

[Step Three]-1 Outline

*The house should ban school uniforms. There are no justifiable reasons for schools to force students to wear uniforms.

1.    It is expensive!

-The average of the school uniforms is about $250 per one pair around the world. The total range would be about $200~$1000. How can everyone support this? Isn’t this too much of a financial burden for middle/lower class parents? They would even have to buy more and more whenever their children grow.

-Even if there is a financial aid from the government, they still have to pay. The line between whom to support and whom not to, is not certain. Even those who are not as poor to get financial aid might feel it too expensive.

-We still need other clothes even if we already have school uniform to wear. Uniforms are just for school. It’s not like we’re going to wear school uniforms 24/7. School normally ends at 3~4 p.m. Parents would have to pay for both school uniforms and other clothes whereas they would have had to pay only for normal clothes if there were no school uniforms.

2. Individuality/ creativity should be encouraged

-Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” Schools are keeping children from developing their own creativity and expressing their individuality by making them wear the same clothes.

-There are other programs for creativity? They are unnecessary if the schools are not allowing children to express their creativity from the most basic thing like what to wear. Clothes are the fundamental ways of showing themselves.

3. (Counter-argument) Sense of equality

-If there is no school uniform, poor kids would tend to wear cheaper clothes and that can be a reason for being bullied.

à Is conformity the only way of preventing bullies? Schools should try to teach children that everyone is different. That’s what education is. Making everyone look the same is only a short term solution; there are other factors of bullying, too. Learning conformity at school is what makes children turn discriminative towards people who are only a little bit different from them. They should try to teach the difference between people and how they all should be respected. That is what the education is, in long term. If school uniforms are important in a way of conformity, the enforcement for wearing them cannot be justified.

Link to the database website!

[Step Two]

The school uniform should be banned primarily because it is too expensive considering the use of them. The average of the school uniforms is about $250 per one pair around the world. The total range would be about $200~$1000. This would be a big financial burden for middle or lower class parents. They would even have to buy more and more whenever their children grow. Even if there is a financial aid from the government, most of them would still have to pay. The line between whom to support and whom not to, is not certain. Even those who are not as poor to get financial aid might feel it too expensive. Although there are school uniforms, students still need other clothes even if we already have school uniform to wear. Uniforms are just for school. It’s not like we’re going to wear school uniforms for the whole day. School normally ends at 3~4 p.m. Parents would have to pay for both school uniforms and other clothes whereas they would have had to pay only for normal clothes if there were no school uniforms.

Children should be able to express their creativity freely. Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” Schools are keeping children from developing their own creativity and expressing their individuality by making them wear the same clothes. Some say there are other programs for creativity. But, those programs are unnecessary if the schools are not allowing children to express their creativity from the most basic thing like what to wear. Clothes are the fundamental ways of showing themselves.

Some say that if there is no school uniform, poor kids would tend to wear cheaper clothes and that can be a reason for being bullied. Conformity is not the only solution to the bullying problems. Schools should try to teach children that everyone is different and that each one should be respected equally. That’s what education is. Making everyone look the same is only a short term solution; there are other factors of bullying, too. Learning conformity at school is what makes children turn discriminative towards people who are only a little bit different from them. They should try to teach the difference between people and how they all should be respected. That is what the education is, in long term. If school uniforms are important in a way of conformity, the enforcement for wearing them cannot be justified.

[Step One] School Uniforms!

Step One:  Choose your topic at idebate.org by going to the "Debatabase" section. Choose a topic that interests you and will be easy enough for you to write personally.  You are allowed to use "I" in this essay, and hopefully you can find a motion that you have some experience with. 

[The house should ban school uniforms.]

Whenever you walk by the streets near middle schools or high schools in Korea or Japan, you can easily find girls in a very short school uniform skirts or boys in a pair of tightened jeans. Students try to accentuate their specialty or to simply show some rebel to this whole education system of conformity by deforming their school uniforms. One of the most common reasons of why students in Korea get “penalty points” at school is because they have violated the “dress code” of wearing school uniforms. Then what is the point of wearing the same school uniforms every day? The natural consequence of students not wanting to be the same as others around them is worsening the relationship between students and teachers.

What is the fundamental reason for wearing the same uniforms in the first place? In Korea, wearing uniforms is just one natural rule of attending schools. Schools have never told us why. Whenever we wonder why, all they tell us is because it has been that way for a long time. Then how long is that long time? Korean schools have been requiring school uniforms since the Japanese colonial era, so the origin is from the Japanese schools. How about the other countries? Well, I don’t know yet. But I’m pretty sure all they could ever give as a reason for wearing school uniforms is that it helps unity of students attending the same school.

For my school, we have one special reason for wearing school uniform: to keep the tradition of “Korean minjok”. To keep the Korean destiny, we are forced to wear Hanbok every single day. Wearing Hanbok uniform is good for it being special compared to other high schools. But that statement becomes true because there is a precondition that all Korean high schools require school uniforms. If there weren’t, why would it be that happy? I also have a lot of things to say about keeping tradition by wearing traditional clothes all the time, but I won’t for now since it’s a little bit off-topic.

School uniforms also become a big financial burden for a lot of parents in the middle or lower class. My middle school uniforms cost about $700 in average, in order to buy both ones for summer and winter. Seven hundred dollars is such a big deal for normal people, considering they would have to buy more each time their children grow. There are some schools that have even more expensive uniforms such as my high school. My parents spent more than $2000 in the beginning of the semester, just for the purchase of school uniforms. If the schools cannot give us apparent reasons for wearing uniforms, the cost of them can never be justified at all.