LILLY MILLER: Dressing down standardized dress

Opinion

Discussion

June 30, 2009

By Lilly Miller Intern The Athens Daily Review Tue Jun 30, 2009, 09:46 PM CDT

Are school uniforms good, or evil?

The decision to require students to comply with a standardized dress code has affected students and parents in the Athens Independent School District. Some people feel it is one of the best things that could have happened. Others, like me, disagree.

By taking away our choices, does that take away our individuality? Yes, some would say, but do our clothes make us who we are, or does our innate character we’ve been developing since birth define us? I believe the discussion to go to uniforms was brought on primarily because kids spent more time worrying about clothes than they did worrying about school.

Does it really help kids focus on school? My answer is “no.” There will always be kids who come to learn and those who come because their truancy officer said they had to. I believe if someone truly doesn’t wish to learn, no amount of force feeding will do any good. So if you take away students’ right to express themselves (within reason) what truly has been accomplished?

I think I can honestly say nothing.

If you think about it, you spend more time looking for the school-approved clothing. Parents probably lose a lot more money than they did in the “good old days” when uniforms were just a distant nightmare and not reality (unless your kid was a shop-a-holic or a label queen).

Most parents agree that standardized dress was one of the best things that could have happened, but they’re parents and if they agreed with us kids all the time they wouldn’t be parents (take that how you want it). Do you want to take away your child’s ability to express themselves, because that’s what has happened and is still happening.

I can pretty much guarantee if you were to go around and ask kids who go to high school, middle school and any other school if they liked the dress code, between 80 and 90 percent would be an emphatic NO!

So why not make a slight compromise? Why can’t we just wear jeans and a polo shirt? There are millions of possibilities if we just try to think of something. I’d like to see the school administration seriously consider asking the student body for its ideas and opinions. I promise there won’t be a shortage of opinions (whether the parents and school board agree is up to them).

Parents, I ask that you consider the fact that uniforms don’t do anything beneficial. Okay, sure, your kid looks so “cute” and “grown up.”

Please! We’re just kids. It’s our job to be a little bit different than what you think a model kid should look like.

For now, I suppose, we must agree to disagree.

Lilly Miller, 15, is an intern with the Athens Review.

Text Only

Opinion

In spite of everything, brave young cops are protecting us
Details are still emerging on this story, so I won’t get into names and a lot of details today.

February 10, 2012 1 Photo
Again bowled over by canine chaos on Super Sunday
The Super Bowl is now in our rear view mirror, and I’ve had to deal with the fact that football season is finally over.
Men and women in shorts are now running around with a round ball. They’ll be dominating the sports calander for the next couple of months. We’re just a few weeks away from March Madness, and after that, the NBA playoffs.

February 9, 2012 1 Photo
If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is
Women got the right to vote when the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920.
We take voting very serious. Those women before me fought so I would have the right to cast my vote. My sisters

February 6, 2012 1 Photo
Tis a matter of the bladder — the screaming bladder
One of the few advantages of growing older is that you can schedule the taking of your prescription drugs, based on your own personal alarm clock.
From what I’ve been told by the older folks, of which I’m a very borderline member, if you can’t remember any other time to take your pills, do it the first time your bladder wakes you up in the middle of the night.

February 3, 2012 1 Photo
The Joe Pa story teaches us an old, old lesson
Before we move too far away from the Joe Paterno scandal that dominated the last three months of his life, I’d like to take one last attempt at perspective.

January 30, 2012 1 Photo
I can’t understand the remarks of one online columnist
A recent column on an on-line website stated that “Three newspapers chains control dissemination of local news in Cedar Creek Lake area

January 27, 2012 1 Photo
Young people will always be something good to talk about
As the years pile up, there are many things I envy about young people.
First of all, those people can sleep. I remember, when I was a kid, and would hear retired people talking about getting up at 4 a.m., having a cup of coffee and a big breakfast, I’d think — why?

January 26, 2012 1 Photo
Some people are very good and honest
Sometimes it seems like all I ever hear are how bad people are. I don't believe that. I think we all have some good in us.
It could be because I work for a paper that I hear a lot of negativity.

January 20, 2012 1 Photo
Founding fathers would fight for nativity scene
If you were to ask the question, “What do the Christian Left and atheists have in common?” the answer might be that many of them believe in the modern version of separation of church and state. I believe the difference between them is that the Christian Left is just uninformed about the historical truths, while the atheist is being guided, knowingly or not, by the hand of Satan.

December 20, 2011
A reminder of what matters most
I have to be honest.
When I first heard a group from Wisconsin wants to have the nativity scene removed from our courthouse square, after receiving an anonymous complaint from someone who was offended, I was furious.

December 12, 2011 1 Photo
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

Discussion

LILLY MILLER: Dressing down standardized dress

Site Map

Contact Us