Schools in America are beginning to see more problems arise faster than they are able to find solutions to solve them. Violence, poor academic achievement, poor attendance are just a few of the problems within the education system. One controversial topic that has come up is the uniform policy and wether it promotes a good, healthy student lifestyle. Introducing mandatory uniforms into schools would promote better student behavior, increase academic achievement, and helps to elimate fashion competition among students, yet there are a number of people who oppose it because they believe it violates the freedom of speech and expression of the student.
The introduction of uniforms into the larger inner city schools have proven to be successful. In reference to Pushkar's journal, "Baltimore's implementation of mandatory uniforms have proven to be very successful. Student's behavior are exceptional and violence has almost diminished in public schools which enforce the uniform dress code" (12). Statistics in public schools which have mandatory uniforms have shown the violence rates to have plumeted. Not only did violence go down, attendance have gone up. Some schools have shown a dramatic increase in attendance of up to 85% to 95% daily. Strict uniforms could also prevent the concealment of dangerous weapons being let into school which is one of the main factors that brought the percentage of violence in schools down. When in school, the student is dressed as a student and not in other dress which may promote violent activity. Such dress could be dressing in gang type clothing or clothing with obscene messages. Since the introduction of uniforms, violence has gone down because there is no outside influence in how the student dresses which then could effect better behavior.
When the attendance of the student is good, the student tends to participate more in daily school activities.