Column

Uniforms set tone, put focus on school

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published August 10, 2007

This being back-to-school tax-free shopping week, the timing seems just right.

Forget the jeans and frilly blouses. Go for the white polo shirts, khaki pants and pleated skirts.

Yes, I'm talking about school uniforms and so is Pasco School Board member Kathryn Starkey.

She recently returned from a trip to Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, where she came across schools built with mud, cow dung and thatched roofs. But the thing she remembers most are the bright-eyed African students tidily dressed in their school uniforms. It told her that education matters.

Forget just having a wimpy dress code. Starkey thinks more Pasco students would benefit if they scrapped their baggy jeans for school uniforms.

With the heavy emphasis on test scores and school grades, there's constant pressure to improve student performance. So it's easy to be skeptical, to dismiss this latest push as just another gimmick that requires no hard work.

Being dressed in a uniform isn't going to make a student learn more. If nothing else, though, uniforms set a tone and send a message to parents and students: learning is the focus.

Unfortunately, where adults stand on this issue largely depends on what they wore as students. Those of us parents who wore uniforms tend to like it; those who didn't tend to hate it - although many parents will agree with the economy and practicality of uniforms. They can save money shopping for clothes and can avoid the daily fights about what their kids should wear.

Of course the free spirits aren't convinced. Uniforms rob students of their individuality, violate their First Amendment right, invade their privacy. Hogwash.

For Starkey to get any traction on this idea, she's got to convince fellow School Board members that it's not going to cost the school district. Some fear that if you make uniforms mandatory, the district will have to purchase clothes for kids whose parents can't afford it. So how much is that name-brand sneaker the poor kid was wearing? Individual schools have found ways to make sure their poor students get uniforms.

But the bottom line is improving student performance.

"Show me how it makes a difference," said School Board chairwoman Marge Whaley.

Like many people of a certain generation who went to public schools, Whaley never wore school uniforms.

But the tide has turned in recent years. In Hernando County, the introduction of magnet schools helped spur a trend. Most elementary schools now require some form of uniform. Parents involved in the School Advisory Committees made it happen by successfully lobbying the School Board.

Pasco lags far behind. Charter school students wear uniforms but no students in regular schools. Some parents and staff remember the failed uniform experiments.

Starkey is also going to have to convince a new generation of parents that it's worth trying again. She should start with those who'll be sending their children to the new elementary schools. It won't be easy, but it's a conversation worth having.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at (813) 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com.

[Last modified August 9, 2007, 23:07:25]