School Uniforms

In a time and age where the buzzword is creativity, society reaches an impasse. Do we encoruage our children to conform, to maintain the cohesive and efficient machine our forefathers have built, that has led to such rapid growth and prosperity, or do we forge a new path?

The collective societal psyche seems to suggest the former. Humans it would appear are almost always resistant to change, especially when things are well. What does this say of the role of trouble in the advancement of human civilisation?

The writer, however, would put forward the notion that it is time for a change.

The global economy has moved on. Our place in it is not what it was before. Whether one prefers Samuelson's S-curve analysis or other models, the conclusion remains the same. Regardless of government statements, we are now a developed nation. Along with this promotion comes a shift from manufacturing to service industries being our primary engines of continued prospertiy, and these new industries require above all else fresh ideas.

The concept of creative thinking, or thinking out of the box, is not new. And it is simple enough to understand that ideas from out of the box are best formulated from without. The problem of course is that we all live within a box, with some of us oocasionally managing to breach the walls of the box to take a walk on the other side, and return richer for it, im mind if not in matter.

To enhance our competitiveness in this new paradigm, we need to thin the walls of our box, relaxing the constraints on what is and what is not an acceptable notion, of what can and cannot be tried out. We need to accept the reality of failures as a viable, nay, a vital part of success. We can't always be the best, and in many areas that we so tout, we no longer are.

Therefore, we need to remove the oldest and most pervasive symbol of societal conformity and thinking within the box, the school uniform.

The school uniform is supposed to be an equaliser of sorts. Rich or poor, all school children wear one. Yet other accessories have crept in, from shoes to watches to school bags to ensure that the income gap is made manifest. There is simply no good way to keep the income disparity between students hidden. More importantly, there is no reason to. Let us not pretend that the poor are not among us. It is the fastest way to breed apathy. One, after all, cannot show compassion to what one is told does not exist.

The school uniform is also supposed to be about neatness and presentability. We, however, have the misfortune of having some of the most unsightly school uniforms this side of the Earth. The artistic acumen of their designers is truly deplorable. Perhaps some of them are colour blind.

On the other hand, a school uniform expresses conformity and stifles orginality. Putting one on symbolically shackes our future to thinking the same thoughts as those who came before them.

This is not to say that there should be no school rules to enforce certain modes of behaviour to ensure that the school runs without problems, or that there should be no emblems to show belonging to one school or another, but the school uniforms have to go. Let RFID tags identify students for security reasons. Better still, embed them in the school badges so there is a practical reason for punishing students for not wearing them.