School Uniforms and Civil Rights

In Monday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mike Nichols writes about a mother and her crusade against school uniforms.

When it comes to school uniforms, I know what I'm talking about. I spent years wearing standard-issue Catholic school plaid skirts.

Were my civil rights violated?

Was I victimized?

Should I sue for reparations?

Nichols writes:

Ronda Berkowitz is an unhappy mom.

Her daughter is about to enter McKinley Middle School in Racine, where the powers-that-be are planning a uniform policy that, Ronda says, could violate her daughter's civil rights.

"I believe that it really is against my child's civil rights," she told the Racine paper. "They should be able to express who they are through the way they dress. The child should be able to choose what they wear, within reason."

...Ronda, when I talked to her over the weekend, said she will not sue.

But she really does believe that making a kid wear a uniform is a civil rights violation.

She used the example of a kid who likes to wear soccer garb.

"Should I have him not wear his soccer stuff, which is his identity and part of him?" she asked me.

"They should be able to proudly display their accomplishments and that is, to me, part of their civil rights."

..."I totally disagree with school uniforms," is the way she put it, "totally disagree."

"Basically, they should be able to express themselves within guidelines, and a uniform does not allow them to do that."

Ronda Berkowitz claims she's not going to sue, but she is ticked off enough to talk to the media about what she considers to be a violation of her daughter's civil rights.

Berkowitz says, "I totally disagree with school uniforms."

I totally disagree with Berkowitz.

At the end of his column, Nichols neatly sums up the virtue of school uniforms.

What a uniform does, actually, is force kids to express themselves in different - some would say more important - ways.

EXACTLY!

That's exactly what a uniform does.

Instead of school uniforms stripping kids of their individuality, their personalities, talents, and unique characteristics that set them apart from everyone else are allowed to shine.

Does Berkowitz really think that what her daughter wears to school is so important in terms of defining her, that to require a uniform for students infringes on her civil rights?

I've always thought that using self-expression as an argument against school uniforms is ridiculous.

What could be more superficial?

Rather than taking away kids' freedom of expression, I think the uniforms actually serve to free them from the constraints of a shallow culture grounded in materialism.

The emphasis can more readily be placed on their special qualities as individuals when the focus is taken off their clothes.

I think uniforms provide kids with the opportunity for meaningful self-expression.

I never felt violated wearing my plaid skirt.

I never felt limited.

If anything, uniforms helped teach me to look beyond the material trappings of the surface and get to know the person.

I didn't lose my identity because I wore a uniform.

I really think it played a significant role in allowing me to truly express myself and in giving me confidence in myself as a person.

There's no way I would consider those many years in plaid skirts as a violation of my civil rights.

I didn't look at it as being forced to conform. To the contrary, school uniforms accentuated my uniqueness in ways far deeper than my choice of clothes ever could express.