During the week my 6-year-old takes less than five minutes selecting her outfit and getting dressed for school. She marches out of the house at 8 a.m. sharp sporting either navy blue slacks and a white sweater or a navy blue jumper and a red sweater.
Oh, the joys of school uniforms.
Maybe it’s because I too attended a Catholic school, which required wearing the same navy blue and white combo, that I am able to appreciate the simplicity uniforms bring to chaotic weekday mornings.
Being a slave to uniforms for nearly a decade also makes me intimately aware of the controversy described in a recent Wall Street Journal article. In it reporter Sue Shellenbarger addresses the growing trend of preschools and daycares requiring their young charges to wear uniforms.
According to workers at the New York-based childcare centers implementing the uniform policy, kids as young as three years old were comparing outfits and judging each others’ fashion choices. By instituting a new uniform policy, childcare directors say kids are no longer distracted by clothes.
“Children come in comfortable and prepared to focus,” noted one Manhattan daycare provider. “They’re not worried about what their neighbor is wearing or what their mom didn’t let them wear today.”
The preschools and daycare centers featured in the WSJ article, require kids to wear white or navy polo shirts and navy or khaki shorts or skirts. Parents, who support the uniform policy, say they like the ease of dressing children in the same outfits each day. Not only does it reduce the amount of time it takes for kids to select their getups for the day, but the moms and dads also say uniforms usually costs less than other clothing.
On the flip side, critics complain that requiring kids as young as two or three to wear uniforms all day stifles their individuality and stunts the development of their personal identity. One uniform detractor went as far as to say that the New York preschools and daycare centers forcing kids to don the blue, khaki and white clothing combo are actually harming children. The educator noted that by not allowing young children to participate in the process of negotiating what to wear they will have a harder time making independent choices as they get older.
“Making one’s own individual clothing choices is part of life, and we like classrooms for young children to parallel life as much as possible,” noted the childcare expert.
Somehow I doubt that having a kid wear a uniform to daycare or preschool instead of his favorite Superman socks and SpongeBob shirt is going to negatively affect his developmental skills. If you think it is, then let your kid pick out his PJs at night or let him have free reign in selecting his outfits on the weekends.
Personally, I would be more concerned about getting dirt and food stains out of a 3-year-old’s white uniform shirt than anything else.
Do you think two and three year olds should have to wear uniforms all day?