School uniform enigma

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#3188733 31-Jan-2024 09:07

We just purchased uniform and other equipment such as laptop etc for our grandson to help our son (solo Dad) the cost came to north of $1,900 and there are still the school fees (free education???) to come. There needs to be a reality check.

Lias

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#3188736 31-Jan-2024 09:13

Oblivian:
Not sure about anyone else, but I have enough trouble picking one of many $40-60 shirts each day for work. Before you stack on shoes, dress pants and in some cases suits or silk ties.

What sort of god forsaken stuck in the 1970's industry do you work in where that sort of thing is still required? Any employer who told me shorts and a tshirt wasn't okay wouldn't be my employer any more.

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#3188752 31-Jan-2024 09:53

MikeAqua:

I have zero objection to school uniforms. I don't think they brainwash kids, at all.

Many job specify a uniform or dress code for safety or image reasons. It's a fact of life.

I don't think they brainwash kids either. That is not my point. My point is that they are completely pointless and serve no useful function.

The fact that some jobs specify a dress code is completely irrelevant. Children are not mini-adults. They are children. They have a whole lifetime ahead of having to conform to externally imposed standards. Let them have a childhood where they are free to run and play and not look like carbon copies of each other.

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#3188771 31-Jan-2024 10:44

Serve no purpose? They serve a number of useful purposes as has been mentioned.

Identification, Inclusion, Ease of care. Simplicity.

My kids have both been to schools with and without uniforms and neither want to go back to mufti.

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#3188776 31-Jan-2024 10:56

networkn: Serve no purpose? They serve a number of useful purposes as has been mentioned.

-1

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MadEngineer

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#3189244 1-Feb-2024 13:31

The way I view it and through experience is we buy proper hard wearing school uniform that can take a school yard scrap without ripping and will last at least a year. I believe in getting what you pay for.

The alternative would be paying the same for mufty clothes that we would designated for school use only - at which point is essentially a uniform

Or doing the poor/uneducated thing and buying items from Kmart at $5 each that don’t last a matching fraction of time.

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#3189265 1-Feb-2024 14:25

Or doing the poor/uneducated thing and buying items from Kmart at $5 each that don’t last a matching fraction of time.

While I agree 100%, it's hard to make that argument when you could buy 10 of those $5 shirts and possibly still have change out of the $50-60+ you might have spent on a uniform shirt. Given the choice, I'd prefer the middle ground: a low cost, higher quality shirt for $15-20, and you buy 4-6 for the year (instead of 2 x $60 ones currently).

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#3189277 1-Feb-2024 14:59

MadEngineer: Or doing the poor/uneducated thing and buying items from Kmart at $5 each that don’t last a matching fraction of time.

None of those things are necessarily true. I have Kmart clothing items which have lasted extremely well after several years.

Over time I have had one or two purchases fall apart those seem to be the minority. My impression is Kmart NZ clothing quality has upped it's game compared to five years ago.

Over at The Warehouse there's Bisley workwear. The shorts and pants are incredibly rugged and seem to last forever. Cheap too. They would be even cheaper if they were simplified for school wear.

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#3189298 1-Feb-2024 15:37

I sometimes wonder if the obsession with school uniforms are just a colonial habit that is being perpetuated by virtue that its relevance in Aotearoa today has not been seriously reviewed. Maybe a discussion is needed inthe wider community and looked at in light of the variety of clothing alternatives, costs and societal divide.

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#3189301 1-Feb-2024 15:43

gzt: Over at The Warehouse there's Bisley workwear. The shorts and pants are incredibly rugged and seem to last forever. Cheap too. They would be even cheaper if they were simplified for school wear.

I've never understood how Bisley or Yakka workwear, which is functional and hardwearing is so cheap compared to a lot of poorly designed, shoddily made school uniforms.

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#3189310 1-Feb-2024 16:20

As I said before, the thing about school uniforms is that they are not actually necessary for anything. I don't believe the arguments for them but even if those were true, they still aren't actually necessary. As children in America and some European countries have been demonstrating for years, one can get a perfectly adequate education without coming near a ##@!!@$@# school uniform! They are a stupid, constricting, useless, expensive, pointless, random demand made to satisfy some atavistic authoritarian post-colonional twitch, nothing more.

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#3189311 1-Feb-2024 16:27

Rikkitic:
As I said before, the thing about school uniforms is that they are not actually necessary for anything. I don't believe the arguments for them but even if those were true, they still aren't actually necessary. As children in America and some European countries have been demonstrating for years, one can get a perfectly adequate education without coming near a ##@!!@$@# school uniform! They are a stupid, constricting, useless, expensive, pointless, random demand made to satisfy some atavistic authoritarian post-colonional twitch, nothing more.

Come on…you know better than to try and argue that you can get an adequate education in the US.

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#3189313 1-Feb-2024 16:37

From my time working frontline at MSD I experienced the stress and hardship the cost of school uniforms caused families. I could see no upside at all.

Handle9

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#3189369 1-Feb-2024 18:21

Rikkitic:

As I said before, the thing about school uniforms is that they are not actually necessary for anything. I don't believe the arguments for them but even if those were true, they still aren't actually necessary. As children in America and some European countries have been demonstrating for years, one can get a perfectly adequate education without coming near a ##@!!@$@# school uniform! They are a stupid, constricting, useless, expensive, pointless, random demand made to satisfy some atavistic authoritarian post-colonional twitch, nothing more.

There are many societal norms that aren't necessary. In my opinion uniforms aren't a big deal either way.

Your opinion seems to come down to you don't like uniforms.

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#3189375 1-Feb-2024 18:50

Handle9: In my opinion uniforms aren't a big deal either way.

Agree completely. The problem is those OC school administrators who make it a big deal.

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