They have specific “wear PJ’s to school” days at my son’s early elementary school.
My junior high banned the wearing of visible long underwear after the Breakfast Club was released. That endeavor ended poorly… a high percentage of students showed up the following three days wearing long johns under shorts and t-shirts in the middle of winter in Minnesota. Since the administration couldn’t suspend 70-80% of the students without massive parental backlash, they gave up. It was a stupid trend and an even dumber ban.
See, this is my experience of teaching teens. The more stuff you try to ban, the more ridiculous and creative ways they’ll come up with to get around it. A dress code like this is probably going to spawn a few attempts to flout it, but it’s going to be more effort than it’s worth and everyone will just wear their normal clothes mostly.
I’m certain I would have groused about it as a student, but one other key advantage of uniforms is that they erase class-signifiers. Schools with uniforms tend to be private and therefore can be pricey, creating a well-to-do student body. Any students that are there on a scholarship or whose parents may struggle for the tuition are not singled-out for not wearing whatever is the latest expensive trends i.e. Gucci, Fendi, Jordans or what have you. Not great for student self-expression but at least it levels the playing field.
I, uh, may have dressed like this due to John Bender. Not even all that long ago…
My wife was on a full scholarship to her private elementary/middle school, and outfitted herself completely from lost and found. It was godsend for her, who lived on a street 6 blocks south of any street her friends were even allowed to walk down…
Under the t-shirt can be practical if you’re not sure how far the temperature will swing in a given day, but under shorts? Ratty cut-off jorts, at that?
Ah, I see they didn’t use my old school’s patented method of “Increase class load so much the students don’t know or care what they or anyone else on Earth are wearing.”
“Are jeggings okay?”
“Jeggings… jeggings… jeggings… crap! I don’t know what declension that is in!”
“No! Not in Latin! In clothing!”
“Clothing is a subject now?”
“No!”
“Oh… okay then. dux, -cis, m. stupid third declension nomen, nominis, n. …”
oh, no. I just did the under-the-red-flannel-shirt look, with jeans and boots like he wore in the movie. although, as a young man, I did wear all sorts of stupid shit; even so, I never went against practicality.
I just never read the sizes on clothing, and I was extremely skinny so this led to some interesting outfits. My pants usually fit because otherwise they didn’t stay on, but I’d see a shirt I liked and get it and not realize until I actually wore it that I’d bought a Men’s XL.
There was a kid at my highschool, in the 90’s, who wore pajamas occasionally and the teachers didn’t care. They were nice, clean, opaque, new looking flannel pj’s.
She used to joke that she didn’t feel like getting dressed but no one believed she’d actually slept in them because they were so neat and clean and so was her hair. They looked much less “sloppy” than the ripped jeans, old t-shirts, and well worn flannel shirts that half the rest of us we’re rocking.
It was also a magnet school so eccentric and argumentative were practically admission requirements.
School supplies and hair were still signifiers at my Catholic school. And there are always, “jean days” and dances and such. I eventually started pretending to forget to bring in my dollar on jean days but that doesn’t really let you escape all scrutiny.
I was happier when I moved to a non uniform school, where I just settled into myself instead of constantly feeling like I couldn’t keep up at my old school.
It’s good for some but far from a panacea.
Edit:. I shouldn’t forgot to emphasize that I wasn’t dirt poor, just below the school average and extremely awkward.
