School Uniforms: Turning Our Kids Into Soulless Conformists By Suzanne Moore
977 Words4 Pages
The topic of school uniforms has been hotly debated for more than two decades in America. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were over 98,300 public schools teaching kindergarten or higher during the 2011-2012 school year (“Fast Facts: Back to School Statistics”). Nearly twenty percent of these schools required students to wear a school uniform, increasing six percent from 2003 (“Fast Facts: School Uniforms”). Suzanne Moore, an award-winning journalist for The Guardian, makes an argument against school uniforms because they turn children into “soulless conformists.” Moore’s argument is invalid because her supporting claims are not true: uniforms do prepare children for the real world, uniforms do act as social equalizers, and uniforms are more than just tools that force children to conform.
The main argument in Moore’s article, “School Uniforms: Turning Our Kids into Soulless Conformists,” is largely shaped around Moore’s opinions, rather than specific evidence supporting her claims. She uses personal anecdotes to describe to her audience the pain she went through as a child forced to wear a school uniform. She describes how she felt the need to rebel against the uniform and how she did not feel the…show more content… School uniforms have been proven through research by accredited institutions to improve academic attendance and achievements. School uniforms also close the gap between social classes at schools by promoting equality among the students. School uniforms still allow room for individual expression while maintaining a feel of professionalism and supporting an environment for academic success. Moore utilized biased opinions and personal anecdotes to support her argument. If she had instead used facts and hard evidence, Moore’s argument against school uniforms would have been