Back in the glorious 1980s, movies like “Heathers” and “Dead Poets Society” inspired us to push back against authority. If you’re really going to carpe diem, stand out. Be original. Don’t conform.
Well, it appears we’ve grown up and joined the Borg.
In our latest poll at HeraldNet.com, we asked whether you think all public schools should require kids to wear uniforms. Conformity carried the day with 56 percent voting yes.
You can see the appeal for parents. No worrying about finding the money to keep kids fashionable. No morning battles over the shortness of skirts or the sagginess of jeans. No Uggs.
Kids will never like the idea. They don’t want to lose their freedom to express themselves. The problem is that sometimes the nonconformists push things a little too far. Before you know it, you’ve got something truly awful, like the sight of a San Francisco 49ers jersey in a school hallway.
Mariner High School took care of that with its ban on non-Seattle pro-sports clothing, but not out of a sense of loyalty to the home teams. Mariner’s principal said the policy is aimed at keeping gang activity out of the school.
Gang attire is often cited as a reason for uniforms across the country, as more schools have adopted them. The Department of Education says that in 2010, nearly 1 in 5 public schools required uniforms, up from 1 in 8 a decade earlier.
Before long, school uniforms will be the majority, and the pressure to conform will only get heavier.
Sorry, kids. Resistance is futile.
— Doug Parry, @parryracer
Mount McKinley’s name was recently changed to Denali. For our next poll, we’d like to know if Mount Rainier should also be renamed.
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