As our young eyes surveyed the rows of pastries at Dimmer’s bakery in Olde Town Arvada, an elderly man sitting by the front window motioned me over. (This was some 25 years ago, when your odds were slightly better that talking to a stranger would turn out OK, so I wandered over.)
“They pipers?” he asked, pointing to the girls I was with. I didn’t understand. “Are they pipers?” he repeated, louder.
I turned to look at my classmates in their matching red-and-blue plaid skirts and white blouses and his question quickly became clear. No, not pipers. Catholic schoolgirls.
In our classroom, school uniforms were the great equalizer, gently blurring the socioeconomic lines that otherwise would have divided the Izod Lacoste wearers from the hand-me- downs. In public, though, they felt like glaring billboards for our school and our faith. They will know we are Christians not by our love, but by our uniforms.
I couldn’t help but think about my childhood wardrobe of light-blue collared shirts and navy cords when I read Jeremy Meyer’s recent piece in The Denver Post about three Denver high schools transitioning to either school uniforms or a dress code.
Uniforms, long the domain of private and parochial schools, are popping up on public school students across the country as school leaders try to restore decorum to their classrooms, raise test scores and shoo away gangs.
What took ’em so long?
Lincoln and Montbello high schools this fall became the first traditional public high schools in the Denver metro area to mandate uniforms.
Don’t look for those tell-tale plaid skirts, though. Students at Lincoln are now required to wear navy blue, gray or white shirts or hoodies with the school name on the front. Jeans are allowed but no Dickies-style baggy pants. Montbello students will be required to wear polo or button- down shirts with the school’s insignia and slacks or skirts, but no jeans or shorts. At the newly revamped Manual High, the dress is business casual.
So far, all’s quiet. The kids are wearing the uniforms and no one has filed a lawsuit.
As the trend grows across the country, someone inevitably files a lawsuit alleging a loss of free expression and loss of a free education. (Lawsuits are pending in California, Indiana and New Jersey.)
Buying the uniforms, they argue, can be expensive. That’s true, but hiring lawyers to file frivolous lawsuits isn’t exactly cheap.
Most lawsuits fail, a legal expert recently told USA Today, because judges decide that uniform policies are meant to improve schools and not to suppress student speech.
It’s a reasonable legal argument, but uniforms alone won’t improve schools or boost student achievement.
I understand why some schools are moving toward them, though. It’s an easy way to rid your hallways of gang colors, and schools that aren’t safe can’t be high-achieving.
Dressing up isn’t a cure-all for disruptive students, though. I suspect the leaders of Denver’s high schools already know this. A fight broke out at Manual on the first day – business casual duds and all.
But it’s a start. Dress codes can be an important part of an overall package that’s based on what every school needs: higher standards. And not just higher standards for dress, but also for behavior and achievement.
Uniforms can put students in the right mindset for learning. Lincoln’s principal also says they’re about pride and unity.
So, it cramps some kid’s style for a few hours to dress up. So what? Let them express themselves in college.
Students should go to school ready to learn, not dressed to kill – literally or figuratively.
Dan Haley (dhaley@denverpost.com) is The Post’s editorial page editor.
