Exploring, Understanding, and Debating School Uniforms

1. Exploring, Understanding, and Debating School Uniforms Ben Elkin

2. Objectives #1 Students will develop arguments for and against the utilization of school uniforms and will gain a greater understanding of the topic. Furthermore, students will learn to assess and evaluate both sides of the argument and judge for themselves which side they take on the issue.

3. Justification • Connecticut State Department of Education - Division of Teaching and Learning. In the discipline of Social Studies: Fifth and sixth grade students should be able to, “Explain reasons for conflict and the ways conflicts have been resolved.”

4. Objectives #2 Students will be exposed to accounts of the effects that school uniforms have had on other school districts. Students will also assemble accounts of the utilization of school uniforms from peers at those schools, and will compare/contrast the different accounts that they have found.

5. Justification • Connecticut State Department of Education - Division of Teaching and Learning. In the discipline of Social Studies: Fifth and sixth graders should be able to “Gather information from multiple sources, including archives or electronic databases, to have experience with historical sources and to appreciate the need for multiple perspectives.”

6. Objectives #3 Students will get involved in the debate over the issue and learn to argue both sides of it. They will use and develop their “Linguistic Intelligence: The capacity to use language to express what’s on your mind and to understand other people” (Howard Gardner).

7. Justification • Connecticut State Department of Education - Division of teaching and learning. In the discipline of Social Studies: Fifth and sixth grade students should be able to “Describe and analyze, using historical data and understandings, the options which are available to parties involved in contemporary conflicts or decision making.

8. Activities At a Glance Monday-Friday Students will begin with a debate that articulates their own initial views on the topic, and will conclude the unit with another debate that will incorporate the accounts of the effects of school uniforms that they have read about and gathered from peers, as well as the debate skills they have learned.

9. Activities • Beginning of unit: Debate #1 Students will engage in a debate about school uniforms and will take the side that they themselves believe

10. Activities • “ Take the Long Beach Unified School District in California. In 1994, the 97,200-student urban district, located in the southern part of the state, became the first public school district in the nation to require all students in grade K-8 to wear uniforms. A two year evaluation of that effort, conducted from 1993 to 1995, turned up some remarkable improvements: a 28 percent drop in suspension rates at the elementary level, a 36 percent decline in middle school suspensions, a 51 percent decrease in fights in grades K-8, and a 34 percent drop in assault and battery in elementary and middle schools.” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/01/12/18uniform.h24.html?qs=Debra+viadero+uniform_effects

11. Activities • “In Phoenix Elementary School District No. 1 v. Green, the Arizona Court of Appeals upheld in 1997 a mandatory school uniform policy. Testimony was presented at trial that the uniform policy reduced clothing distractions, increased campus safety, improved school spirit, leveled socioeconomic barriers, ensured that students dressed appropriately, and reduced the staff and faculty time required to enforce the dress code. The court concluded that the dress code was reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical purposes, including promoting a conducive learning environment and securing campus safety.” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/03/02/25letter-1.h24.html?qs=school+uniforms&print=1

12. Activities • Guiding Questions: What are the effects that school uniforms have had on the students in these school districts? What questions can you extract from the excerpts to ask the students at the schools?

13. Activities • Speaker phone conference call - Students ask their questions to the students at Long Beach Unified School District and Phoenix Elementary school district.

14. Activities • “When a school or a PTA decides to go in that direction, they go in that direction.” Says Howard A. Burnett, the district’s chief administrator for human resources. For the most part, he says, the district has neither encouraged schools to adopt the practice nor discouraged them, choosing instead to let local communities take the lead and to support their efforts. For that reason, Prince George’s officials never formally tracked the impact that uniform policies have had in their schools.” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/01/12/18uniform.h24.html?qs=Debra+viadero+uniform_effects Formulate questions to ask students at Prince George’s County MD. Students will construct a paragraph that charts the effects of school uniforms on the schools in this district

15. Activities • Literary Debate Guidelines by Gail Lindenberg: -Terms: Argument, Contention, Affirmative, Negative, Resolution, Refute, Rebuttal, Summation, Brief -Strategies: ”Ham it up. Speak with passion and intensity, but not melodrama “Use formal language.” “Take time to read or quote the literature exactly.” “Loud is not logic. A quiet voice can command the most attention.”

16. Activities • Debate #2 -Three way debate: Uniforms, No Uniforms, Dress Code -Assign students to sides -Use Debating skills they have learned and information they have learned from activities. -Class vote: Who made the best case (who won?) and why.

17. Evaluation • Creative and Written Artistic, eye-catching posters that articulate what policy they support (Examples: Uniforms, No Uniforms, Dress Code, Combination) and why. They should incorporate evidence from the written accounts, as well as the accounts from their peers.