Added: 05/15/2007 |
High School Uniform: Necessary Fashion Statement or Not Worth It?High school uniforms have been chosen as a possible way to help lessen violnce among teenagers in school. Should there be a focus of eliminating factors that cause difficulty among teenagers or is there a better way? Trying to limit violence in the media has been a futile effort as teenagers still find the means to obtain violent games and movies. Turning on the news channel provides just as much violence. The question to prevent violence is not so much about sealing kids in a protective bubble as about the level of interaction parents need to have in their child's life. A high school uniform might help eliminate some tensions, but there are other things that need to be combined in the hopes of effectively ending violence among teenagers.
What happened to humanity that led to the need of such mass censorship of multimedia? Some violent things have always existed and been available, but with the explosion of technology and its ready access have made violence a more easily obtained commodity. In response to this, labels and restrictions have been placed on violent media, but to what extent this has been effective is minimal. If anything, something that is considered 'forbidden' usually will draw teenagers and children to it. Undeniably, the amount of violence has increased. But society as a whole has become more violent; it is not the fault of the children that this is the era they are a part of and they are not the one who created a violent world.
Adults are trying, the few that see the psychological effects of violence on their children. They do recognize that the violence culture exists and want to eradicate it. But these adults should also understand that simply viewing something violent is not the sole cause of what is making our kids kill other kids. There are other environmental factors that come into the whole mess that affects the psychology of our children. Children have many more stressors to deal with today. As a whole, children are more alone than they have ever been, while both parents work and work longer hours in attempt to sustain the family life that they desire. This allows for children to have ample time to discover the negative and harmful while being unsupervised. One child witha morbid fascination to violence can spread this fascination to other children while interacting during this spare time that working parents provide their children with. Another issue is a breakdown in parental communication with their child or teenager. Simply stating that a parent wants a child to refrain from something or someone is not sufficient. Followed by an explanation and sufficient monitoring, a parent who is aware and tries to be involved in their child's life can be more effective than anything else. Parents who refuse their role as parents or simply abandon it for other interests should realize the disservice they are doing to their children. Instead of spoiling them with material possessions or drugging them with antidepressants, a good parent simply should provide the time to listen and interact. This can be the most effective manner of prevention. All of the sensational stories the media relays to the public about a violent teen usually is hallmarked by someone saying that he or she did not seem that way and they are surprised. Upon more questioning, though, this adult will admit that they had not really been around very much to really know what was going on. Adults are abandoning their parental responsibilities and then blaming media influnences as the cause of these factors. The truth of the matter is that there are many factors to blame, but until no one makes any changes or tries to interact with teenagers, then nothing will change. These kids are mostly acting out because they need attention or help that they are not being given.
Having a high school uniform has been cited as one way to level the competition between kids at school. If everyone looks the same, then maybe high school uniforms can make some of the issues concerning status disappear. Usually the clothing type a teenager wears reflects their economic status, group affiliation, or can make a statement on personal beliefs. Sometimes this can make a teenager a target for others to pick on. This treatment in turn can make for an angry teenager who is determined to seek revenge on his peers. With no intervention or those closest to this teen being ignorant of the fact, then we have the regular scene on the nightly news: some teenager has went on a shooting spree at school and killed his peers. High school uniforms can limit this problem to a point but cannot do anything to change concrete facts. Some kids will always be victimized, even if everyone wears the same thing, simply because it is human nature to like similar and shun what is different. A high school uniform can still reveal differences. The color of school uniform pants and shirts might be the same, but there will be the kids whose parents can buy them designer clothing in the proper colors and the kids whose parents can barely afford to but them a full set of uniform clothing to wear for the week. Differences will still exist, and though the notion of a high school uniform is a noble one, the best solution is to start to know our children and communicate with them. Knowing what kids are made of and haivng an active role in their life is perhaps the key to ending these violent crimes and keeping kids safe.
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