Ask Lemmy

Counterpoint: Americans would say the same - "I suppose it probably seems strange to an outsider but in a country where it’s the norm for every school, it didn’t feel like that to me at all." - about pledging their undying loyalty every morning to the flag on the wall of every single classroom starting at the age of 6.

Not to say that it's the same thing at all, indoctrination on that scale is completely different from a freaking school uniform, but the base is the same - it doesn't seem weird because it's what you were told was normal.

As an adult, I can see some good arguments for uniforms in this thread, but as a kid, I stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance in middle school and swore that nobody could make me wear a tie like my dad had to for school. One of the big things that bothered me about school dress codes as I got older was the inherent misogyny on display. Some rules from my high school dress code, for example:

During Spring/Summer, boys may wear t-shirts and shorts. Girls must wear pants or skirts. Skirts must be below the knee. Girls are allowed to wear t-shirts, but only if the sleeves are at least 4 inches long and must be a unisex crew neck shirt. Shirts with a v neck or that show the collarbone are too revealing and are not allowed.

Also in the US is the issue that school uniforms are universally a private school thing, and so create a divide of elitism as a clear signal of those whose parents are wealthy enough to send their kids to a private school vs kids who go to public schools. Those divides start at home, though, and I don't know how much a school uniform does to deprogram that kind of rhetoric from your parents and their friends.