School Uniforms are a must!!!

Blog #7 (March 24, 2011) Roles: Rigorous Researcher and Idea Illustrator, Mary Kay Ward

 

Rigorous Researcher

In this chapter, Gurian spends more time discussing the idea of uniforms in high school. Boys and girls dress with the idea that this is who they are and associate their identity with what they wear. " It is natural for adolescents to seek identity-attention ("This is who I am; pay attention!") and use clothing for individuation ("I'm an individual and can take care of myself)", dominance ("I demand respect and can outcompete"), and mating strategies ("Look at how cool I am; you should like me"). (M. Gurian, pg. 281). Our culture is one of the most intense at pushing children to seek their own identity through individual expression and our children are doing this by use of colors through their clothes, hairstyles, jewelry and tatoos, thus causing them to seek indivdual expression, rebel, be more competitive and want sex earlier.


Academics and team learning is what high school is suppose to be about and should be high on the list of priorities and not the attitude of "I am better than you" or "I don't care about anyone else", or "I came to high school to get laid." These behaviors must be made a lower priority and according to brain based research maturity and learning are the most important and "any other critical mass of other behaviors that impede the brain's ability to increase kowledge of social and academic technologies that enchance success and personal maturity must be made a lower priority." (pg. 281). Many schools are now requiring school uniforms to ensure that "students rights" are brought to the forefront and letting go of superficial ones. I would really like to see schools go to some type of uniform system. These uniforms do not have be identical, but should follow some kind of dress code, such as navy blue pants and skirts and a white polo shirt. Again, I have first hand knowlege of a high school dress code because my daughter is required to dress according to the school's dress code that she attends. By having a dress code, she does not have to compete with others in deciding what she is wearing and if she looks good enough and has impressed those around her. Also, by dressing like everyone else at her school, she can focus on the importance stuff; her academics. Gurian recommends a dress code for all schools. As much as must students will be rebel at first along with some parents, it isn't the uniform that will make or break who the students are, but will help students make a committment to themselves and their schoolwork. Above is a video regarding why schools should require uniforms.

 

Idea Illustrator

Teens and sleep is an area that so much research is starting to develop regarding teens and their sleep.  This research reports that generally teens needs about nine hours and fifteen minutes of sleep every night.  Without this adequate amount of sleep, the brain does not have a chance to move through the deep REM sleep clycles necessary for proper growth, healthy developmen and learning.  Michael Kipke, director of the academy's Board of Children, Youth, and Families states "Sleep experts feel stongly that high school timings are out of sync with the natral circadan rhythms of adolescents. (pg. 284)  M. Gurian's brain based research supports these findings.  Because of the hormones and the brain chemicals that are attaching the brain, adolescences are having a difficult time managing their homones and energy clycles.  I find this to be true when dealing with my soon to be 15 year old daughter, especially on the weekends.  She wants to stay up late on the weekends and then sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays.   After reading about this topic, I now have a better understanding of why this is happening.  The research shows that if schools start later in the day, they would have less disipline problems and increased learning among the students.  I like this idea because then maybe I would not have to get up so early in the morning.

Another area that I found interesting was the section on Standardized Testing.  What is the place of standardized testing in the ultimate classroom?  There are two important things to know about test scores - first students are getting higher grades in high school than on SAT scores and secondly, males outscore females by ten points on the verbal and forty points on math.  It is very interesting that the girls have better grade point averages and take more advanced placement courses than boys, but boys still out score the girls on the traditional SAT exams.  Why is this?  Brain-based research says that the student who favors deductive and quick abstract reasoning tens to do well in a multiple choice format.  Also, the student who tends to quickly single out information rather than thinking out a larger variety of possibilities also does better.  Also, the student who tends toward a higher risk taking and answers questions more quickly is likely to answer under pressure and risk guesses (Gurian 308).  This student could be male or female but studies show that there is a high statisical probability that the student is male. 
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/genderbias.html

Technology and Gender

Are girls really disadvantaged in acquiring technology skills?  I found this an interesting read because in today's education environment, you would think that it would not matter because both boys and girls have equal time on computers and both have had computers and technology in the classrooms since they began schoo land it would not matter whether it was a boy or a girl who used the computer.  M. Gurian's research found that males aggessively seek out the computers and are loud about wanting to use them.  Girls may step back allowing the aggressive user to dominate time on the computer Gurian 302).  We as teachers need to be more vigliant in this area to see that girls get equal time on computers and are not push out because boys are more aggressive.  Girls must be encouraged to use computers but they must also ask for tutorial help for sophiscated uses.

"Research now confirms what teachers have been observing since we started using computers in the mathematics classroom. In general, girls just aren't as interested in technology as boys are"( Cynthia Lanius Girls and Technology).