Five Things I Learned From the Boy Scouts - Uniforms Help
Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 2:54PM Uniforms? Really? You want kids on a school trip to DC to wear uniforms?
Well, not exactly, but hear me out. There’s an element of things to learn here. Let me kick off this discussion by noting that while I was once a Boy Scout, and spent a fair bit of time in the Navy, I’m not militant about kids walking around in uniforms all the time. Sure, as a parent of an elementary school kid I’m pretty enthusiastic for them, but that’s because I’m lazy; it’s just one less thing I have to think about in the morning. Uniforms are a great tool, and a time and money saver, but I’m cautious about them as well. I'm certainly not advocating for a militarization of our schools.
But there's some utility here for our tour groups. Obviously, Scouts come prepackaged in theirs, while the concept of uniforms would be foreign to many school groups. Private schools wear them often, especially on picture day or if they have arraigned to meet a Congress-critter or something along those lines. But most groups do not come from an environment where uniforms are the norm.
More common, of course, is the group t-shirt, easily recognizable to any resident of Washington as a harbinger of spring in this area. As a tour guide, I’m in love with them. They make it easy for me to spot kids, especially as I, unlike their chaperones, don’t know them personally. When it’s time to gather up students, it serves to help the wayward ones (they see a bunch of red shirts in one spot, they wander over). I’ve even had it serve well as a safety feature. I once noticed an inappropriately older kid chatting up several of my 7th graders, easily identifiable due to his lack of proper shirt. And that he was five years older. Nothing too bad, but something a responsible adult should pay attention to. Fortunately, I was able to find one.
But there are downsides to the common t-shirt. Either you buy one for every day, or the smell factor on this bus rises. Plus, you’re going to look like a dork. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. As an adult, I’m comfortable with that, and frankly embrace it, but I remember being a teenager. I get not wanting to wallow in your dorkdom.
There are other options. One school I have breaks the days into colors. As long as you have a blue shirt on during “blue” day, you’re ok. It allows the kids a bit of individuality and still helps in the herding process. Hats also work well. They can be worn for multiple days and they’re not as stifling to those tender teenage psyches. Actually, they were the only way I could tell my Scouts apart this weekend, as kids NOT in uniform were the only ones standing out.
But uniforms proper have another advantage that, depending on your students you may want to consider. They raise the bar of student behavior. Knowing that you’re part of an identifiable institution reduces kids anonymity, which is the cloak that can enable all sorts of tomfoolery. I had a school group this year that required coat and ties for the boys and equivalent attire for the girls. Their behavior was impeccable, in no small part because they felt special. They were dressed up and held themselves to a higher standard.
Intertwined with this was the reaction we received at various venues. We were routinely complimented on our behavior, and part of me wondered how much of that was based on perception. They were well behaved, but so had been several of my other groups who did not receive that reception. In a town quick to label school groups as disruptive kids (with a good amount of reason), we stood out.
And I should note that this was a public school, not from an upscale area. These were kids not used to being treated with respect by strange adults. It was a very positive interaction for them. Requiring a dress code might be a consideration for you if you feel your students could use a little, shall we say, direction and focus.
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Reader Comments (2)
Love it! We try to keep our students in apporpriate dress when we have them out with us on trips. Not the tie and jacket, etc, but school appropriate clothes. I love hearing how well behaved our students are, as they come from backgrounds/areas that are not considered the "nicest" or the wealthiest!
I am really sorry I missed the Boy Scouts. I was offered a very nice DC-NYC tour. Welll I am not sorry I was on home exchange vacation to Australia and NZ (missed the heat wave too). The Boy Scouts are generally well organized and individual responsibility is part of the program.
PS I was a Girl Scout in the Late Middle Ages.