NZ 6: Uniformed
Sunday, July 27. 2008
Christchurch, NZ (May 27, 2008)
I mentioned it before, Christchurch is full of students. And, surprisingly enough for an Italian living in US like me, these students were all wearing uniforms. I know that this is the case in several other english-speaking countries (and not only, Japanese schools also require uniforms), but still I found that interesting.
When I was a kid I had to wear a sort of uniform only in primary school, mostly like an over-all designed to protect the regular clothes and keep them clean. From middle and high school there were no uniforms. Apparently now the uniforms are not even required in primary schools, even though there are talks to re-introduce them. The reason that is given for the re-introduction is that if uniforms are required, everybody would just wear the same, regardless of the spending power of the families. I guess that would appeal to many parents of high school teenagers caught in the peer-pressure fashion arms-race. The uniform is in this sense much more democratic.
I don’t know, but I did find all these students going around in their uniforms sort of endearing.
