(photos: Ante Juroš / Dalmacija News)
An initiative for introduction of school uniforms in Croatian schools was formed last year and has been actively opening discussions about this issue through social networks and Croatian media. After the
first school in Šibenik this fall, another elementary school will be introducing school uniforms for all its students.
According to Dalmacija News, the Elementary school in Zmijavci in the Imotski region will be using school uniforms – official t-shirts with the municipal coat of arms.
Headmaster of the Zmijavci elementary school Ante Kujudžić aims to raise the standard in overall clothing culture of the students and have the school uniforms contribute to equality, economic savings in the household budget and increasing the sense of belonging. Another reason for introducing school uniforms was the effort to liberate children of their wishes and desires towards their parents in terms of buying clothes, which according to Kujundžić made the parents a sort of unaware “hostages” of what the social trends imposed on their children.
Although the initiative For the Introduction of School Uniforms (Za Uvođenje Školskih Uniformi) hopes for a national obligatory introduction of school uniforms, this has not yet happen and so, in Zmijavci, this project could only be realized because it was approved by the Parents Council, the School Board and the Students Council as well as every single parent of the elementary school in Zmijavci.
And while many people are seeing school uniforms as the one thing that could save the Croatian education, raise its standard and protect children from being bullied and socially manipulated by advertisement, others question the effects of the uniforms to the democracy principles, the right for personal expression and freedom of those little people, we call children.
To me, it is actually absurd, that our society has gone so far as to manage to have the parents be hostages of the kids desires. How did we manage to find ourselves in this situation?
Why do we teach children, that we need to be the same? Why do we feel, that our kids should fit in by having everything the other kids have? Why do we teach our children to be hurt by not having everything they want? Why don‘t we teach our kids to be unique and different? Why not embracing the fact, that every single human being is unique and beautiful?
Maybe, it is because of the school. Maybe the whole concept is wrong. In the words of Peter Gray – School is a prison. With school uniforms or without them.
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