If it was down to you, would you want your child to wear a blazer?

[MrsJamin]

I personally don't like them at all but am interested what others think as I'm on a group deciding school uniform for a Secondary school. Are there any manufacturers that make comfortable ones? Would it put you off a school or make you excited if they didn't have a blazer?

I wouldn't be happy without a school uniform that did not include a blazer. It gets them used to the idea of the world of work - which does not encompass the wearing of nice jeans and a nice t-shirt for most people. Also it stops all the competitive shit. And having teenagers has made me realise that there is a serious amount of competitive shit.

Please name three examples of jobs - yacht clubs and strippagrams excluded - which require polyester jackets with badges on them.

And explain why wearing this garment is so traumatic that it needs to be done from the age of 11 in order to make it possible at 18.

I don't mind uniform if it is actually enforced but I think blazers as an item are impractical.

But Arguments why does it take 11 years of education to get used to the idea of wearing what you are told to wear for work? Children do seem to be able to learn to do other stuff (like complex maths) an awful lot quicker.

I have teenagers and all are learning to manage their clothing on a budget. I would far rather teach my kids how to dress well for less than how to dress badly in school uniform.

And as others have pointed out, if you go to university you'll spend several years in jeans in any case before entering any sort of formal environment.

I would not be happy with a school that didn't offer the options of triple science and at least two languages at GSCE. The clothing in which my child is encased is entirely immaterial.

Oh not the 'preparing for the world of work' argument again! I say again - hordes of young people all over the world seem to be able to learn quite easily that in order to get and keep a job, you need to dress appropriately. They do this without having worn uniform for 11+ years. Are British children really that thick? Do people really think that? Because I don't.

Please name three examples of jobs - yacht clubs and strippagrams excluded - which require polyester jackets with badges on them.

• front of house greeter (bank, hotel etc)
• junior retail manager
• errrrrr..........

"the world of work" is just bilge in this day and age.
I've earned more than the average weekly wage today - in jeans, a thermal top, fluffy slippers and an old fleece
I do wear a suit some days, but generally not a blazer with a crest

BUT
I do support school uniforms for teenagers because they simplify dress codes in the midst of the hormonal years

and blazers (esp modern washable ones) are excellent mobile pencil cases / wallets / tat storage

There are an awful lot of jobs for which there is either a uniform or a dress code. As you get more senior, clearly that dress code does not involve an ill-fitting polyester blazer. Almost all jobs involve this. Very few do not. Why is it a problem to think that uniform is not a bad strategy to accommodate us to Things We Do Not Want To Do But Have To.

Plus it's cheaper. I dread to think how much I would have to spend at Holister/Jack Wills/Ted Baker to keep up with the Joneses.

I have earned 6x the average weekly wage this week and it involved wearing a fairly unbecoming black suit. So I think that point is moot. I would have earned half the average weekly wage wearing one of McDonalds fetching brown uniforms (with antlers this week?) so having to wear fairly gruesome things stretches across the wages spectrum. It's all over everyones workplace.

I don't think they make the slightest bit of difference in terms of class discipline, academic achievement, ease of entry into the world of work dress or whatever. I don't there is any particular benefit to the children themselves to looking smart at school but it makes me happy to see row upon row of blazered youths all singing together at their Christmas church service or all the smartly dressed children pouring out of school at the end of the day. They just look so grown up and yes, it is for me and I am a sucker for it.

In all seriousness, I far prefer a uniform of any sort over no uniform. Having grown up in a country where school uniforms are in a tiny minority of schools, IME the peer pressure to have the "right" clothes can be horrendous. I know people will post to say that it wouldn't bother their child or that children will find something else to pick on - non uniform doesn't stop teasing etc, but it is worse and a uniform removes that layer of stress of conformity by providing the conformity.

I don't wear a uniform to work and no one at my work place wears a uniform, there isn't a dress code either.

My last job had a uniform but it was left up to us whether we wore it or not - I wore half of it as I liked half of the uniform but not the other half.

I have had a mixture of jobs with and without and my performs has not been altered or my attitude to work has not been different in any type of clothing

First term and all the pockets in the polyester blazer are shredded inside.

There is actually a zip along the bottom edge of it so you can fish out all the stuff that has fallen through into the lining.

My son likes his blazer, but I don't particularly like seeing him in it. It looks awkward and itchy, and he hates tucking in his shirt. He does it, but I cannot imagine trying to work at a desk with the huge blazer flopping around my wrists and scuffing up my work.

It would drive me crackers.

I do not know anyone who wears 'absolutely anything from their wardrobe' to work each day. My experience is that everyone has a private 'work uniform', whether or not there is an externally imposed one.

For example, if like a previous poster I was expected to work in jeans and a T-shirt, I would need to go out and buy some, and I would keep those for work. Although I do have a jeans and a T shirt or two in my cupboard, they are of the 'slobbing at home and doing the gardening' variety, and wouldn't meet the requirements of even the most casual workplace. Equally when moving from an office job to a primary teaching job, I acquired a new 'uniform'.

Since teens don't in general earn their own money to buy clothes, but are more susceptible than adults to peer pressure in the matter of brands etc, it is probably easier for them to have an 'externally imposed' rather than a 'personally imposed' uniform. Certainly I, as a full scholarship holder at a rather posh girls' school, was far more comfortable when wearing uniform than when we had to wear non-uniform - the stark difference between my family's income and that which was the norm for the school was invisible in [secondhand] uniform but all too obvious in home clothes.

If I genuinely believed that all teens, given the option of non-uniform, would wear a cheap and comfortable, non-branded, durable, decent and practical set of clothing instead, I wouldn't have a problem. As the downsides of non-uniform in terms of peer pressure and expense FOR ME outweight any issues around blazers vs sweatshirts, I'm happy to keep the uniform option.

Who's the person expected to work in jeans and a T shirt? If you meant me, you mistake. I was merely making the point you can do some good, reputable work not in a suit. And definitely not in a polyester jacket.

And anyway, why do you have to start practising to be an estate agent or work behind the counter of a building society when you are 11? Don't they have any sort of induction programme?

I like a school to have a uniform but I do not see why it has to include a blazer. Both DDs had very expensive blazers at school and they were something akin to cardboard but made from wool. They appeared to have a practical use when the heating was less efficient than it should have been. I would hate a cheap polyester blazer though. Far, far better is a decent pullover and coat. My youngest DDs prep school sourced washable wool pullovers that lasted years without shrinking, pilling, stretching or unravelling or going into holes. These were such a good buy and much smarter than a cheap blazer I think. Cheap blazers look, well,cheap!

I couldn't care less what they wear. I've worked in schools with and without uniform and can't see that it makes any difference at all.
However, if they could provide somewhere to hang coats rather than having to carry them around with them all day, well that would make a difference. There's a reason why most pupils don't wear coats to school.....( and get frozen or soaked) and it's not vanity!

Excellent post Teacher. On the very rare non uniform days at DD's school they all consult each other on what everyone is going to wear, and spend ages planning their wardrobe.

DD's blazer is inexpensive, washable and practical. The zipped inside pocket provides a secure method of keeping DD's keys, phone and bus pass from being lost or stolen. (she has had stuff taken from her bag before).

These items wouldn't be anywhere near as secure in jeans or hoodie pockets, or in her bag.

Coats on teenagers is usually a rare sight. Fortunately the current fashion for wearing a parka has taken off and most girls DD's age wear hem over their blazers in this weather. AuntySib is spot on about the other reason why coats are not usually worn. DD can keep her coat in her locker, but she has to get it at lunchtime because there isn't enough time between the last lesson and the bus leaving for her to get it, so everyone has to carry their coat for the last two lessons of the day.

I tend to equate blazers with failing schools, as in its being enforced to prop up their image whilst the real long term effects take awhile to implement.

I thoroughly dislike secondary schools where the students look like clones. I'd rather see outrageous hair colours, some variation in school uniform, and high academic achievement celebrated personally.

After all , if you cannot rebel in your teens and get it out if your system then when can you?

"After all , if you cannot rebel in your teens and get it out if your system then when can you?"

I would far rather children rebelled against something as harmless as a school uniform than something potentially more damaging like experimenting with drugs.

"I would far rather children rebelled against something as harmless as a school uniform than something potentially more damaging like experimenting with drugs."

I don't think it's "either/or"!

Exactly, curlew - that's the biggest straw man I've seen so far on this thread.