Skoleuniformer og dresscodes: analyse af Sally Weales artikel

Clothing as an aspect of human physical appearance has throughout the ages had a social significance. It can act as a medium to convey your social status or cultural identity and does so in schools worldwide. This phenomenon is called ‘dress code’ and dictates the outfit you have to wear to school if a dress code is given. The schools use the argument that the implementation of a strict dress code improvises the classroom behavior, but that could be a tirelessly exhausted argument to conserve a tradition that bears no relevance in a modern and free society. This essay is primarily going to circulate the different opinions on the topic given in Sally Weale’s article “Police called after school sends dozens of pupils home for wearing wrong uniform” while also taking into perspective the way of presenting said opinions and the rhetorical devices used in doing so.

It is made abundantly clear in Jenny Scott’s article” School uniforms: A history of 'rebellion and conformity” that school uniforms have been a thing in England for as long as anyone can remember and with the earliest examples dating back to the mid-15th century it wouldn’t be wrong to categorize a school dress code as a tradition. Such a tradition is what caused the Hartsdown Academy to deny 50 pupils access for wearing the wrong clothes Tuesday the 6th of September 2016. In the article: “Police called after school sends dozens of pupils home for wearing wrong uniform” education correspondent for the Guardian, Sally Weale, reports that parents and pupils protested about the start-of-term crackdown at Hartsdown Academy. The article encompasses the parents’ point of view through interviews and statuses made on social media such as Facebook while also letting the head teacher speak out about the interview, incorporating another point of view. This serves the article very well, as it allows the readers an entrance to the debate from both standpoints, it removes a lot of bias from the author while giving her credibility and ethos as a journalist able to see things from both sides. This adds to the ethos already accumulated through her status as Educational correspondent, which consequently builds her credibility as she works primarily with education.