News & Updates

Uniforms: Charting Maturity

Monday, December 16th, 2024

At Grandparents Day last year, a grandfather parted a crowd of costumed fourth graders, and walked up to a senior, asking him: “What is that gold piece of cloth you wear around your neck?” These pieces of cloth, called stoles, are a reminder to seniors to serve the younger students. Stoles resemble the cloth that Jesus used to wash the disciples’ feet in passages like John 13:1-17: “Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.”  

Uniforms at Regents chart maturity while making students feel that they are part of a wider community and purpose. The stoles are given to rising seniors at the end of the year at Ephesians Chapel. There, other clothing is used to mark thresholds for students. Sixth grade boys receive ties that they will wear (and learn to tie every day) in the Logic School as rising seventh graders. Eighth graders receive blue blazers to take with them into the Rhetoric School. 

Fourth grade girls await the day they put on brown shoes and dispense with the plaid jumper. For younger siblings, a right of passage is walking into Kindergarten wearing the uniforms of their older siblings.

“School uniforms provide an additional sense of structure and order for children, which they thrive on,” says Mason Muur, Principal of the Grammar School. “The uniforms allow the focus to remain on joyful learning.”

There are uniform distinctions vertically between grades that signal maturity, and then there are similarities within grades which promote inclusivity and facilitate focus. “The dressing alike underlines that we have common vision and common goals,” says Amy Lindsay, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Regents. She relates this to a similar ethos of the Rule of Saint Benedict, which teaches that dress helps form the heart to God’s kingdom through daily observance.

Other benefits of uniforms:

• Generates better test scores: A study comparing student behavior in 39 countries found that students who wear uniforms listen significantly better, there are lower noise levels, and more classes start on time. Source: Emerald Insight  

• Lowers distractions: For students with learning distractions, Lindsey says, uniforms can be a mercy because the dress of other students creates an environment with less visual interruptions.

• Enables responsibility: Students learn to follow rules which prepares them for more professional environments.

• Lessens stress for students and parents: There’s less decision-making (and arguments) in the morning because students and parents know what to wear and what everyone else at school will wear. 

Written by Carrie Montalto, Parent


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