Editorial: The Dress Code & Student Choice

I’d like to broach a wide-spread topic of uniforms and dress-code, and present a very unpopular opinion.

If you have been a part of the Newman Community for more than two years, you will remember the uniforms that were a part of everyday life and the change that has taken place in our dress code. The uniforms were, and are, seen as being very constricting and of course did not give much venue to the artistry and fashion creativity that blossoms in our generation, and more specifically in our age group. While this is true, I'd like to portray the perspective of an outsider towards our school uniforms.

A mathematician acquaintance of mine, used a published article for a research project. The clear and precise articulation of part of the paper induced my acquaintance to look into the author. Upon looking them up on the internet, a picture of the author popped up, and they were wearing the Newman school uniform. The author’s contribution and more specifically, their excellence in writing, portrayed not only him personally, but also the Newman School as his origin, in an admirable way.

While this may seem like a very specific case, this in fact opens up the aspect of how the outside world learns about and views our community. When seeing students coming from school, doesn't the way in which they dress impact the opinion that the public has of that school? Especially in our case, with our school right in the center of the city of Boston, where hundreds if not thousands of people see us walking around in our groups. Don't uniforms, or more generally, professional attire, help publicize our school and the intellectual community it contains?

Having brought this angle to light, I kindly ask you, readers, that you ponder on this, and maybe tomorrow morning, when you try to decide what you wear, you spare a thought to how you personally can benefit the professional perspective of our school.