JORDANS, STARTER HATS OR UNIFORMS: KIDS SPEAK UP

ROUNDTABLE

Some worry about having their expensive clothes and shoes stolen.

Children's Express visited two Indianapolis schools _ Cold Springs Academy, where uniforms are worn, and Public School 44, where uniforms have been considered. During separate interviews, we found that students from both schools had diverse opinions about uniforms.

LEO, 5, (Cold Spring): I like our uniforms because we don't have to get up every day and decide what we need to get because maybe we have a lot of things we want to wear.

The reason we wear uniforms is because if someone had a neat shirt and another person wanted it, and they took it away from them. . . . We don't have to worry about that.

BRIAN, 10, (School 44): You wouldn't feel comfortable (wearing uniforms) with everybody wearing the same thing. You would want to have different clothes sometimes . . . especially if you have to wear them for six years straight.

NANTICIA, 12, (School 44): I think it would be kind of good to wear uniforms . . . because most people who go through the trouble of trying to get their clothes ready for school wouldn't have to go through the trouble. They just . . . know what they're going to wear the next day. I think (my parents) would like it because they probably wouldn't go through all that trouble (of buying) clothes and trying to wash them every day.

BRIAN: (Buying more than one uniform) would cost too much money.

Why wear uniforms?

CASSANDRA, 12, (Cold Spring): I think (the reason) that we're supposed to wear uniforms is because our moms don't have to spend a lot of money on new clothes if we're all grown out of our old clothes.

MELISSA, 12, (School 44): My mom would probably like it because she wouldn't have to wash so many clothes; we've got seven kids in our family.

JOE, 7, (Cold Spring) I think we have to wear uniforms because it represents our school. Some people say they don't like uniforms because everybody always wears the same thing. I think it's nice because it tells us that we are all part of one group.

BRIAN: I think they (the teachers) think we're representing the school.

WILLIE, 12, (School 44): (If) somebody's running down the hall and their back's turned, the teacher might not know who it is and then they can't describe them. If the boys all have white and the girls all have blue, they can't tell who's running down the hall.

CASSANDRA: My favorite thing about my uniform is that my sister and I don't have to fight about what we wear.

MELISSA: (I think our school needs uniforms) because you wouldn't get mixed up with other (kids) . . . like if you were on a field trip and there's another school on the same field trip, you wouldn't get mixed up in your seats and your different classrooms, different schools.

CASSANDRA: Like the first-graders going to the zoo _ if someone gets lost and someone finds . . . a worker at the zoo . . . they'll know that their class is there, and the class will find them because they have uniforms.

What's the style?

BRIAN: (The style at my school is) Bulls jackets and Jordans (Air Jordan tennis shoes) . . . those stone-washed jump suits and Starter hats and Starter jackets and, you know, Jordan suits.

People who are cool (dress in fashion) think they're all bad, they got all these good friends and stuff, but people who are down (don't dress in fashion) make better grades and get the better education.

WILLIAM, 12 (School 44): My sister . . . (is) a straight-A student and she can wear anything that she wants to.

NANTICIA: I don't think it matters what kind of clothes you wear because the people who are your friends, they don't really care what kind of clothes you wear.

MELISSA: They (clothes) tell you whether or not your mom and dad get paid a lot or if they work and have enough money to live on.

Would uniforms change you?

NANTICIA: No. Because if you had to wear a uniform, you would still be like the way you are.

MELISSA: I don't think it would change me.

WILLIAM: There's this guy . . . and he tried to take my shoes, (so) I beat him up.

WILLIE: If you have a Bulls jacket, they try to take that or . . . if you've got a Bulls hat or something . . . they'll try to take that if you put it in your locker if you don't have a lock.

How should a uniform look?

JAMES, 9 (Cold Spring): It (should) have black pants and a gold shirt. The girls would have to wear beads. Kids would have to wear gold socks, and white and brown shoes. It would have to have gold trim around the shirts.

BRIAN: A Jordan warm-up suit. What they use in the NBA.

CASSANDRA: I would have pink sweat pants or a skirt, and a pink shirt. . . . I would make hats _ I would make them wear Cold Springs school hats. . . . They would be gold.

WILLIAM: A Nike jump suit with all kinds of designs.

WILLIE: Like a plain white outfit, and then I'd put all kinds of designs on it.

NANTICIA: The boys in the summer (would wear) blue jeans, shorts and like a black or red top . . . any color top. And the girls (would) wear blue-jean skirts and any color top.

MELISSA: The girls wear white blouses and white skirts and the boys wear white suits with any kind of designs you want on them.