Should Teachers Wear Uniforms?

“I would not mind wearing a uniform at all,” said my daughter recently.  She’s a fifth grade teacher.  Should teachers wear uniforms? 

Consider the people that do wear uniforms: airline flight attendants, police officers, firemen, nurses, surgeons, lab technicians, and pilots.  Uniformed teachers would be immediately recognizable to students and parents.  While they currently wear necklaces with ID tags, a uniform would lend a voice of authority to their position.

The article suggested that teachers be awarded stripes, and Daughter loved this idea.  She’s been teaching for ten years, and thought stripes could indicate this.  She’s a National Board Certified teacher, meaning she’s had extra years of training and passed difficult tests in order to be certified to teach in every state of the union.  Pilots get wings, teachers could get some badge to indicate their training.

When parents start screaming at her, as they have and do, a uniform with merit stripes might be a visual reminder that this is not just a pretty young woman who babysits, she is a highly trained professional with five years of college and two years of National Board Certificate training.

Do uniforms for teachers smack of militarism?  Are nurses, doctors, lab technicians and flight attendants militaristic?  Firemen and policemen have ranks, and are not out trying to take over the world.  Pilots’ uniforms are very similar to military uniforms, and they are not trigger-happy war mongers.  Most military personnel aren’t either, they are just doing their job and coming home to families.

When we lived in the Philippines, nearly every professional had a uniform, from car rental offices to street sweepers.  My daughter’s school has a high amount of immigrant children, and other countries are used to teachers wearing uniforms.  When they see a teacher, they expect this level of professionalism.  Imagine being used to airline pilots and surgeons dressed in uniforms, then suddenly moving to a country where pilots and surgeons show up in aloha shirts and sandals.

Young teachers may be inspired by the visual reminders of their elders’ years of service. Yes, teachers can get past burnout.  The older teacher eating the ham sandwich in the staff lunchroom is not just a 53-year-old, slightly chubby, graying, bespectacled woman. She has been through thirty years of report cards and conferences, recess duty, runny noses and assemblies. She (or he) can inspire and illuminate.  They’ve had the joy of seeing apathy turn into passion, confusion turn into understanding.

Let’s give teachers a professional uniform and merit stripes.  What do you think?