At the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg, Professor Keasley mentioned that the school children were all very proud to wear their uniforms. Because I wore, and loathed, a school uniform up until fifth grade, I could not understand where their pride came from. My favorite days in elementary school were the rare occasion when uniforms weren’t required. When I began public school in sixth grade, not having to wear a uniform was one of my favorite parts about my new school. But, after reading the Mandela’s section on the Nationalistic view of education for blacks in Africa, I now have an understanding of how the pride formulates.
On pages 166 and 167 of Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela explains that, although while he was in grade school the black and white schools were relatively equal, the government forced missionary schools to either hand over the school to the government or they would slowly receive less and less money, essentially closing the school down. The black schools then received about six times less amount of money per student than the white schools. The reasoning provided by the minister of Bantu education was “that education ‘ must train and teach people in accordance with their opportunities in life.’ His meaning was that Africans did not and would not have any opportunities in their lives, therefore, why prepare them for anything... In short, Africans should be trained to be menial workers, to be in a position of perpetual subordination to the white man” (167). Good education, then, was a privilege reserved for only a certain group of people. Education, which Mandela emphasizes throughout his book as a road towards a better life, was unavailable the black community and therefore did not offer a means to a better lifestyle.
Throughout my entire life education has always been the most important thing. Grades were no joke in my family; my brother and I had to do well in school or there was hell to pay. College was always a given and graduate school is assumed. My parents made it a point to emphasize that the reason education was so important was because it led to opportunity. Education opened doors, not that we had to walk through them but it was better than leaving them closed. While the younger me resented their views, I now see how my education has left me able to do whatever I want while many of my friends from Michigan who never attended college have been left with very few options.
While my education was assumed and, in a way, forced on me, good education for the black community in South Africa was simply not an option. And if education equals opportunity and financial or political or social equality, stability in those categories for a black child was unrealistic. The uniforms for the black children seem to represent the ability to reach towards equality and success.
I asked one of the men who worked at Lebo’s about his thoughts on school uniforms. He said that the uniforms were a status symbol. If you were able to go to a good school and receive a quality education, you would other people to know. The school uniforms are a way of showing off; just like kids in the United States wear their cool new shoes to school, African children wear their school uniforms.
After reflecting on my own experience with education and the experience in South Africa, I can easily see how uniforms are worn with pride. Like my parents, all parents want their children to have as many opportunities as possible; they want their children have endless doors wide open for them. The uniforms represent the ability to take part in further their lives.
The view of uniforms in the United States reflects the general feelings of education. Because children in our country are guaranteed an education, we have a sense of entitlement towards learning. People don’t appreciate education and, therefore, do not invest nearly enough time or money to make the most of the opportunity. Teachers are underpaid and students don’t take their grades seriously. The mentality towards our country’s education system has to change if we are going to produce students that value education and use it to accomplish a better lifestyle.
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