Should children wear school uniform?

This question is asked quite frequently, and the answer is usually very predictable: a "yes!" from parents, and a "hell no!" from their children. 

The topic recently came up on a forum I frequent, and I posted this in response:

"I personally think school uniforms are great. This is coming from someone who went to a school where there was no uniform.

As I was growing up, my parents didn't have a lot of money. This was made very obvious by the clothing I wore - the clothes I wore were okay, but they couldn't afford name brands. By "name brands" I don't mean designer items, I mean high street clothes shops - they simply couldn't afford to shop there, and as such I wore clothes from cheap catalogues.

This meant that I was the target of bullies for my entire time at secondary school, from year 8 to year 13 (age 12 to age 18 ). Had there been a school uniform, this could have been avoided. Such bullying did not cause on its own, but highly contributed to, the depression and suicidal thoughts I suffered from between the ages of 16 and 18.

The school's reasoning behind the no-uniform policy was that it "created a friendly atmosphere" and, along with the calling-teachers-by-their-first-names policy, was supposed to "make teachers more approachable". I feel the result was the opposite - it increased alienation of certain students and led certain trouble-makers to feel that school was nothing more than one long social event.

Just my two pennies' worth."

I don't know why this particular topic even appealed to me, but I think it may be because my opinion deviates from the norm. Being 21, I've reached the point where I'm no longer at school, but school wasn't so long ago it's become a distant memory of times gone by. I'm generally very negative about my experiences at school. Sure, I didn't struggle in the vast majority of lessons (with PE being the exception), but the level of bullying and ostracising I recieved have made me the person I am today: very insecure and lacking in self-esteem. 

Let's be honest, there will always be bullying happening in schools.  Nothing can eradicate it entirely. However I see no positives to there being no uniform, and only negatives (the increased bullying, the pressure on parents to provide "decent" clothes) so in my opinion, uniform is a must.

What does your music taste say about you?

I find this question to be quite relevant to me, as my music taste is one that people instantly look down upon and dismiss as "emo".
 
My favourite band is My Chemical Romance. Now I can bet you that before I even finished that sentence, you conjured up images in your mind of someone who dresses in black, slits their wrists and wishes they could just die right here right now.

Remember this Daily Mail article and the furore that followed? That's exactly what I mean.

I can reassure you that I am no "emo". I don't self-harm, my favourite colour isn't black and I don't harbour a secret death wish. The question is, however: why do we judge people according to music taste?

When we think about it, it seems ludicrous. We wouldn't judge people on their favourite colour, or favourite flavour sweet, or favourite variety of pizza. So judging on musical preference is just silly. It's quite immature really, and yet you'd be surprised just how many people do it. I won't lie, I've done it before. Most teenagers do. However it seems to have followed us into adulthood, and it disappoints me just how many people haven't grown up yet.

In answer to the blog title: your music taste shouldn't say anything about you other than "this is what music I like". Music can connect people, but it shouldn't divide us.

It's a shame more people haven't realised this.

Lazy days are overrated

It's Sunday afternoon - that time of the week when everyone does nothing. We relax, perhaps enjoy a cup of tea, find something worth watching on TV (good luck with that!) and stay seated for at least a couple of hours. Our motivation is at an all time low.

That's how I've spent today so far. And you know what? I've found it thoroughly frustrating.

I mean, I get the whole it's the end of the week thing. People have worked hard, put a lot of hours in, and all they want to do is relax and enjoy the time off. That's fair enough. I like relaxing too. I like a good lay in as much as anyone else. But once it gets to 9:30am, I don't want to relax anymore. I want to do things. Go places. Be productive.

I've painted a picture today, something I haven't done in a long time. I started small - I only painted a Charmander - because it's something of an old hobby of mine that I've recently decided to take up again. But that wasn't enough. I wanted to do more. I didn't want to just sit and watch TV with a cuppa and some chocolates.

Does that make me weird?