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Name: ______________________________________Per: _____Date: ________Directions: Review the following essay with the members of your small group, determining what argument the author is making. Then, use your three different colors to underline or highlight lines in the text that fall under ethos, pathos, or logos. You should attempt to find at least three examples of each. The case against high school uniformsPennLive Op-Ed By PennLive Op-Ed May 31, 2009 at 10:43 AM, updated September 23, 2009 at 12:49 PMBy Alicia ThomasTwo simple words send shivers down the spines of students everywhere: school uniforms.A school administrator who merely mentions these words in passing can expect to be ambushed with the frantic questions of students and parents alike.What kind of uniforms? Where are we supposed to buy them? How much are they going to cost? Don't you care that uniforms trample on students' individuality? Do you realize what you're doing? Allow me to answer these questions for poor, ambushed administrators.Types of uniforms vary from school to school. The stereotypical Catholic school uniform for girls consists of a plaid skirt or jumper, blouse and Mary-Jane shoes. For boys, dark dress pants, a button-down shirt and tie. However, when public schools switch to uniforms, they tend to stick with khaki pants and polo shirts for both sexes.These khakis and polos aren't supposed to come from an Abercrombie & Fitch outlet near you. Most school districts ask that parents buy all of their children's uniforms from the same distributor to alleviate the age-old competition of which students' parents can buy them the most fashionable clothing. Schools use stores such as Lands' End, Buckhead and JCPenney as their uniform providers, thus making basic uniforms decently affordable.But decently affordable might not be affordable enough.Consider a lower-middle-class family of seven: that's five kids. Each of those kids, all of varying ages and sizes, needs their own school uniform -- and not just one pair of khakis and a single polo.They each must have enough clothes to get them through their week. Their polos can't all be the same, either; some need to be long-sleeved for fall and winter, some short-sleeved for spring and summer. Alicia Thomas is a sophomore at Lower Dauphin High School and a Davenport Fellow in opinion writing.And parents have to make sure that these stores carry sizes that will fit their husky son and thin-as-a-rail daughter. But plus sizes and slim sizes cost extra, if the store even carries them. Suddenly, the uniforms don't seem quite so affordable.And those students who are huskier or thinner than most kids their age suffer an additional consequence due to the school uniform policy. While they will no longer be made fun of for their unfashionable clothing, they will be teased about the way they look in their uniforms. While uniforms do assuage the best-clothes competition, they create a new and more painful contest: the best-body competition. When every student is wearing the same uniform, everyone fills it out differently.They can expect to be ridiculed for not looking as fantastic in their uniforms as some of the better-looking students. And this could be catastrophic for anyone with a less-than-perfect image of themselves. Translation? Everyone. There's also the problem of students' squelched individuality.Schools spend so much time trying to keep their students under control that they end up squashing the sparks that some of those kids were born with.The girl with the nose-piercing and hot pink hair might not look business casual, but she could be the next Picasso -- unless you steal away her individuality, her ability to express herself and force her to conform to society's ideals.I have some news for you: Without these students' sparks, there is no future for America.There will be no art, no leaders, no one to run our country.Uniforms jeopardize the ability of America's youth to express themselves, to become the people that they want to be.That school administrator who mentioned uniforms has no idea what he's starting.However, if he considered uniforms from the students' point of view as opposed to his own, maybe he would come to this same conclusion: the way that students dress should be their own choice, not their teachers'. ? 2015 . All rights reserved. ................
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