The School Uniforms Debate
Use Lessons On Children's Dress Code to Teach Debating Skills
The school uniforms debate is ongoing. Here is a suggested lesson plan on teaching the pros and cons of school uniforms.
The pros and cons of school uniforms can easily be taught using a debate. New teachers however tend to shy away from lessons on children's uniforms because the naure of the subject is so controversial. There are many resources for debate topics, but the best kinds are those lessons where children's are active in organizing their opinions on children's uniforms. A good lesson plan on the school uniforms debate encourages students to think about the opinion in a multitude of ways.
Like any debate related topic, the pros and cons of school uniforms need careful organization and planning since there is a great deal of coordination between individual and group work.
Pros and Cons on Wearing Uniforms
The teacher distributes a questionnaire to each individual student. They answer using the key to the following questions. (ss - strong support, s=support, n=neutral, a=against, sa=strong against)
- Do you think all students should be allowed to choose between wearing a uniform or wearing their own clothes to school?
- Do you think dress codes (or uniforms) are important at school?
- Should all teachers be required to wear school uniforms?
- Is it important to have students wear school uniforms up until a certain age?
Pre-Debate on School Uniforms
Choose two of the issues from the survey that really concern you. Why are you concerned about these issues? Do you feel neutrally about any of the issues? Why?
In groups, choose one issue from the survey:
- In one sentence, write the group’s opinion about the issue.
- Write three reasons to support your position.
- Write the opposing opinion and three reasons to support it
Group Work: Role Cards
Give one role to each member of the group.
Facilitator:
Encourage each person to contribute to the discussion. Make sure the discussion moves forward and each part of the assignment is done.
Secretary:
- Write your group’s position in one sentence.
- Write 3 reasons to support the position.
- What will the opposing viewpoint be?
- How will you answer it?
Speaker:
Present the secretary’s record to the class.
Devil’s Advocate:
Represent the opposing viewpoint to your group. Argue with their reasons.
Parts of lesson taken from Etni.
