Please note, this entry was actually written August 6th, after reading an article on America Online's news.  It was put on the shelf so I could sort out my emotional writing a bit.  I hope it isn't too sarcastic.  If someone understands this issue better, please help me to!

I just read an article about the opposition to the recent trend in public schools requiring uniform dress.  In the article it says, "Their complaint: The policies trample students' right of expression and parents' right to raise children without government interference."  In the article, one of the parents interviewed says, "We teach him to be himself and we encourage it . . . . He's not out of line with what he wants to wear." 

I was amused by the logic of these parents interviewed in the article.  OK, amused and a little disturbed.  First and foremost is the argument that uniform requirements trample the parents' rights to raise children without government interference.  Let me think about this a minute.  These people send their children away for more than EIGHT hours of the day, to be taught by government-hired teachers in government-run schools which follow government-dictated curriculum and enforce government-determined standards for behavior, and they're complaining that the GOVERNMENT is INTERFERING with the raising of their children?  I'm sorry, but the government is already largely involved in raising their children.  Do uniforms really take more control away from parents than the philosophical basis for the education and the moral standards for the behavior enforced at government schools do?

Another argument is that uniforms trample student's rights for free expression.  Yes, let them wear whatever T-shirt they want, with whatever rock band logo or punny saying, while they are required to sit in a desk quietly, listen to what government-hired teachers tell them is "truth," and mimic back the answers the school system deems correct.  Meanwhile, they are being allowed to pass on the wise and independent thinking they picked up in the latest song by the band on their shirt or the latest quip thought up and tossed around by all their peers. (Remember "Where's the beef?" "Help, I've fallen . . . " and so on?)  Is peer influenced and peer dependent expression really a good example of free expression?  Are parents really fighting for that particular right to free expression?

I don't claim to have much in the way of answers in this debate, but it seems to me, this is a fine example of how deceived our culture is.  Over the last several generations we have surrendered rights and abandoned responsibilites.  The government, and other institutions have more than willingly picked up the slack, and now we find ourselves whining about the government taking control.  As a society, we educate and care for our children like assembly line products, then complain that they are all treated the same?  Wake up people!  If you want to raise your kids your way, as individuals, bring them home and do it.  But if you want the government or other organiztions to raise your kids (or help you do it), don't complain so much about the way they choose to do it.