Re: "their freedom to wear whatever they want"
Uniforms are a great leveller. When I went to a Canadian school, my parents didn't have much money, and so I had a very few outfits that had to be worn down to holes at the elbow before they would be replaced. It was really clear whose parents were poor and whose were not. When I came to the UK, I looked at schools full of kids in exactly the same clothing and thought what a relief that would have been.
Also, school is where they teach you to be a member of society. So if, Jake, you learned to stick a finger up to The Man (in this case a School Board, oooo the danger) and do what they hell you want, then I'd say you learned a bad lesson, that is, to live with a sense of grievance and a chip on your shoulder. Better to learn to make your principled stand on something that really matters.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
