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My question was a genuine question, not a challenge, by the way. I have no experience with school uniforms. Pupils don't meet each other only when in the classroom. Don't they get a pretty clear idea of the relative wealth or poverty of the children around them?
Strong views on something you have no experience with...
This is not a rhetorical question: The Jacobin opposition to religious garb in schools is, I think, very much a dislike of seeing private groups maintain a uniformed presence in institutions that the state considers its turf.
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
But for the purpose of the present discussion, this is a distinction without difference - the religious prescription in question goes quite a bit beyond "keep hair covered" and well into the territory of specifying the nature and appearance of the garment used to cover it.
(It should go without saying that the Jacobin view on private uniforms in public institutions is hypocritical as long as business suits are tolerated attire in parliament. There can be no real doubt that the business suit is a uniform of a private group actively hostile to the state.)
Incidentally, I find it completely bizarre that you're against school uniforms, but for religious uniforms.
It does however provide a general sense that the individual schoolchild is one of a group of similar people of equal value.
Depending on the school, it can mean equally valued or equally devalued. Still - at least there's some notion of equality there.
The opposite is true for religious wear, which has the clear implication that the wearer is somehow either superior or inferior to those who chose to wear ordinary clothes, depending who you ask.
Just like any other uniform, including the ubiquitous business suit.
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