While chaperoning a Junior and Senior trip to Washington DC in the Fall semester last year, I was fortunate enough to witness two moments which moved and left a lasting impression on me. The first was the daily lunch formation at the US Naval Academy. Forty-five hundred young men and women moved in perfect synchronization, filling the courtyard in front of their mess hall, executing perfectly orchestrated turns and rotations until they marched, in perfect order, inside to eat their midday meal. It was inspiring to witness. The second event was the changing of the guard ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Sentinels, elite members of the 3rd US infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), volunteer to stand watch over the tomb day and night, in every kind of weather, without ceasing. And every hour the guard is changed in one of the most solemn ceremonies you will ever witness. The events struck me for different reasons, but one element was the same in both.
The uniform shared by the thousands of midshipmen at the Naval Academy had the effect of making each of their individual selves an equal and integral member of one cohesive whole. Though each individual present possessed the same inherent worth, dignity, and sense of individuality, their shared devotion to certain ideals and commitment to something greater than themselves made them a unit which was greater than the mere sum of its parts. They were one body, and the ritual of lunch formation was a living picture of our nation’s motto, e pluribus unum (out of many, one). It was beautiful and moving to all who stood watching.
The uniform of the lone Sentinel pacing continuously in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was striking for another reason. It was not the garb of just any soldier. The uniform is a dark, regal blue with sharp, gold shoulder straps and piping on the pant legs. Crisp, white gloves on each hand and perfectly polished black boots on each foot. On his head, an immaculate blue cap with gold accents to match the uniform and in his hands a rifle so clean that sunlight glints off of metal muzzle and wooden stock alike. The uniform, paired with the solemn, stoic demeanor of the guard pacing in front of it conveys the reverence and seriousness demanded by such a sacred place of honor and remembrance.
These two events caused me to reflect on the students around me, and what was good about the fact that they too shared a uniform which they wore each day. My thoughts returned again and again to the ideas of a shared identity and a fitting reverence.
We have nearly seven-hundred students in our school, all from different backgrounds, and we ask each of them every day to engage in the rigorous work of learning. In order to do this work well, a sense of unity is required in each of our school’s constituencies. We want our mission (“to develop students in mind and character”) to be a unifying force for our students, our faculty, and our broader school community. We also want the culture of our school and the experience of the classroom to reflect this unity of purpose to our students. So, we wear uniforms.
Uniforms allow the focus of our classrooms to be what we say is the most important thing in our school: learning. When students share an identity in what can seem like something superficial (what they wear for clothing) their minds and hearts are freed up to pursue the highest things without distraction. It is in the pursuit of those highest things that our students grow together in a deeper way, as their relationships with each other become shaped by the good, the true, and the beautiful things they set their minds to studying each day.
When we stand in front of our students each day, we seek to inspire wonder in their minds and hearts about the things we are teaching to them. The things we study are “of the highest class”, the best of what human beings have thought and said. Such lofty things, full of greatness, mystery, and beauty demand respect and reverence of those who seek to know and understand them. Uniforms are a way of signifying a students’ readiness to learn and be taught. This is serious, important, and meaningful work. When students wear their uniforms well, they approach the task of learning with a respect and reverence that is fitting and right.
As my thoughts on why we wear uniforms continued to form and reform through conversations with my colleagues and students over the course of the year, I became convinced of another good aspect of wearing a uniform. Namely, that we do not wear uniforms for ourselves, but for others. Very few students (if any) would elect to wear their uniforms outside of school, or in school if we gave them the option. So, in the act of wearing a uniform well and in accordance with expectations (or dressing according to a professional dress code) students demonstrate a kind of respect for their fellows. It is as if to say “you all know this is not my preference, just like I know it’s not yours, if we all had our druthers, but out of a common adherence to this shared expectation and the good that it produces for all of us together, here I am wearing my uniform the way I am supposed”.
To not care enough to wear the uniform correctly or to willfully refuse to wear it correctly are both acts which separate an individual student from the rest of the community of learners. Either the good produced for all through wearing a uniform is not esteemed by that individual enough to bring them to wear a uniform correctly and they are separated in that way, or they believe implicitly that they are above the rule and expectation in a way that their fellows are not and they are separated by virtue of that belief. Whatever reason a student may have for not wanting to wear the uniform as expected, failing to do so sends a clear message to their peers: “I don’t care to be identified with you, or I won’t be identified with you”. In the same way, wearing the uniform together with their peers communicates the opposite: “I value the unity of our student body and the goodness that comes from sharing with one another in the work of learning”.
Finally, our uniforms communicate something about the work of our school and how we are educating our students to those outside of our community who our students interact with. One moment from the Junior and Senior trip to DC sticks in my mind. On our visit to Arlington National Cemetery, our students wore their formal uniforms (jackets, ties, white button up shirts, etc) and before walking to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier they spent a few minutes walking through the Kennedy gravesite with the eternal flame burning in the center of the space. The students moved slowly and reflectively through the site and spoke only in hushed tones as they did. As they proceeded out of the site still in reflective silence, they filed past an elderly couple who had been observing them as they walked through the memorial. As I passed by, I heard the man say to his wife, “it’s nice to see that some young people still know what this all means”. From the complimentary tone in his voice and the admiring look in his eyes I could tell that he was commenting on the fact that our students were dressed in formal attire- clothes which reflected the dignity, solemnity, and high honor of the place our students were walking. In that moment, our students were a living expression to those around them of what it looks like to love and honor those things which are worthy of our love and honor. If all they learned from our classrooms was how to do that in every aspect of their lives, it would be a job well done.
