This
week’s reading was on Chapter 6, Socialization
in the Schooling Process. I found this chapter to be a better read than
previous chapters. Although many things stood out to me while reading, I have
decided to briefly talk about only three of them in this post.
The first thing that really caught my attention was Brints’ (1998) Three Major Dimensions of Socialization. These are behavioural conformity, cultural conformity and moral conformity. As a refresher, behavioural conformity refers to “self regulations of the body that a student must control” (163) while, cultural conformity means learning about “accepted perspectives and styles of expressions… [that] reflect normative cultural values” (164). Moral conformity on the other hand means, the “process of a student internalizing the preferred understanding of what is right and wrong” (163). In previous blogs I have mentioned how I find the topic of moral education to be quite interesting. To just veer off for a minute, perhaps some of you may know who Donald Glover is (he also goes by the name Childish Gambino [rapper] or “Troy” from the TV show Community). What you might not know is he also did stand up and I remember watching one of his specials in which he talks about how ‘kids are terrible people because they have not learned empathy yet’ (of course he does this in a very joking manner). But this idea, has always stuck with me and often I have come back to thinking about it. In fact over the years, I would go as far as to say that love and empathy are really at the bottom of it all, and if we can instill a strong sense of these values in the up and coming generations, then I think our world would be a much better and kinder place. In accordance with the view of this textbook, I believe that the school is a major factor in the socialization of children. In addition, I have mentioned in many of my previous blogs that we as teachers we are put in a very influential position. Stringing these few thoughts together, I believe that we could be the starting point (or in many case the reinforcers after their parents) to cultivate this sort of feeling and understanding.
On a completely different note: I remember once in junior high we were given a topic and a standpoint and were told to write a persuasive argumentative essay. The topic I was given was the use of uniforms in schools and the stance I had to argue was for the positive use of them. I’ll tell you one thing; I could have used this textbook back then to write it. I found that the textbook brought up some very good points. Personally I still can’t make up my mind about this issue. I agree that it may act as almost a neutralizer in terms of social economic status (175). For example, students who are not “well off” may feel more at ease having to wear a set uniform that is in accordance with everyone else. In addition the textbook didn’t mention this so much but I also think that it could reduce some bullying. This is in the sense that – comments; name calling and so forth, based upon judgements of clothing would have no basis or starting point. However with that being, said I do agree that by implementing a school uniform it is infringing on “students self expression, create a disciplinarian environment” (177).
As a small last point, another thing that stood out to me in this chapter was segment on lower achievement by boys in subjects like reading, and how this is perceived by some as a moral panic (178). We so often hear now about how more girls are graduating post secondary schooling over boys, or how boys and girls are statistically receiving comparable grades in areas of math and science and so forth (177-179). However I just never thought that this issue was looked as being a major focus of concern – enough to be classified as a moral panic, and needing to look into the structures of feminization, re-traditionalize schools and tying into gender roles (178-179).
Question: Are you for or against school uniforms? Explain your choice.
The first thing that really caught my attention was Brints’ (1998) Three Major Dimensions of Socialization. These are behavioural conformity, cultural conformity and moral conformity. As a refresher, behavioural conformity refers to “self regulations of the body that a student must control” (163) while, cultural conformity means learning about “accepted perspectives and styles of expressions… [that] reflect normative cultural values” (164). Moral conformity on the other hand means, the “process of a student internalizing the preferred understanding of what is right and wrong” (163). In previous blogs I have mentioned how I find the topic of moral education to be quite interesting. To just veer off for a minute, perhaps some of you may know who Donald Glover is (he also goes by the name Childish Gambino [rapper] or “Troy” from the TV show Community). What you might not know is he also did stand up and I remember watching one of his specials in which he talks about how ‘kids are terrible people because they have not learned empathy yet’ (of course he does this in a very joking manner). But this idea, has always stuck with me and often I have come back to thinking about it. In fact over the years, I would go as far as to say that love and empathy are really at the bottom of it all, and if we can instill a strong sense of these values in the up and coming generations, then I think our world would be a much better and kinder place. In accordance with the view of this textbook, I believe that the school is a major factor in the socialization of children. In addition, I have mentioned in many of my previous blogs that we as teachers we are put in a very influential position. Stringing these few thoughts together, I believe that we could be the starting point (or in many case the reinforcers after their parents) to cultivate this sort of feeling and understanding.
On a completely different note: I remember once in junior high we were given a topic and a standpoint and were told to write a persuasive argumentative essay. The topic I was given was the use of uniforms in schools and the stance I had to argue was for the positive use of them. I’ll tell you one thing; I could have used this textbook back then to write it. I found that the textbook brought up some very good points. Personally I still can’t make up my mind about this issue. I agree that it may act as almost a neutralizer in terms of social economic status (175). For example, students who are not “well off” may feel more at ease having to wear a set uniform that is in accordance with everyone else. In addition the textbook didn’t mention this so much but I also think that it could reduce some bullying. This is in the sense that – comments; name calling and so forth, based upon judgements of clothing would have no basis or starting point. However with that being, said I do agree that by implementing a school uniform it is infringing on “students self expression, create a disciplinarian environment” (177).
As a small last point, another thing that stood out to me in this chapter was segment on lower achievement by boys in subjects like reading, and how this is perceived by some as a moral panic (178). We so often hear now about how more girls are graduating post secondary schooling over boys, or how boys and girls are statistically receiving comparable grades in areas of math and science and so forth (177-179). However I just never thought that this issue was looked as being a major focus of concern – enough to be classified as a moral panic, and needing to look into the structures of feminization, re-traditionalize schools and tying into gender roles (178-179).
Question: Are you for or against school uniforms? Explain your choice.
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