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The Schools Role in Society and Its Responsibility for Helping to Solve our Social Problems. Schools are considered to be building blocks of the society as a whole. They are the institutions who prepare the citizens (children) for their further life in the outside world and the Society. Inside the school children are taught to learn to interact with others, just as they will have to in their future lives this knowledge is vital for the proper functioning of the State as a whole, because the stated can function only if there exists cooperation between its members. As it is stated in the UNESCO handbook: If one is to understand others, one must first know oneself.
To give children and young people an accurate view of the world, education... , must first help them to discover who they are. Only then will they genuinely be able to put themselves in other people's shoes and understand their reactions. Developing such empathy at school, bears fruit in terms of social behaviour throughout life. (UNESCO, 1996) Schools, as we already have noted, are very important because they are the primary tools of education. For the better understanding of education, lets look at how it is defined by Wilkipedia the Internet encyclopedia (2005): Any process, either formal or informal, that shapes the potential of a maturing organism. Informal education results from the constant effect of environment, and its strength in shaping values and habits can not be overestimated.
Formal education is a conscious effort by human society to impart the skills and modes of thought considered essential for social functioning. Techniques of instruction often reflect the attitudes of society, i. e. , authoritarian groups typically sponsor dogmatic methods, while democratic systems may emphasize freedom of thought. In the definition of education, and overall whenever we talk about education and the schools, as the tools of education we always seem to bring up the term society. The definition of society, according to Wilkipedia the Internet Encyclopedia (2005) is: A society is a group of beings distinguishable from other groups by mutual interests, characteristic relationships, shared institutions, ranking and a common culture. In political science, the term is often used to mean the amalgamation of all voluntary human relationships, generally in contrast to the State, an institution of legal aggression.
Thus we can conclude that the schools, indeed, are a basic building block of the society. The process of education systems has undergone a great change throughout history, in order to satisfy the needs of each epoch, starting from the Romans, going on to today. Today, although, there is still a drastic need for a change in the scholar curriculum and the educational system as a whole in order to satisfy the growing needs of the society. The education of the Twenty First century needs some very big changes from the one that we had even ten years ago. For education, social inclusion, a term that is being used increasingly in the United States, means that all students have the opportunity to be part of society by learning and exercising their citizenship and democratic rights while in school. Thus, schools have a key role to play in ensuring that all students receive the education that will enable them to become thoughtful, caring and productive citizens.
Policymakers have a key concern to see that all children get the education to which they are entitled. Through the process of social inclusion, students are prepared to take their place as citizens in Canadian society. (Pierce M. 2005) Today the social inclusion in school seems to be under decline. In the older grades, from 5 th to 12 th there seems to be not that many subjects that teach the children about their ethical background, about their past (we always have to keep in mind that without the past there is no future). It has been always believed that the American society is highly patriotic, but is it really so? It seems that in the past couple of years the social awareness and the patriotism have been under as steady decline. There are certain statistics to prove this fact.
Social capital contributes to and is fed by the associations that come between the state and the family, such as church groups and civic organizations like the Boy Scouts, Elks, Shriners, Red Cross, and so on. Recent research suggests that America's social capital is on the decline. Probably the most visible sign of the decline of American social capital (and, with it, civil society) is the low rate of political participation. The United States now ranks near the bottom of developed societies in voter turnout for national elections. In the 2000 Presidential election, for example, fewer than 50 % of registered voters went to the polls, compared with 64 % for Hungary in its 1990 elections, 75 % for Japan in 1993, 90 % for Australia in that same year, and 93 % for East Germany in. 1990. Only Switzerland ranked lower than the United States we did, with its 46 % turnout.
Moreover, when one considers that the registered voters do not make up the entire electorate, President Clinton's 44 % plurality translated into an endorsement by only 24 % of the U. S. citizenry (for the elections of Bush these numbers were about the same). Participation in off-year elections is even lower. The statistics on direct civic engagement are no better. Weekly churchgoing dropped from 48 % in the 1950 s to 41 % in the early 1970 s.
Labor union participation has fallen from about 32 % in 1953 to about 16 % in 1992. Boy Scout membership is off 26 % since 1970. Red Cross volunteering dropped 61 % in the same period. Since 1979, membership in the Elks, Shriners, and Jaycees is off 18 %, 27 %, and 44 % respectively. (Hoyle J. , Slater R. 2001) These numbers seem to progress with every year, showing signs of great decline in our country. Partially this decline is due to the fact that there is lack of love in our schools. The primary driving force of people to exist is love.
This feeling is laid in the bottom of the Maslows pyramid of basic needs, the love and acceptance. Today in our schools the children feel less and less of love. Most schools strive towards perfection, thus only looking at the test results, championship victories, and victories in different science shows. All of these aspects are very important in the development of a child, but they should not be the driving force.
The children should feel happy coming to school, and not feel pushed to achieve more than they can. Children come to school each day not to fit the schools expectations of them but to be accepted, to avoid embarrassment, and to find their places in social groups. When schools become places inhabited by humorless teachers and administrators who are obsessed with test preparation and rigid rules of conduct, students sense the absence of love and happiness. (Hoyle J. , Slater R. 2001). This type of environment will not be a productive one, because especially in the older grades children go through series of psychological changes, while they are growing, and additional tension will just cause more discomfort. The whole idea of striving towards perfection is born inside a family, because as a rule families are mainly interested is seeing a child pass his examinations and learning as fast as possible so there would be no further expenditures on education.
Today, parents want to see their children become independent as early as possible, so a lot of times children come to school wearied from the tasks they had already performed. Some had walked for several miles distributing milk to customers, others sold newspapers on the streets, or performed some hard work at home. And further more these children are quite often punished for being inattentive and failing to understand the teachers. (Montessori M. 1966) Children are pushed for the perfection, while the parents forget their role in this process all together. Of course, in schools the curriculum and the educational system have to be reevaluated. For the high school students a problem of growing concern are the last years, because this is the time when the children have to think about what is the next step that they should take in their educational process: should they go off to college or should they start working. This problem is made to be harder than it is thought of, because as Rivarde N. (2005) stated: With one counselor for every 509 students, schools often can't provide the one-on-one guidance that many of these students need.
This part of the educational process most definitely needs some review due to the mere fact that children cannot even get enough information on what should be done to perform better than they currently do. For instance: Nationally, just 47 percent of low-income high school students enroll in college or a trade school, compared with 82 percent from high-income families. Moreover, 22 percent of college-qualified high school students from low-income families don't pursue higher education - compared with just 4 percent from high-income families. (National Center for Education Statistics 2004) If children from these families get more education and more help in school (the very primary institute which is supposed to help), there would be a more productive society in turn. Very important parts of the educational process, namely schools, are the teachers. Today, not only the students, but also the teachers are pushed to have the children receive better grades. In this race, teachers often forget their primary reason of existence meaning why they have actually started working in a school (this reason was not to produce better test results, this reason was to prepare the children for the outside life).
The first thing that the teachers should keep in mind is this: a child owes respect to the elders, but adults claim the right to judge or even to offend the child. At their own convenience they direct or even suppress the childs own needs, and his protests are regarded as a dangerous and intolerable lack of submission. (Montessori M. 1966) This is not so, if the child (age does no matter) is treated as an individual, he will perform better, since he will see the need of being better and trying harder. The teacher should first of all struggle with his own devils inside, become free of anger and the desire to rule, and be able to bring the light to the children. Being older and bigger, can give certain privileges, but the teacher should remember that he is there to educate and to prepare the child for the outside world, not oppress and psychologically damage the child. In the educational process the parents also play a very important role.
As Government's new Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, has noted, parents should take responsibility for their children's behavior in schools, Geraint Davies, secretary of NASUWT Cymru said parenting should be placed back in the hands of parents. It seems that in the busy world of today parents believe that they should not be doing anything with their children, the school will take care of that. But the school cannot take care of every single child, in addition the root of good behavior and understanding can only be set by the parents, the people whom the child knows better than they know themselves. Parents have a very important mission. They are the only ones who can save their children by uniting and working together for the improvement of the society. They must appreciate the mission that the nature has entrusted them with.
They have a primary role in the society and the future of the humanity in so far as they give life to their children. (Montessori M. 1966) These statement might seem to extremist for the people of today, but in the core they are true, if the teachers, the school staff and the parents cooperate the life of the child will be much easier thus making him study better. As it had been noted before there are many changes that are about to take part in the educational system. Some of them are due to the fact of the diversity of children that are studying in one class (children will have to learn to accept different people with the different traditions and ways), but there are also other more global problems. The current situation is so that for the first time in history, the old will outnumber the young. In 2000, 27 % of the U. S.
population was 18 or under and 21 % 55 or older. By 2020, 25 % will be 18 or under and 30 % 55 or older. In 1950, 16 people were working for every person drawing benefits from the Social Security System. By 2030, when the baby boomers are between 66 and 84 years of age, there will be about two people working for every beneficiary. This unprecedented shift raises concerns about issues ranging from the solvency of pension programs to competition for resources between those who are older and those who are younger. (Marx G. 2002) The schools will be facing problems, where there will many young and not enough teachers, these problems should start to be solved today, because when they start it will be too late, and not all the children will be able to receive the education they deserve, thus our nation as a whole will lose educated people, as a result bringing the downfall of the country in general. Works Cited Learning: The Treasure Within (1996) UNESCO Handbook retrieved from web Pierce M. , (1999) Social Inclusion: The Role of School Boards, retrieved from web Hoyle J. , Slater R. , (2001) Love, Happiness, and Americas Schools: The Role of Education Leadership in the 21 st Century.
Phi Delta Kappa. Retrieved from web Montessori M. (1966) The Secret of Childhood. The Random House Publishing Group. New York Marx G. (2002) Preparing Students and Schools for a Radically Different Future: Ten Trends Will Help Determine Educations Role in the 21 st Century. USA Today. Retrieved from web Schools In Danger of Damaging Family Life. (January 7, 2005) Western Mail.
Retrieved from web School and Society. Wilkipedia the Internet Encyclopedia. web
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