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Chapter 8 1. American society is a typical society with a class gradation. In general outline there is a class of poor people, middle and high classes. But in the United States it is seen not only class system but also a caste system.
The bright example of this is an article of David Shipler A Poor Cousin of the Middle Class. In this article is shown a life of poor woman Caroline Payne, who ended up with a two-year associate's degree in office technology, works hard and cant get any prospects of promotion. Because of poverty she had no teeth and without bright American smile she wasnt able to find a good job. So she had to move from one city to another in order to find it. In other words this is called social mobility an ability to move easily from one job to another. This is the main problem of poor middle class people are unable to find an appropriate job.
They change jobs very quickly because the salary which they get is not enough to keep their families. It is exclusive circle as poverty is a peculiar, insidious thing, not just one problem but a constellation of problems: not just inadequate wages but also inadequate education, not just dead-end jobs but also limited abilities, not just insufficient savings but also unwise spending, not just the lack of health insurance but also the lack of healthy households (Shipler, pg 2). Because of mentioned factors and lack of appropriate social background people with law incomes from middle class cant get a well paid job. The caste society doesnt allow them to climb up a ladder, make good career and move through the social classes. The only thing they can do is to change jobs with hope to find a better one. 2. All people are normally divided into several races according to some factors they posses.
But it is hard to define a clear race. In sociology there are six racial categories: Black/African-American, White, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Asian, Other. But the boundaries between races arent fixed, they can be changed in different historic periods. Adding to this, people generally dont fit one category. Very often this category includes people with different languages, traditions and cultural values.
Racial differences are only social significance. Speaking about ethnic classification there are two ethnic categories: Hispanic origin and non-Hispanic origin. But generally people from Latin America arent homogeneously Hispanic. So its hard to define them to one of ethnic category. Stereotype is an idea (often unfair or untrue) of what a particular person or thing is like. Stereotypes occur because of lack of information about some group or things.
And people keep them by evaluating the same behavior in different way. When the member of minority group makes en error we interpret it as a mistake of whole group. But when the same situation happens to a person from dominant group, we think that it is his individual fault. Discrimination is a practice of treating one person or group differently from another in an unfair way. There are two types of discrimination individual and institutional. Institutional discrimination is a policy that limits minority members achievements and keeps them in subordinate and disadvantaged positions (Lecture notes 2004: Chapter 10).
In our attitude to people we use selective perception. This means that we use some features, characteristics of person and according to them we make opinion about people. The race and ethnicity are social categories but not biological or some others. With clear understanding of them we can judge about person or group fairly, without using stereotypes or some kind of discrimination. 3.
One of the problems that can explain dropping out schools is self-fulfilling prophecy. Student predicts some situation and deeply believes in it. Person predicts some events and then modifies his behavior in order to create that situation that these events will be realized. So if student doesnt want to study or thinks that he is misunderstood, he will believe in it and create such situation which may cause the feeling of alienated. There are two types of curriculum: overt and hidden curricula. Hidden curriculum involves the way of transmission and production knowledge, cultural values and norms.
We understand education as a process of socialization not just giving knowledge. With a help of hidden curriculum students learn to be treated as a same-status members of the group, to obey authorities. Students are taught those cultural values that make them to be consumers of products. And in this case, teaching, getting knowledge are products. In some situation students want to be more independent and dont want to follow any rules. So it also may be one of the reasons of dropping out studying.
Family background can also be the cause of leaving school. There is a theory which is based on the persuasion that the family, its values can be the principal arena for education. From this point of view it is thought that strong, real knowledge is only self-knowledge. Children have to solve the problems alone. But family support plays a great role in this process as parents help their children to find motivation for studying, awake students interest for getting knew knowledge.
When parents dont give enough attention to their children, arent interested in their study, their achievements and dont help them to organize their time by scheduling, children feel lonely. Very often students dont understand why they have to study if nobody sees their progress. They lose this motivation for studying and often it becomes a reason of dropping out school. 4. As we assume the biological differences between men and women we treat them in different way. In this context we can speak about gender socialization and polarization. Gender socialization is learning how to be male or female.
Gender polarization is a perception of different sexes which is concerned with social roles, expressing of emotions. Due to these differences between sexes there are different attitude toward men and women. In most countries there are typical male and female professions. For example, it is thought that women are more emotional and arent very fast in their reaction so they cant be pilots or racers.
On the other hand, there is a spread meaning that men are unable to work in kindergarten and bring up children. These differences in treatment create some sexual gaps and gender inequality. 5. The reason of the problem which was described earlier lies in education. Teachers act in different way toward boys and girls. It is believed that girls are more disciplined, obedient, and diligent. Conversely boys are pugnacious, badly-behaved, dont want to follow school rules and more often cheat at exams.
The methods of upbringing of girls and boys differ from their early ages. The demands to boys are stricter than to girls. So its natural that they feel gender inequalities and perceive the opposite sex differently. One more explanation of this inequality is school uniform. As girls have to wear skirts they arent able to move freely. Adding to this, girls cant sit casually, run around and play some active games.
Girls dont develop their strength, mobility. And boys are encouraged to be physically, logically and mental active. Due to lots of causes male and female are treated differently. From the very childhood they understand this difference and act in expected way.
Because of historic and social reasons women much more often feel that they are in disadvantaged group than men.
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