Education has positive functions in contemporary societies. Discuss.
“Socialization is the process by which the various representatives of society-parents, teachers, political leaders, mass media teach people the ways of society and form their basic qualities.” 1We are taught to deal with our environment through the interaction with people we met. Socialization is not only the process when we were young, it is actually a lifelong process teaching us how to fit in the society in every stage of life. We learn the expectation of the society and when we accept the rules of games, we internalize them and make our own way.
As a result, education play an important role in socialization. However, has education bring positive functions in contemporary societies? People hold different opinions responding this question. From my point of view, education definitely has improve nowadays societies. I am a 19-year old young adult now, by tracing back to my past experiences by educated, there are many clues to tell how I become such a person today, from an infant knowing nothing about the society to a “civilized” human being, this is the power of education. In this essay, I will use my personal experiences explain how different education agents affect me through my growth timeline.
I am nurtured by generally Chinese culture but since I was born in Hong Kong, I was exposed to the mixture and Eastern and Western culture. I can learn both traditional Chinese culture like Confucianism ideas and also Christianity ideas. As Macionis notes,” Values are culturally defined standards by which people judge desirability,goodness and beauty, and which serve as broad guidelines for social living.”2That is,value can be seen as the criteria that we use to evaluate people, including ourselves.
Regarding to the Christian background of my parents, since I was small, I was educated of the values advocated by the Bible, to be altruistic, to show love and care to the needy. I was socialized to accept these values through observing my parents’ behavior. They
As a result, education play an important role in socialization. However, has education bring positive functions in contemporary societies? People hold different opinions responding this question. From my point of view, education definitely has improve nowadays societies. I am a 19-year old young adult now, by tracing back to my past experiences by educated, there are many clues to tell how I become such a person today, from an infant knowing nothing about the society to a “civilized” human being, this is the power of education. In this essay, I will use my personal experiences explain how different education agents affect me through my growth timeline.
I am nurtured by generally Chinese culture but since I was born in Hong Kong, I was exposed to the mixture and Eastern and Western culture. I can learn both traditional Chinese culture like Confucianism ideas and also Christianity ideas. As Macionis notes,” Values are culturally defined standards by which people judge desirability,goodness and beauty, and which serve as broad guidelines for social living.”2That is,value can be seen as the criteria that we use to evaluate people, including ourselves.
Regarding to the Christian background of my parents, since I was small, I was educated of the values advocated by the Bible, to be altruistic, to show love and care to the needy. I was socialized to accept these values through observing my parents’ behavior. They
References: 1. Charon,J.M. (1995) Ten Questions-A Sociological Perspective. International Thomson Publishing 2. Sarawathi,T.S.(1999) Culture,Socialization& Human Development:Theory, Research and application in India .Sage Publications 3. Thio,A.(2007) Society : myths and realities : an introduction to sociology,Pearson/Allyn and Bacon 4. Macionis,J.J. (2012) Sociology,Pearson