Negative Effects Of Conformity

Conformity is seen everywhere throughout life. People conform when they are trying to pick which restaurant to go to, or which movie to see. People conform all the time without even being conscious about doing it. Conformity affects a school-age child’s educational experiences. Although the negatives outweigh the positives there is some positives of conformity. In society normal is just seen as acceptable, people who conform do not run the risk of being excluded or bullied by their peers.

Conformity can be defined in many different ways depending on the context. When involving children conformity can be defined in three different way. When referenced to peer pressure according to Beran, Kaba, Caird, & McLaughlin conformity is defined as when
The first step to get rid of conformity is to eliminate the fear. Students need to see that they can succeed and are accepted in school. For example, moving to a new school is hard enough. The new student needs to feel accepted as the individual they are or they are likely to conform. Secondly, teachers need to eliminate the group environments. Group time is great to promote social skills, but group time should not happen all the time. Research proves that “group-centered structure is said to have more power to alter the perceptions of individuals in the direction of a common norm than has leader-centered structure” (Dettering, 120). For conformity to decline in children, teachers need to eliminate cooperative environments and use it as a reward for students, instead of an everyday occurrence. With less conformity, there is less bullying to go on. Many teachers are aware of the bullying that goes on in a classroom, but ignore it because they do not know how to handle it or they believe that it will take care of itself. According to Yoonju and Chung “20 to 30 percent of students in a particular classroom participated in bullying by either reinforcing it or assisting the bully (525).Too many teachers believe in the myth that children “picking on or teasing” one another is a “normal” part of childhood. “Research suggests that many children have already learned to bully by preschool age” (Bulock, 131-132). Teachers need to be fully aware of the situation at all times and stop it immediately. It would even be a smart idea to meet with the child’s parents and discuss the matter. “Considering that bullying introduced throughout the child’s life-young children may be acting out at school what they have observed and learned at home” (Bulock, 130). A solution to this is to make sure every teacher has had a seminar and training involving bullying. Individuals involved in peer pressure need to be