There is no agreement among teachers, psychologists, politicians, and philosophers as to the purpose of education, nor is there any agreement as to what constitutes education. If the purpose is to train good citizens, we are faced with the fact that conceptions of good citizens differ in different countries. Can be an attempt done by the adult members of a human society to shape the development of the coming generation in accordance with its own ideals of life. This seems an unsatisfactory definition because: a-It is a definition of training rather than of education, and b-The rising generation will live in the world of tomorrow. Whatever definition we accept of education and of the purpose of education, it will be coloured by our own philosophy of life. There appears to be a need for each one of us to define our own ideals and purposes. We may then hope for the good fortune to be able to realize them in part. The attainment by each child of his maximum potential intellectual efficiency through the cultivation of good mental habits would result in an increased measure of human happiness. There is perhaps nothing new in this, for many will see in this belief merely a variation of a Greek conception of happiness. This belief, held by a teacher, gave rise to a personal problem. What means can be evolved that will result in each child's attaining the maximum possible intellectual efficiency. The problem has been tackled in a restricted sphere, latterly among a group of children whose mental powers are so limited that only by exercising them at their maximum efficiency can they hope to attain any real happiness. We have to draw attention to a view that the overriding aim of the teacher is the matching of capacity by attainment. Education has been passed down from above, and hitherto attempted chiefly through the medium of words. We believe that it should be built up from below, and that for the majority it should be chiefly through the medium of the concrete, the visual, and the everyday. The first requirement for all who teach, or who aspire to teach, appears to be an appreciation of:
Thus, in advanced urban societies there are clusters of closely interrelated roles that centre on economic and on political institutions, but members of these societies do not play these roles constantly. Such roles may, there-fore, be considered as secondary roles, and much secondary socialization takes place in childhood. By the age at which adolescents leave school they already have learnt, partly at home and partly at school, an incomplete, but wide, knowledge of the occupational structure. In other words, their economic socialization as producers is well under way. At an earlier age they have learnt something of their national role, knowing who to support, for example, in a war or in an international sporting event.
id: ac4f95dfdae9d76a6bcbb110a71dcd76 - page: 12
Similarly, children gradually learn their political roles so that they know not only such details of their own particular political system as how to vote, but also feel that they are part of it and have a greater or lesser degree of power to take part in and to influence political decisions that concern them. Clearly socialization is a forward-looking process. In the political and economic examples that have just been given the child was enabled to learn more efficiently the behavior that was later expected of him because, whether consciously or not, prior preparation had been given to him. This preparation has been termed anticipatory socialization. The teaching of social studies at school is often a very relevant part of the child's preparation for the economic and political roles that he will play in the future.
id: 36d26093aef8e241873fdc4b0d0f7fc2 - page: 12
The engaged couple rehearse together prior to marriage many of the behavioural patterns that they will later play as husband and wife. Likewise, the pregnant woman, at least mentally, prepares herself for her future as a mother. This process of anticipatory socialization is important in that, if it is apt, it eases the transition into future positions. The young person who has been taught at school to study in the more independent way expected of him at a university or college will more easily move from the role of secondary pupil to that of tertiary student. Discontinuities in behavioural expectations are to some degree eliminated. However, anticipatory socialization may be misplaced and thereby discontinuities may remain or even be increased.
id: a9b91b851c8b489b856167be7b36c660 - page: 13
The child who does not achieve the particular occupation to which he has been led to aspire because either his parents or his school have unduly raised his hopes will have greater difficulties in moving into his economic role than might otherwise have been the case. One final point must be made before completing this examination of socialization from the structural perspective. Since we can talk of a life cycle of roles through which individuals move, socialization must clearly be a lifelong process. In recent years, as sociologists have realized that this concept and the analytical tools associated with it are equally applicable to the learning of adult roles, much work on adult socialization has been done. Socialization is not something that happens only in childhood. New roles must be learnt, and often old behaviour must be forgotten because it is no longer apt for the new positions that are assumed or the new groups that are joined.
id: 4c8f1e4a4299cdbae0909b0c19e15bda - page: 13