Societies and Education

All human institutions are created by the culture in which they exist; therefore, all institutions are social institutions, including schools. Academic institutions are established by people in order to carry out their ideas and purposes--the ideas and purposes that are considered appropriate by the cultural environment. Those attending schools learn the values and the methods of the prevailing social order. Oftentimes, what is learned about society's structure and its methods has much more long-term influence on the individual attending school than the actual academic lesson, since assimilating the society's structures, values and methods is the lesson of life.

It has been said that the teacher stands "on the porch of the school." Given this position, educators look out at the culture, its trends and phenomena, either with understanding or misunderstanding. And this has implications for instruction in the schools.

The purpose of this report is to examine the central issues presented in five different pieces of literature which consider various aspects of cultural patterning, and to discuss in broad terms the meaning and

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n a teacher directs positive messages toward these students and treats them with respect, these individuals who are members of a cultural minority do well academically? This is the theme of Conoley's article, "Positive Growth through Classroom Ecology" (1981, 6-9). Ideally, schools exist in order to help people become self-actualized. Individuals who are culturally different from the norm are expected to become assimilated into the prevailing cultural system. Yet the demands of assimilation often only underscore, for the individual who is culturally different, that he or she is not valued for who he or she is. The demands for assimilation then work to evince hostility and indifference. When a teacher sends positive messages to the culturally different student, this enhances self-esteem. A student is able to achieve in the classroom, and experience self-realization, when he or she receives positive messages about what is required in order to succeed. When the parameters or "rules" for success are communicated clearly by the teacher, the student has a clear idea about the meaning of the school. Accordingly, when the teacher expresses unconditional respect for the culturally different student, the learning atmosphere of th
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Introduction Societies, Asian-Americans Rarely, Children Hisama, Underclass Papagiannis, Classroom Ecology, Conflict Classroom, Japanese-American Mexican-American, United Forbes, Culturally Student, Conclusion Cultural, culturally student, cultural minority, behavior disorders, positive messages, school dropouts, asian-american children, wurzel 1981, children behavior, teacher student, value orientation differences, institutions including, creation school dropouts, school dropouts accomplishing, differences urban school, urban school implications,
Approximate Word count = 1626
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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