4. Role of Schools
Description:
In highly industrialized societies, education is viewed as vital for the nation's social, political, and economic development so having schools in important in creating a strong, industrial society. Sending students to schools help them develop their academic potential, their social skills, their character and self concept broadens their horizons. Sending students to schools gives them more opportunities and advancements in society so the role of schools are very important to our nation's future. Yet because schools are very important societal institutions, their performance is constantly evaluated by society at large and because schools are expected to achieve a wide variety of goals, many individuals find fault with the school system and in recent years there has been a widespread belief that American schools are failing (Armstrong, Henson & Savage, 2009).
Illustration: Short video about the importance of schools and education in our society (note: this videos enforces the widespread belief mentioned above that our school system is lagging compared to the rest of the world).
Practical Example:
The role of schools in society is important and necessary to our success as a nation. A good example would be not only the number of schools in America, almost 99,000 K-12 public schools in the 2010-2011 school year "(Fast facts: back", September 2013), but also the increased number of students enrolling in college after they get done with their "required by law" education. Fall 2013 saw a record of 21.8 million students attending colleges and universities, up from 15.3 million thirteen years prior in the fall of 2000 ("Fast facts: back", September 2013). Public schools are not the only school students can attend, many students also attend private or charter schools or are homeschooled. All individuals in American society agree in the importance of education and how educated students are needed for our future as a nation.
Integral Components:
Integral examples of the role of public schools can be seen through three different perspectives of school sociologists. They sociologist look into schools and they address the functioning and performance of educational institutions through three perspectives: functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective and the symbolic interactionist perspective. The functionalist perspective highlights the major functions of the school in maintaining a functioning society, they look at socialization, social cohesion, social integration and the placement of individuals in the schools. This perspective influences educational policy and gives statistics to people who call for reform in schools. The conflict perspective done by sociologists as they look at the role of schools is that they view schools and education through a power relationship only and define the system by constant struggle of who is in charge and who is trying to be and how that affects society. The last perspective is the symbolic interactionist perspective which looks at the interaction in schools (i.e. the interaction between educators and students) and studies how those interactions shape the student's views of themselves and their role in society (Armstrong, Henson & Savage, 2009). All three views are important for understanding the education system and helps provide insight into the roles of school in America and how they function on many different levels.
How the roles of schools relates to me and my future classroom:
The role of school relates to my future classroom greatly because it will be something that I will be dealing with on a day to day basis. As new research and understanding comes about about schools and their influence on society I might have to change my teaching strategies and instructions to mesh up with the new theories and research. While the roles of schools have not changed too much in the last century, the understanding of the importance and affect schools have on society as a whole has changed and as a teacher I need to be open minded and flexible enough to go with those changes in order to meet the best interest of my future students.
Scripture:
"Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning" Proverbs 9:9. This shows the importance of schools and education in society. Flat instruction does nothing to help students be productive members of society. But by teaching them and making them cultivate and grow and give them the skills needed to grow socially and with a strong sense of self concept they will suceed. And that is why the role of schools are so important in our society.