Culture and society

Culture and Society Education A functionalist would regard education as a way for individuals from different communities to come together and collaborate ideas and share knowledge in a variety of fields. i. e. business, accounting, science, health, etc. Education can promote personal feelings of success and failure based upon the individuals determination to accomplished set goals. Furthermore, education benefits students by fostering them in creative and innovative ways to support the political and economic systems. Education allows society to be better prepared for the future, by allowing generation after generation to adequately make new changes, based on previous experiences that may have destabilized society. In addition, education implements core values. Children in America receive rewards for following schedules, following directions, meeting deadlines, and obeying authority. In a classroom setting, education can cause competition amongst students based on grades and/or academics. Society’s needs demand that the most capable people get channeled into the most important occupations. Schools identify the most capable students early. Those who score highest on classroom and standardized tests enter accelerated programs and college-preparation courses. Another example would be the networking that occurs in schools. Networking (making interpersonal connections) could become professional or remain personal. Of course, by now we all understand that when a personal relationship is established between students, it could at times lead to them becoming a couple. People place so much importance on this function of education that some parents limit their children’s options for college to insure that they attend schools where they can meet the “ right” person to marry. A conflict theorist would view education as a way to promote inequality and established an unbalanced framework. This can be seen when comparing private schools versus public schools. There are private schools that are located in wealthy districts. Therefore, those schools are able to pay higher salaries, attract better teachers, and purchase newer texts and more technology Those can afford to attend a private school are viewed as, highly educated, successful, credible individuals and are well respected in their communities. Whereas public schools are located in not so prosperous neighborhoods, students have a far less advantage to attend college. Individuals who choose public schools are associated with being mediocre, unreliable and lazy. They also represent a high number of minority students. I believe education is what the individual is able to accomplish with their acquire knowledge. It can also be seen as a “ two edge sword. ” Education promotes the higher the education, the higher the pay. Unfortunately, we live in a society where thousands of individuals are under paid due to being “ over qualified”. Businesses refuse to grant an adequate salary because of budget cuts and de-value the worth of individuals even though their government emphasizes the importance of education. Interactionists are more concerned with the daily grind of the students and the transactions that occur between the students and the teachers or any other person that is involved with the student. For example, interactionists would be more concerned with the roles that other people play in the students’ education. They are concerned with the efficiency of a student’s education and the quality of a child’s academic experience. Every students needs to know that their voice is being heard. It is very important for a teacher to understand every one of their students, because every student is different. I believe this is what interactionists are trying to make us understand with their theories. Before students are ready to pay attention to their teacher, they have to know whether that teacher is either there for just a salary or there to help make a difference in their academics and future careers. A teacher’s primary goal should be that every student will gain the equal knowledge from their class. I say this because I remembered being back in junior high/high school and seeing how some teachers would pay more attention to students who they knew would do well in class and would not try to help those who they thought would just be filling a seat. In conclusion, after reading more and more about the differences between these three theories, I like the interactionist perspective the best. Both conflict theorists and functionalists believe that the type of education an individual receives is based on their social class status (upper, middle and lower class). Interactionists believe that communication between students and peers, teachers, family members, or any other person that comes in contact with the student on a daily basis is the most important part of a student’s ability to learn and succeed. References Schaefer, Richard T. (2011). Sociology: A Brief Introduction [9] (VitalSource Bookshelf), Retrieved from http://online. vitalsource. com/books/0077587626/id/ch01fn02