Attempts to attract more males to the teaching profession have also been suggested as a solution to the boy problem. With school teachers being almost exclusively female, the feminization of schoolingargument suggests that schools are a place where male interests are not cultivated. School uniforms became more widely implemented in the public school system in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s when school policies were put in place in an effort to control gang activities and increase safety at schools (Han 2010). Manitoba, for example, has a highly tracked mathematics program (McFeetors and Mason 2005). Less overt ways of instilling values through curricular practices are also found in citizenship education, which teaches students about being good citizens. Citizenship education is present in the primary and secondary curricula of all Canadian provinces and territories (Evans 2006). Within these two generalizations, however, much differentiation existed regarding the amount of money spent on the clothing. The gender gap between males and females in these subjects has narrowed considerably in recent years, with boys and girls performing about the same in both Canada and the United States (Lauzon 2001). The exceptions, of course, are private schools and many Catholic schools, where uniforms are traditional. The Ontario Human Rights Commission launched a complaint against the Toronto District School Board, indicating that students with certain types of disabilities were being discriminated against. The first of these dimensions is behavioural conformity. Currie and Kelly (2006) observed that a common yet particularly severe form of name-calling that resulted in the most reputational damage was being called a slut, which results from perceived inappropriate interactions with or seeking attention from boys. Arai (2000) found in a study of Canadian parents who home schooled their children that most indicated that they objected to specific parts of public education rather than the institution as a whole. This bottom-up approach to decision making has proven to be a very effective one for students who, for various reasons, were not successful in the mainstream system. Describe how peer victimization, peer rejection, and relational aggression impact on the socialization experiences of students. Previous explanations of males outperformance of females in science and mathematics suggested that biological factors predisposed males to be better at more technical subjects than females. 2010). The peer groupconsists of individuals of a similar age and social identity. Elsewhere in Canada, zero tolerance policies are likely to be in place around specific actions. Such school environments have been found to breed delinquent behaviour and academic failure. Krahn and Taylor (2007) found that a major influence on course selection was parental education and family income; students from families with lower incomes and in which neither parent had post-secondary qualifications were more likely to take lower-streamed courses. These agents include the family, education, religion, peer groups, and the media, and they all play a significant role in shaping an individual's beliefs, values, and behaviors. Medlin (2000) has noted that research on whether or not home schooled children experience adequate socialization is sparse and that which does exist often has hallmarks of poor research design and biased samples. Peer-rejected children often display social skills that make them undesirable playmates and friends to other children. It was emphasized that children have to learn how to be students and that the teacher is largely in charge of not only subject-specific education, but also the teaching of morals and values. Effective school climates can positively influence students, despite their home conditions, race, gender, or social class (McEvoy and Welker 2000). Brunsma (2005, 2006) argues that in the United States, school uniforms have not been effective in addressing any of the issues they were intended to resolve. A dimension of socialization including the self-regulations of the body required of students to fit into the school environment, such as raising a hand or sitting still. The Manitoba Ministry of Education describes Consumer Mathematics in the following way: The Consumer Mathematics curriculum emphasizes number sense, consumer problem solving, and decision making. There is also the risk that she may develop a reputation. An inherent message in these codes of dress is that girls covering up keeps male students focused and protects girls personal safety. In this chapter, however, the main focus is on how schools contribute to the socialization of children. And How! Current practices appear to reflect the desire to create obedient future employees or citizens (Raby 2005). In February of 2011, news broke that a six-year-old boy in Laval, Quebec, had been excluded from a school teddy bear contest because he had a plastic sandwich bag in his lunch, which violated the school rules on environmentally friendly lunch containers.5 Many environmental initiatives have been adopted by schools across Canada. In school, we also learn social skills through our interactions with teachers, staff, and other students. Deviants, elites, and to some extent jocks were more likely to drink, while deviants were the group most likely to use marijuana. In April of 2007, zero tolerance policies were removed from Ontario schools.6. The term zero tolerance first gained popularity in the area of law enforcement in the United States. The findings of research on the impact of school uniforms on school safety has, in general, not supported the premise of reduced behavioural problems in students (Han 2010) or school achievement (Yeung 2009). 2000). Some schools encourage active citizenship wherein students participate in creating and modifying schools codes of conduct, and other aspects of their schooling, including course content. It is not surprising that some teachers interactions with disruptive students can be hostile and critical. What kinds of resources are available on their websites? The previous chapter discussed curriculum and how the content of schooling is closely associated with the social construction of what various groups (teachers, school administrators, parents) think children should be taught. The term became associated with school disciplinary procedures in 1994 when the Gun-Free Schools Act was passed in the United States, which required that students who possessed a firearm at school be expelled for no less than one year (Cerrone 1999). Such negative relationships can put students at risk for social maladjustment as well as emotional and behavioural problems. The influence teachers exert over students in their delivery of curriculum has been addressed above and in the previous chapter. The school setting is where the learning of the new role as a student occurs. What has changed, however, is the larger proportion of boys without male parents in the home. 8. As noted by Sweet et al. And the grand outcome of socialization is also theorized to be the result of how all the systems interact with one another. As more schools are trying to instill healthy eating habits and becoming more environmentally conscious, many have adopted rules that prohibit the bringing of certain products to school. The argument that because school teachers are almost exclusively female, schools are a place where male interests are not cultivated. Look on the internet for official curriculum documents about moral education in Canada. Conflicts within relationships are dealt with in ways such that the relationship itself becomes the weapon. Socialization 101: Definition, Agents, and Examples of Socializing WebSome kids need extra help learning and following social rules. But why would home schooled children be better socialized, as many American proponents have indicated? For example, schools teach children how to behave appropriately in society. An applied stream is called Consumer Mathematics, while the academic stream is called Pre-calculus Mathematics. Creating and enforcing codes of conduct can therefore be viewed as a form of socialization whose objective it is to create the desirable student. Critics (see Apple 2000) also object to the presentation of the public schooling system as a failure and argue that the home schooling movement, particularly the neo-conservative home schooling movement in the United States, serves to segment and divide the population, essentially creating more problems than it actually solves. Want to create or adapt books like this? Children who are accepted by their peers tend to have a more safe school environment, while those who have been rejected by their peers are at a greater risk of targeted harassment and bullying (Wentzel and Looney 2006). Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices. Many children arrive at school with behavioural problems and emotional needs that are not met in the family environment. Concept in social psychology in which preconceived ideas about how someone will act cause that person to act in such a way, even if the belief about that person was initially Students will be required to sit still during lessons. Personal histories of students are ignored and therefore students do not carry the stigma of past experiences with them in the school. Favourable school climates are characterized by non-arbitrary rule enforcement, rewarding of appropriate behaviour, and positive interactions between students and teachers (Reinke and Herman 2002). Students develop valuable knowledge and skills that will allow them to make informed decisions as they become independent citizens. Socialized Delinquency. For example, we learn the importance of obeying authority and Characteristics of children that may be perceived to threaten classroom management may attract negative attention from teachers. As discussed in Chapter 2, Millington, Vertinsky, Boyle, and Wilson (2008) studied physical education curriculum in a Vancouver high school. Sex-typing of childrens play (e.g., specific activities for boys and others for girls) can also contribute to reinforcing gender differences in behaviour and the understanding that children have about the appropriate roles for males and females. Canadian researchers have examined the meanness of girls in relation to their popularity (Currie and Kelly 2006; Currie, Kelly, and Pomerantz 2007). This difference may be due to ethnic group membership, disability, physical attractiveness, or being a newcomer to the classroom (Asher et al. The social learning that children undergo when they enter other social institutions, such as school. The popular girls self-described their sense of fashion and interest in their appearance and popular culture. As Krahn and Taylor (2007) argue, students from disadvantaged backgrounds may have the ability to succeed in advanced academic courses, but an assortment of other factors may be reducing their likelihood of taking these courses. This act supplanted the Education Act (Section 23), which previously allowed only principals to suspend students and school boards to expel students. In terms of outreach, students must participate weekly (Wednesdays between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m.) in a community volunteer activity for which they receive no payment. Individuals of a similar age and social identity; in school, the peer group is typically a childs classmates in younger years and then becomes more specific to particular adolescent subgroups in the teenage years. Recall from Chapter 2 that Boudon discussed how secondary effectslike the aforementioned characteristicscan impact on educational attainment because they influence the types of educational choices made by a student and his or her family. Children who have negative relationships with teachers are also more likely to view school as an unpleasant place and be at a disadvantage in terms of learning. This may severely limit their future ability of getting admitted to post-secondary training that leads to higher paying jobs with high status (Krahn and Taylor 2001). In school, the peer group is typically a childs classmates in younger years and then becomes more specific to particular adolescent subgroups in the teenage years. Moral education and character education are even found in some provinces curricula (Box 6.1).