THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIALIZING AGENT.

One social agency

created to enhance the processes of socialization and education is the school.

Socialization is the process of creating a social self, learning ones culture and
learning the rules and expectations of the culture.

The school is an artificial institution set up for the purpose of socialization and cultural
transmission. The school can be regarded as a formally constituted community as
opposed to mutual communities.

Among the most important agencies of socialization is the school; i.e. other than the
home the school is the other important institution in which socialization takes place.
Schooling has been defined by Biddle as the appearance of organized instructional
activity in which the position of the teaches is differentiated from other positions in the
system and given the explicit task of socializing neophytes,

In terms of socialization, the school has, in recent years, come to take over some of the
formes functions of the family and community i.e. the school has become a primary
agency of socialization. The school is the first large-scale organization of which the child
becomes a member. The school is a minpature reflecting what goes on in the wider
society.

One way of appreciating the schools potential for socialization lies in the simple
reckoning of the amount of time s the youngsters spend in school and in activities related
to the school. The youngsters spend the major part of their active hours of the day in
school, from morning to evening incase of a day school and boarding schools they stay
for duration of about nine months in a year. Obviously, during this time student acquires a
lot from the teachers and fellow students. Due to this fact the school becomes an
important agent of socialization.

The school is said to be next to the family in terms of importance as far as socialization is
concerned. The school combines the formal (e.g. classroom teaching, fines caning,
suspension expulsions official mention, prices) and informal (e.g. peer group influences/
pressure) approaches in its socializing function.

How the school performs the function of socialization.

1. through the curriculum, the school in a formal way provides the child with:
i) Knowledge of basic intellectual skills such as reading, writing, verbal
expression, quantitative and other cognitive abilities, Education
teaches languages and allows people communicate with each other
according to positions in society.
ii) Cultural achievements of ones society.
iii) Opportunities to acquire social and vocational abilities which are
necessary in order to make one a social, useful and economically
productive member of the society.
 iv) Gender roles as perceived as suitable roles by the society.

2. Educational systems socialize students to become members of society, to play

meaningful roles in the complex network of independent positions.

3. Education helps in shaping values and attitudes to the needs of the contemporary
society.

4. Education widens the mental horizons of pupils and teaches them new ways of
looking at themselves and their society.

5. Education offers young people opportunities for intellectual, emotional and social
growth. Thus education can be influential in promoting new values and
stimulating adaptation of changing conditions.

6. Informally and especially through social clubs, the school enables the child to
learn a number of other social roles and skills which are also important for his/
her overall development as a member of society. For example.

i) Education teaches the laws, traditions and norms of the community,

the rights that individuals will enjoy and the responsibilities that they
will undertake.

ii) Education teaches how one is to behave toward his/ her play- mates
and adults.

iii) Education teaches how to share things and ideas.

iv) Education teaches how to compete responsibly

v) Schooling teaches how to cooperate

vi) Schooling instills the communitys pattern of respect; thus how to

relate to others well and obey rules.

vii) Schooling enables one to intendize the culture of ones society.

viii) Education leads toward tolerant and humanitarian attitudes. For

example, college graduates are expected to be more tolerant than (high
school graduates in their attitudes toward ethenic and social groups.

Summary
Thus education will train useful citizens who will obediently confirm to societys norms,
and will accept the role and status that society will confer upon them when they have
finished their schooling.
Since children come from different backgrounds, the work of the school therefore is to
intercept and change or modify those aspects which may not be acceptable to the
community. At the same time, those aspects of training which are meaningful are
encouraged. Most of the informal learning occurs mainly within the pees group setting.
The pees groups affect the socialization process both in school and in the neighborhood.

The school represents a formal and conscious effort by the society to socialize its young.
It does this through the content of the curriculum and co-curricular activities. They also
socialize the values that they communicate to the child. Teachers also act as models for
students.
In school the child learns skills which to a large extent prepare him for the world of work.

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