Effects of Culture on Children - Research Paper Example

?Running head: Culture on Children Effects of Culture on Children Insert Insert Grade Insert 01 Aug Introduction Culture can be described as a way of living that has a significant effect on society at large, family in particular and children to be precise1. As a result, culture is an imperative parameter in society through its significant effect on children. Generally, the effects of culture on children cover a wide spectrum of parameters including children’s cognitive development, learning, and social growth. To better exemplify the effect of culture on children, it is vital to understand that society is governed by culture that sets the standards and rules that determine the diverse social functions including behavior and child rearing. As a matter of fact, culture sets the environment through which children are born in and subsequently nurtured; this determines how the children are handled, oriented and taught at the very early stage of their lives. Therefore, culture is the first background environment that a child interacts with and which influences the overall personal, character and social development of a child. Consequently, culture determines the beliefs and norms of parents, family, and society which constitute the first instructors of a child. Hence, culture determines how the parents, family, and society handles children which further influences how the children come to perceive life later on in their adulthood. Therefore, culture determines the social norms, perceptions, and perspectives of thought and practice that influence the environment and people around the child who through their roles eventually determine the destiny of the children. Background Information When underscoring the effect of culture on children, two distinct parameters emanate that influence the discussion of how culture influences the lives of children2. First is the aspect of social growth and development, which is represented by the way society interacts with the child in an informal manner that determines the child’s overall personal and social growth. Culture determines the thinking, attitudes, perceptions and behavior of children, which is reflected in the way society treats the child. Psychologically, children store whatever they learn or experience during childhood and it affects their attitudes and perception later in life. In other words, children become what society made them to become through informal social interaction during childhood. Subsequently, the learning process of children is equally influenced by cultural perceptions that set the background for learning and cognitive development. It is a proven fact that cultural perceptions, norms and notions affect the learning process of children. To this effect, several cultural dimensions are included in the learning process to assist children learn fast. Therefore, culture significantly affects children learning capability. Through its effects on children’s learning capabilities along with its effect on the social and personal development of children at an informal level, culture plays a defining role in determining the development of children. As a result, the nature of a person is determined by the sum total of cultural effects upon his or her life more so during childhood. An adult is a combination of the cultural experiences and backgrounds that combine to blend an individual’s frame of mind. The effects of culture on children is extensive in the sense that it constitutes the general impact on a child’s mind as well as behavioral patterns that are passed by society to the children through informal interactions. Similarly, social rules and customs set the purview of indulgence that determines the moral, ethical, and practical background of children that eventually determines their personal, psychological and social development. Owing to the fact that children at the infancy state are open to learning and experience; culture fills this vacuum with an established way of life and general approach to reality which seals a child’s destiny through the pre-established thinking patterns and behavioral inclinations. By the time children reach the learning stage they are already affected by culture, which further influences their learning processes and transforms the children into a predictable adult with a set of acceptable attitudes, perceptions and behavior in accordance to the relevant cultural expectations. As a result, in all angles of consideration, culture affects children comprehensively. Effect of Culture on Children’s Identity Development Identity is among the most pertinent considerations of child and adolescent development. In essence, children start identifying with the atmosphere around them few moments after being born. This environment is governed by values and principles enshrined in the respective culture of the community. Therefore, culture plays a very significant role in the development of identity. Children first identify with what they see around them, the behavior, attitudes and notions of their parents and close relatives. Children suck up everything including touch, sound and smell along with emotions in their respective environments in spite of the fact that they cannot completely understand what is happening3. Infancy marks the basis of the development of a child’s identity in the sense that (regarding the environment in which children are born and raised including factors like poverty, language and practices) they immensely affect what children become later in life. Background play an instrumental role in shaping a child’s mind for further learning, growth and development and forms the basis upon which they develop their identity and perception of life. The most significant parameter here is environment whereby the atmosphere within which a child is born forms the child’s first picture of life and continuously orients the child to think in a certain manner. On the basis of what the child sees and experiences first, aspects of identity, perception, thought, and notion. The cultural inclination of any environment has a defining role with regard to a child identity, which eventually determines the overall development of a child. Whereas environment is not the sole parameter of identity development it ranks among the most imperative, properly examined and recorded factors in the process of developing identity during the formative years of infancy. This denotes the overall influence of environment of the development of a child in all stages. The reason why environment is a crucial consideration with regard to the discussion of cultures effect on children is because environment is the sum total of cultural influences of place, behavior, and practices. Therefore, the influence of environment on the development of identity underscores the strategic implication of culture on children. In overall, the influence of culture on children emanates from the relevant importance of childhood as a process of growth and development. Therefore, the significance of culture of childhood is derived from the manner in which culture influences the environments through which children are born and subsequently raised. Such an influence primarily determines the development of imperative parameters like identity that form the platform for the future development of a child. Incidentally, children discover and absorb information found in their environment on a regular basis therefore assisting them in the process of developing fresh ideas, perceptions, and ideals regarding life. It is a proven fact that several children ape and emulate the features of individuals close to them during their formative years. For instance, incase children are raised in places with aspects of pop culture or exposed to television then eventually their identity will be formed on the basis of such media. Hence, identity is also based on the nature of prevailing information in the relevant environment that affects children growth. As a result, through its influence on the nature of information and understanding that children are exposed to the environment exerts a phenomenon impact on the development of children’s identity. Such an implication lays the basis for further development of a child into the future. Parents along with teachers are significant factors in early development of a child. They are the principal educators and manipulate a child's manners and culture. Using popular culture as a method to educate or occupy a child when their individual identity has not completely formed can be damaging in the end. Culture's Effects and the Stages of Human Development During Infancy Human development takes place over what are known as phases of physical along with social growth. Developmental stages are denoted by age, and a cumulative sequence of physical in addition to cognitive abilities, along with social achievements. Though, psychologists along with social scientists indicate that developmental phases frequently do not account for the function of culture in human development. At every phase of human growth, culture influences learning, social conduct, identity, as well as standards for individual achievement. Early Childhood From the instant of birth, children are engrossed into culture. The modes that they are treated, clothed and fed are all determined by their culture of birth as well as the methods of their respective caregivers to child handling. Diverse cultures have unlike beliefs concerning infants' sleeping systems and whether or not they ought to be left to weep or play unaccompanied. These different techniques to early childhood nurturing can influence cognitive in addition to emotional development, and contribute to the development of the child's self-assurance, adventuresome behaviors as well as feelings of security. Middle Childhood Middle childhood, usually described as the interlude from ages 6 to 11, is an instance when children are vigorously mixed into their culture via school, play, and family. In the course of this time, children start to discover the principles most sustained by their culture and are exposed to collective differences; like categories of gender, race, and age. Young children begin to classify themselves with their gender, and this self-idea influences their dress, their approach of play and as well the way mature people will interact with them. Moreover, during middle childhood, dissimilar cultures place diverse importance on learning as well as skill-set growth. Adolescence Adolescence is a stage when sexual maturation occurs and juvenile people undergo noteworthy physiological along with social changes. In certain cultures, such as conventional American society along with Western Europe, puberty is regarded as a period of grounding for adulthood, where progress is assessed in accordance to developing skills in reason and problem solving, and indicating greater heights of responsibility. Nevertheless, in several other cultures, adolescence is not perceived as disconnected from adulthood, but somewhat as the period for commencing formal labor endeavors and starting childbearing. Adulthood Phases of development propose that during every section of the lifespan, people attain physical in addition to social milestones. Culture plays a great role in shaping the development in adulthood, by assisting organization ideas regarding personal meaning along with achievement, as well as predictable social roles. For instance, in a culture that appreciates material success, growth in adulthood is calculated according to one's aptitude to take part in the market economy. In addition, while numerous cultures highlight the function of women as mothers as well as caretakers, others emphasize on women's educational development along with economic self-sufficiency. Culture and Cognitive Development Culture has a lot of influence on cognitive development and overall growth and development of a child. This is because human beings are social beings who learn from their environments, family and community. Therefore, cultural background along with identity immensely affects children as they grow into adults; training them regarding the contents and nature of thoughts. There are countless influences which add to cognitive development that cover across all cultures although the utmost of these and mainly necessary is that of interfaces and association with adults and closest caregivers. It is extensively believed that proactive and constructive interactions throughout childhood foster development. These involvements from birth can comprise gazing, language, and stimuli. The diversity and incidence of such stimuli depends very much on cultural tendencies. Personal cultures will release children up to novel experiences and consequently foster development. In western cultures numerous children use copious quantities of time watching television. As a result, with entertainment alone there is minimum interaction and playing with parents. There are several educational initiatives available, like Sesame Street, whereby studies have manifested the advantages for children in little-earning families though there are others which foster violence which can occasionally influence harmfully a child. In contemporary technical revolution, numerous children currently have contact with computers along with the Internet which can additionally offer very educational as well as stimulating activities. Nonetheless, it has further been indicated through surveys that video games can be filled with gender and racial stereotypes. It would appear that considerate and close monitoring of both televisions along with computer right of entry can, indeed, encourage positive development socially as well as cognitively. Effects of Culture on Children’s Education Cultural tendencies affect the way children take part in education. In essence, cultural perspectives have a lot of sway on the way children participate in education. This is one of the chief reasons why cultural perspectives are included in learning programs to assist children catch up with learning and also inculcate cultural understanding among teachers. The first learning of a child happens when the child is at home during infancy; this background sets the expectations, attitudes and behavior patterns of a child. By the time the child enters school, he or she already has an established way of approaching life. Through culture some things make sense to children while others do not. Therefore without a clear consideration of cultural stereotypes, perceptions, notions and customs, it is difficult to understand children’s learning needs. It is against this background that teachers need to be equipped with the relevant cultural knowledge through which they can conduct essential educational programs for children. In the absence of such knowledge among teachers, it becomes very difficult to ascertain the learning needs of children on one hand and satisfy them on the other. Culture determines several features in the development of children that include perception, behavior, and approach. Teachers ought to understand the cultural differences that are associated with aspects of behavior and perception so as to be in a position to better comprehend the students behavior without providing biased judgments regarding the conduct of children. For instance, incase teachers do not understand the different cultures of children; they may perceive some children as poorly behaved, rude and unintelligent when in reality it is not true. Cultural differences are a great source of misunderstandings linking teachers and children whereby teachers fail to understand which children act in certain ways while the children find themselves being reprimanded by teachers without understanding why; this creates a feeling of unfairness among the children. Culture has an immense effect on children learning to the point that a lack of understanding of the learning styles of children could result into unsuitable referral of children to special forms of education. As a result, teachers must be empowered with the necessary knowledge of the impact of culture on the learning styles of children and also how to respond to such styles in ways that help the children to develop. For instance, an important parameter in learning style that is often misunderstood is silence. Silence could imply disrespectfulness, non attentive and non compliant whereby just because the child does not react it may be misconstrued that he or she does not know. In response to the effects of culture of children’s learning, it has emerged that conventional methods of teaching are inherently insufficient as well as culturally insensitive to the respective needs of children. In essence, traditional teaching approaches assume that all children are the same and the standards of judging their performance are typified. Such an approach is greatly wrong in the sense that every classroom has children from diverse cultural backgrounds. These children have been trained and oriented through different cultural backgrounds making them respond to learning in different ways. As a result, the strict adherence to a practice of traditional methods of teaching is a recipe for failure in the sense that teachers fail to understand the needs of their students and more so fail to comprehend the diverse approach to learning. This can be disastrous since some students may be isolated, ignored or even ridiculed for perceived ignorance or lack of intelligence. This greatly hinders the children’s cognitive, educational, social and psychological development. In the long run such students could develop low self esteem due to cultural misunderstandings. Contemporary teaching methods have thus been developed with the sole aim of supplementing the failures of traditional methods. Hence, cultural learning approaches are inculcated into the curriculum to ensure that teachers are culturally literate and can handle children from diverse cultural background and understand them properly. Teachers are accordingly trained on culture and how it affects the attitudes, behavior, and learning abilities of children along with the best way to handle learning issues among children of diverse cultures. Culture versus Popular Culture and Its Effects on Children The impact of culture on children is well exemplified through the huge influence of popular culture on children. Essentially, popular culture is a form of culture that is well accepted by a group of people in a social setting. For instance, pop culture as it is commonly known is transmitted through the channels of media, televisions, art, literature and recreation4. Practically, popular culture represents a certain set of ideas that govern the approach to life. The influence of pop culture on today’s children and young generation is a manifestation of the overall impact of culture on children. Since children are exposed to media, they get influenced by what happens on television and other forms through which popular culture is transmitted. Popular cultures influence on children can be categorized into two; positive and negative. It could be positive because children understand how to function and exist in the contemporary market. On the other hand, popular culture could be negative in implication in the sense that harmful content on television may compromise the ethical and moral fiber of children, thus, corrupting their minds. This poses a huge challenge to parents who have to keep observing their children as regards what they see and learn on television. This challenge is much amplified by the fact that it is not possible to hinder children from accessing media because it is prevalent everywhere. Hence, it is better to permit children to access these mediums of popular culture then regulate their indulgence. Using media channels like magazines, internet, television, movies, music, television and video games teenagers and young children have been affected by popular culture. As with every family, the principles and beliefs are transferred from generation to generation, but the pressing question is what transpires when all children see outside their home and disagrees with what they recognize as true. The values implanted in children can assist operating in life with a constructive or negative viewpoint. The identity, personality, and character of a person are formed through numerous different means, though with the limitless access to anything as well as everything via media, children's distinctiveness is being twisted. Pop culture optimistically and negatively influences the identities of young people in America. Whether it is a constructive or negative result, it is something teachers, parents along with other mature family members ought to be aware of to assist mold and form upstanding, meticulous, and industrious members of society. Popular culture is a modern life style that is commonly accepted by a huge population of people. Nevertheless, from this position forward, pop culture will embark on a more widespread meaning whereby it denotes the combination of published literature, arts, recreation, music, broadcasting, theatre and dance. Pop culture is found everywhere and there is no existing way of escaping it because virtually everyone in today’s age is surrounded by aspects of popular culture. Right from reading publications, to watching movies or simply listening to radio everyone interacts with popular culture. Pop culture is very much embedded into society that it's roughly unfeasible not to be prejudiced by it. This is particularly true for teenagers of America today. With simpler access, faster results, and ignorant parents, children are open to a tremendous sum of information supplied to them by pop culture arena. This manipulates and contours the identities of children. Positively, though, not all of it is unconstructive and if parents are cultured and conscious of what their kids are engaging in pop culture can be applied optimistically to assist mold the kids of the future. The origins of popular American culture can be derived to the early 1900's. The channels used to endear people to popular facets of society, though, was much dissimilar. The population had admission to radio as well as print media on an every day basis; therefore, both were operated entirely to get the community's attention in specific topics. Theatre, fiction, music and poetry all started to manipulate individuals in the early 1920's. Adolescents began to shape their own groups in schools founded on what was trendy in the globe by then. Parents had a hard time relating to their kids what 'fads' for example swing dancers, going to the drive and flappers became more and more accepted in the 1940's. The largest change happened in the period linking the 1950's and the 1970's. This period was the most significant years and the start of extensive pop culture phenomenon. With cultures like rock and roll, the chasm linking kids and parents kept expanding. The World Wide Web significantly grew in popularity during the 1980's as a platform for communication and business. This had a significant impact on society as more young people were influenced by this easy way of interacting with their peers further widening the gap with parents. Since then, the internet has been of significant impact on the lives of children both constructively and destructively. In as much as it offers plenty of opportunities for interaction and communication, which aids growth and understanding, the internet has become a source of great concern regarding the moral condition of children because several contents of immorality are displayed on the internet. Culture as a Heritage Families in rural settings have preserved their traditional principles and continue to pass them onto their children. Culture is a vicious cycle of lifestyle beliefs and norms, which cannot be ignored in any social setting. This is reason why every society is governed by a culture, away of doing things, thinking, and approach. Children are introduced to the culture the moment they are born and by the time they go to school culture is all they know and understand. In fact, the effect of culture on a child is irreversible in the sense that it sets the mental framework of a child upon which further learning can take place. As a result, everything else that takes place in a child’s life operates on a foundation laid by culture. Culture cannot, therefore, be ignored when understanding human behavior as well as learning. Culture is a heritage for society through which the norms and values of people are preserved by passing them on to children. As a result, children are welcomed to the world of culture and learn to perceive and approach life through the lanes of culture. Therefore, culture carries more weight that the blanket determination of the lifestyle of children in their adult lives. In appreciating the impact of culture on children, it is of great importance that the transmission of values from parents to children be understood as a key pillar is social structures that cannot be avoided. Similarly, the effect of culture on children cannot be described as positive or negative but rather as practical and necessary because it is how society responds to cultural effects on children that determine the positivity or negativity of the same. Effects of Culture on Learning and Personal Growth A culture that accentuates values of shrewdness and delayed needs satisfaction may hamper personal learning5. The ensuing gap linking individual along with organizational erudition may produce the stagnation of erudition of both kinds. A more encompassing culture, which validates intuition, direct quest of gratification of inquisitiveness, and disparities in cognitive approaches and thinking processes, could be friendlier to learning. Yet failure of generality of values could decrease legality of the entire cultural system. It could be tricky to comprehend nonverbal messages since different cultures have diverse expectations concerning body gestures, eye contact and physical touch among other parameters. Culture really influences attitudes regarding physical contact, whether it's a greeting, pat on the back or hug. How parenting methods along with culture can influence child growth is an appealing question. Actually, the query is not how it can influence development excluding how it will influence child development. Regardless of where or the manner in which a child is nurtured, it will be influenced by both parents in addition to culture. Parents approach child rearing in numerous different styles. It would be almost unfeasible to explore all the diverse methods that people apply in parenting. For instance, authoritarian parents often establish rules along with expectations and anticipate their children to abide by the rules. In these families, children have low power and say in decision making. Furthermore, such children often perform well in school with regard to academics and conduct though they definitely posses low social abilities, increased degrees of depression along with self esteem issues. In essence, authoritarian families often apply cruel punishment to their children when they go wrong. Decision making is a key parameter among children raised by authoritarian parents because of the highhandedness they experience when growing up to an extent that they grow up without being sure of their own decisions and capacity to make them. There are parents who apply the open approach in raising children whereby they encourage their children to express their opinions and sentiments at any given time. Children raised in such families are confident about themselves and often manifest enhanced social skills and have no self esteem issues. Parents with open approaches do not punish their children harshly as they consider other democratic ways of dealing with errant children. As a result, children grow up knowing what is right and wrong without intimidation. Children from these families may not be the best in education or behavior but they often develop an open attitude and approach to life with high psychological strength and confidence. Additionally, due to the availability of the freedom to express themselves they develop effective ability to handle and express emotions in their adult life. Cultures Effect on Emotional Growth Culture affects the ability of children to express emotions in a significant way in the sense that the cultural setting perceives emotional expression in different ways. Therefore, it is evident that children’s capacity to handle emotional issues and articulate themselves is greatly influenced by culture. There are cultures that encourage open sharing of emotional issues while others do not entertain free sharing and expression of emotions. Conservative cultures perceive emotional expression as a weakness that is not only shameful but also unacceptable. Consequently, children raised from such families tend to hide or suppress their emotions due to fear of being perceived weak or ashamed. As a result, such children grow up to be emotional recluses and prefer to keep quiet and suffer alone; a thing that express their real feelings. Children are taught perseverance and gentleness whereby they must resist the urge to share or express emotions and would rather act it out than talk about it. Such children could easily become aggressive and violent. Contemporary cultures on the other hand encourage communication and emotional expression where children are free to talk about how they feel and share their opinions regarding something. These children grow up to associate emotional expression as a pillar in social and personal interaction rather than a weakness. As a result, they develop better communication methods and approaches through the expression of emotions. They rarely turn aggressive or violent because they would rather express their disgust than act it out. Thus, with regard to emotional expression, culture greatly affects the growth and development of children that follows them through adulthood. Culture has immense effect on children in myriad ways that necessitate credible methodologies and mechanism of understanding such influence. As a result, there are a number of direct ways through which the effect of culture on children can be understood and the negative factor be mitigated. Culture can be defined as a way of life that constitutes the relevant values of people, which are passed from generation to generation. The effects of culture on children emanate from the resolve of every society to preserve their cultural values through passing them on to children. Children are very vulnerable people because their minds are alert from the moment they are born and they tend to assimilate anything that they see, experience, and learn. As a result, culture is transmitted to children in a very automatic way through the environment in which they are born and nurtured. Another crucial factor in the transfer of cultural values to children is the attitudes and approaches of relatives and adults around them. This paper has discussed the effects of culture on children in a comprehensive manner through various dimensions of the vast subject. First was the introduction of the topic through which a brief overview of the significant implications of culture on children was done. At this point more understanding on the vast subject was particularly underscored and exposed. In the theoretical background, a deeper analysis of the aspect culture was given through which a better understanding of culture along with its effects on children was provided. This set the stage for the enumeration of the relevant effects of culture on children and how they ought to be addressed. The paper further addressed several related concepts like pop culture, cognitive development and learning that epitomize the effect of culture on learning. Culture has been presented as a formidable force in the development of children due to its wide implication on the growth of children. The paper, thus, described culture as a huge factor in the cognitive development of children since culture sets the psychological foundation in the children’s minds making them respond to development in a culturally prescribed manner. Similarly, culture greatly influences learning through the cultural environment through which children are tuned to respond to learning in certain ways. Finally, popular culture that represents the common beliefs, notions and ideas affects children through media like television, magazines, art and theatre. All these concepts have been discussed in a way that further describes the overall effect of culture on children. Bibliography Brooks, Karen. Consuming Innocence: Popular Culture and Our Children. London: University of Queensland Press, 2010. Dowd et al., Handbook of Children, Culture, and Violence. London: Sage, 2005. Talay-Ongan, Ayshe and Ap, Emily. Child Development and Teaching Young Children. Washington: Cengage Learning Australia, 2005. Pressley, Michael and McCormick, Christine. Child and Adolescent Development for Educators. New York: Guilford Press, 2007. Olssen, Mark. Culture and Learning: Access and Opportunity in the Classroom. Washington: IAP, 2004. Read More