Contribution of Education and Schooling - Essay Example

?Running Head: Contribution of Education and Schooling Contribution of Education and Schooling [Institute’s TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction “Heredity” and “environment” rank at the top of the list in the factors that have a crucial impact on the growth and development of any child. Heredity lays the foundation in terms of determining the capacity, attitudes, behaviours and interests of any child and the education that the child receives, makes up a crucial element of the environment that provides puts the potential of the child to use and polishes it in a favourable manner (Heywood, 2001, pp. 241-243). All children have a certain potential due to their heredity and genes or maybe through their early childhood experiences but that potential is useless if its remains only to the extent of “potential”. Schooling and education provide the training and knowledge to put those inbuilt abilities to use and without that training those talents and potential is nothing but waste (Corsaro, 2005, p 20). This paper is an attempt to explore the impact or contribution of schooling and educating on children and their childhood and different paradigms and perspectives on the same from experts and researchers. Discussion Several studies (Mayall, 2002, pp. 66-67; Corsaro, 2005, p 20; James and James, 2004, pp. 38-39) show schooling and education right from the early age can prevent or suppress a criminal tendencies, behaviour and career. Chicago Child Parent Centre conducted a study over a time span of over 26 years where the focus was on exploring the relationship between participation quality preschool programs and engagement in crimes before the age of majority (18 years). The study found out that the children who did not participate in their quality preschool programs were 70 more likely to have been arrested for a violent crime before the age of 18 years. Furthermore, this study also showed that early childhood education could decrease the crimes amongst juveniles by one third. Important here to note is that these studies do not show a causation between schooling and a crime free childhood or future life. In fact, even the studies that claim to be having causation cannot come up with ample evidence to support the claim. The best this can be labelled as is a “correlation” (James and James, 2004, pp. 38-39). There are various reasons for this correlation. Schooling and education is not limited to six to eight hours, in fact, indirectly, it takes up almost the entire day of children. Children who go to school are occupied during the school hours and even when they come back, they have homework, presentations, assignments, reports and other things to look after that relate to school. They are more likely to sleep early because they have to wake up early morning. Furthermore, their friend circle always remains limited to school friends who are more likely to have similar schedules and predispositions. Therefore, unlike children who do not go to school, have high absenteeism rates or least bothered about their education, they do not get a chance to roam around and wander on the streets. Children who go to school and pay attention to their education do not get time to friendship with bad elements in their society unlike other children who are extremely likely to end up in those circles where they are not supposed to be (Qvortrup, 1994, 81-86). Quite understandably, schooling and education is only about degrees, diplomas and passing classes, it is about social, mental and psychological development. During their years in schools, children learn many things that become an important cornerstone in their lives. Examinations, tests and assignments teach them how to manage time and how to prioritise because they there are times when they have a lot to write but with little space or word count, they learn how to determine which thing is important at what time. Waking up every day for school, reaching at school on time, attending classes scheduled at a fixed time and coming back from school within a predetermined time zone ensures that children learn time management, making timetables, schedules and perseverance. Student councils and societies teach children the importance of standing out of the crowd, putting in extra effort and independence (Bath, 2009, pp. 85-86). Dress codes, uniforms, policies and regulations teach children the importance of having codes in organisation and the importance of obedience of law in the later years. This is why educated and learned children would know how to dress professionally and causally and how to tame their attire for every event because they learn the same from different events that take place in their life. Assignments, homework and other tasks from school teach students how to deal with stress, workload, and the way to have a good work/life balance in the coming years. Presentations, group work and other school interactions teach the children how to change their behaviours, styles and approaches while expressing themselves in formal and informal settings. Controlling their emotions and expressions in front of teachers, head teachers and principals teach them about authority, power and the way of interaction with people who are elders or occupy important social positions. Therefore, schooling and education play an important role in the long-term physical, mental, social and psychological development of the children to ensure that they do not select any path or engage in any activities that they may regret in the coming years of their live (Holt, 1975, pp. 376-379). An important aspect of the entire education and schooling activity is the pre-schooling that has been focused greatly over the past few years. Some studies have found that schooling and education may contribute to a good childhood and even better future in an indirect way through reinforcement and belief from the side of parents (Corsaro, 2005, p 20; Blatchfor and Sylva, 2009, pp. 76-79). A study conducted in the year 1982 with more than 2000 preschool graduates revealed that preschool graduates were less likely to go to special education or fail in class and not move forward into the next grade. This study, which tracked these children to their age of 19, showed that preschool gradates were more likely to give achievement related answers to questions where they were asked if they have done something that makes them proud of themselves. More importantly, through this period, mothers of these children were also extremely optimistic about their children and felt proud to talk about the achievements of their child. The mothers express great satisfaction with the future of the child, more importantly, even after adjusting for the actual performance gap between these children (Blatchfor and Sylva, 2009, pp. 76-79). The researchers concluded that children that attended preschool or even continued education and schooling in the latter years changed their entire family environment into and achievement oriented one. These parents, especially mothers, expected a lot from their children and in order to ensure that they play their role, they were more likely to put in more effort as compared to mothers whose children who did not attend preschool (Heywood, 2001, pp. 241-243). These mothers would read stories to their children, pay more attention to their sleeping and eating habits, attend their meetings, review their progress, keep an eye on their diet and introduce their children with more pride amongst friends and relatives this boosting the confidence of these children (Follari, 2010, pp. 136-138). The research concluded that early education plus an important role in making children from passive learners to active learners. The mutual reinforcement processes between the parents and their children inspires children to go out of the way to fulfil the expectations of their parents. In fact, it is an upward spiral of cognitive development where higher motivation to learn creates more support from parents that in turn increases the motivation to learn and so on (Waller, 2009, pp. 52-54). After preschools, the next step in the educational life of any child is of primary education. Experimental designs to research the impact of early childhood education, nursery and pre-schooling program were comparatively simple because two to three decades back, not all parents were passionate about putting their children to school or any such learning place at a very young age. In fact, the idea was that distancing children from themselves at such a small age would lead to nothing but problems for the children. However, that concept has now changed. Even at that time, universal enrolment of children in primary schools in developed countries, through private or government support, made it difficult for the researchers to come up with control groups for comparing. Therefore, they had to come up with innovative ways assess the impact of education and schooling (Blatchfor and Sylva, 2009, pp. 76-79; Hoyles, 1989, pp. 274-275). One of them was to compare the learning rates of children during their schooling months and the weeks during which they enjoyed vacations. A longitudinal study targeting almost 4866 students in 42 different Atlanta schools found out that rates of learning and degree of cognitive development were higher during the school months. In addition, factors such as socioeconomic development and access to library were also influential in determining the learning rates during school and non-school months (Qvortrup, 1994, 81-86). Another way to assess the role of schooling and education in children’s lives and future is to compare different schools and their relative impact on the abilities of their students. By looking the impact of schools on specific areas of development, one can have an idea about the impact that schooling in general can have on the development of children. A long list of studies proves that different schools might have different developmental impacts, both good and bad, on children from varied socioeconomic background (Qvortrup, 1994, 81-86). However, the same evidence also suggests that certain “good” may have better influence on children’s development belonging to all socioeconomic classes. Furthermore, these studies aim to explore the value added component in children’s overall development. This is important because all schools prefer to take children within a specified limit of IQ scores, preschool performance, parent’s socioeconomic background and other achievements. Therefore, for a viable research design, one needs to consider the level of development of children before their admission and once they complete their primary level education (Mayall, 2002, pp. 66-67). Two large studies within Britain were conducted in this regard, that shows the importance of schools on childhood development. The first study targeted the progress of 300 children belonging from 33 different schools that were between the ages of 8-11. The second study followed 2000 children from 50 different schools that fell between the age group of 11-15. After the comprehensive research, the research found out that average progress of students is likely to be influenced by background factors but more due to school related factors (Bath, 2009, pp. 85-86). Another research conducted in this regard claimed that almost 83 percent of variance in the scores of children could be explained through school related factors and the rest links with the family background of the child. Therefore, this once again reinforces the point that schooling and children has power to impact majority of the variables that define a good childhood and contribute to child’s well being (Scraton, 1997, p. 267). The Good Childhood Report 2012, based on the study spanning over six years, conducted interviews with over 30000 children in the UK between the ages of 8-16 aiming to explore their well being. The study concluded that over half a million children that is 9 percent, in the United Kingdom are unhappy with their lives which results in their low well-being. The study measured happiness and well being which ultimately leads to “good childhood” through questions relating to ten areas. These were family, home, money and possessions, friendships, school, health, appearance, time use, choice and autonomy and future (Mayall, 2002, pp. 66-67). Quite clearly, not only school and education is one of the areas that directly affects the well being of a child but one can easily identify five other areas out of the remaining nine which education and schooling could influence. First, as mentioned earlier that school going children and especially the ones that perform well in their educational careers are more likely to inspire their parents, make them proud, force them to deeply bond and associate them to the child thus improving the relationships that have room for improvement (Corsaro, 2005, p 20). Second, school going children have more time, opportunity and ability to bond with children of similar age and from both genders thus providing them with a healthy circle of friends. These friendships provide good and positive company to these children and at the same time, keep them away from making friends from the streets or neighbourhoods that may not be healthy for them in the long term. Third, school going and educated children have a routine that they follow even during their meals and food intake (Hoyles, 1989, pp. 274-275). They know better about nutrition, balanced diets and unhealthy foods. These children engage in physical exercises that keep them fit. Therefore, school going children are more like to have better health and educated children are more likely to put in more effort to ensure their good health given the fact that they comprehend better the hazards of bad health. Fourth, as mentioned earlier as well that schooling and education, both consciously and subconsciously is constantly teaching the children about time management and efficiency (Corsaro, 2010, pp. 286-288). Therefore, they feel better about how they are using their time in every aspect of their life. Fifth, well-educated children are always optimistic about their future compared with other children (adjusted for differences in economic environment). They know that they would not sleep hungry because they have talents and skills that many other might not have. Therefore, one again, the point here is that education and schooling, could be the biggest contributor to the well-being of any child (Heywood, 2001, pp. 241-243). Rinaldi (2005) makes an interesting point, also made by many other authors regarding the perceptions of children by the society (p. 52). She believes that whenever we, consciously or subconsciously, attempt to answer the question about “image of the child”, we end up making a political and pedagogical choice. Image is based on interpretation and interpretation is always subjective. What kind of a child do you want to see? Even seeing is a subjective activity. Therefore, the fact is that, childhood and children are not passive subjects. Children should not be seen as merely reacting to the stimuli presented to them but they engage in a dialogue or a process of mutual process of influencing the social variables and being influenced by the social variables (Follari, 2010, pp. 136-138; James and Prout, 1997, pp. 21-23). The perspectives about children differ in different areas of the world. For example, in the western world and developed countries, the public and even the learned see children as a manifestation of innocence, immaturity, purity and asexuality. However, in slumps of India, rural areas of South America and war torn regions of Africa, people might see childhood and children differently. In fact, cultural factors and even situational and environmental factors such as an economic recession or boom may affect the triangle of children, schooling and education (Waller, 2009, pp. 52-54). This new paradigm or perspective has created a new responsibility on the school administrators and the stakeholders of our educational systems. They now need to understand that their interaction with children is not merely a one way process where they influence the thought processes of children but it is also the other way around (Mayall, 2002, pp. 66-67). Furthermore, as the rule of biological factors receive lesser attention, school and educational pundits will now have to face all the blame from parents and other stakeholders in terms of development of children. In addition, another shift in perspective of children, to which schools and educationalists will have to respond, is the view of children (Moss and Petrie, 2002, p. 196). Back in the 1960s and 1970s, when the sociology of children was still a new field and area of study, the view that children are weak, dependent, ignorant, foolish, unreliable and immature was widely accepted (James and Prout, 1997, pp. 21-23). However, over the years and especially through the last decade or so, the view that children can be equally challenging, stable, reliable, rational and capable is gaining momentum. More and more researchers now believe that the prime reason why this notion got prominence in the first place was the fact that men wanted to keep the above-mentioned qualities of experience, dependence, maturity and capability to themselves in order to maintain power and control (James and James, 2004, pp. 38-39). However, now that more and more evidence is suggesting, schools have to adapt to the same. Education, a few decades back, was about training, learning and exchanging, today, it has to become a process of empowerment and mutuality (Bath, 2009, pp. 85-86). Moreover, the advent of new gadgets and technological advancements create unique challenges for school and educational systems and somehow, decrease their influence over children. Children now consider Wikipedia or Google as more reliable than their teachers and the child might be in class physically but with his phone, he or she may be connected with the world. The challenge for schools is to integrate these technological advancements into the educational system in a way to create harmony and not conflict (Waller, 2009, pp. 52-54). Conclusion There are no doubts in the fact that education and schooling plays an important role in the development of child and his or her entire life. In fact, the evidence suggests that the degree of importance assigned to education and schooling is underestimated and underrated. The influence of education and schooling does not influence only the childhood of people but it goes on to define their entire life. This was the reason why American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize” (Scraton, 1997, p. 267). Furthermore, it is almost impossible to take a universal approach in schooling and education. All children are not the same and the way their childhood phase will go, is most likely to be determined by factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, culture and others. This is what is most likely to shape their childhood and schools and educational institutions can either two ways. First, accept the powerful influence of these variables and amend their approaches for different children accordingly. Second, ensure that the schooling system and educational variables in it become so powerful that they could phase out these differences and create a common more commonality in childhood (Moss and Petrie, 2002, p. 196). References Bath, Caroline. 2009. Learning to belong: exploring young children's participation at the start of school. Taylor and Francis. Blatchfor, Siraj., and Sylva, Kathy. 2009. 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