Course 608
There the discussion's question, please write one page discussion
After reading the chapter, comment on any or all of the societal
forces facing today's youth: mass media, material consumption, violence,
poverty, changing family structures.
The first student
There are so many
societal forces facing our youth today. Our book makes several great points,
but I also feel as if it is very outdated (published in 1999). The book
discusses material consumption and mass media as a few of those social forces.
I believe that since our book was published, the past 15 years has only
intensified this problem exponentially. On page 110, our authors describe video
games, walkman, telephone, and internet as consuming children's life. Now 15
years later, all those devices are jammed into one -- a smartphone. All of
those devices and many more can fit into the pocket of a student. With the
development of facebook and twitter (and other social media sites), studets are
constantly infatuated with their online reputation and interests. What's worse
is that they are not only infatuated, but the means are widely available.
iPhones, Android phones, and Windows phones are in the majority of pockets of
our middle and high school students. If a student does not have a smartphone,
the majority of their efforts are probably to get one -- not to get an A on a
test. This is because of the social pressures of peers and the need to conform
to others.
With
all of the technological advances comes a host of problems - cyberbullying,
data theft, sexting, texting/driving, etc. It also reduces face to face
communication and social interaction. Having worked with middle school students
for the last year and a half, I have learned that the majority of the evening
time spent of a student is on facebook, texting friends, or sending
inappropriate snap chats. This, with the changing family structure (less
supervision in the evening), has led students to lose motivation for academics
and miss out on moral/philosophical growth. Their minds are not being
challenged, and the enjoyment of nature/outdoors has greatly diminished.
The
second
Todays youth are
faceting so many factors that can prevent or influence there performance in
learning. Family structure is changeling , now there are so many more single
family hopes or parents that have to both work; things such as this can greatly
effect how a child feels . Parents are finding themselves with much less time
to spend with children due to having to work more to make ends meet, this can
effect having time together and less time to work on homework and such. Also
children are exposed to much more electronics than before , this can include
video gaming and television and other distractions that will take away from the
desire to learn or study as well as having or taking time to study or doing
homework. Also the Internet is at everyones finger tips, in my opinion this
makes it way to easy to find information that is needed, children can easiy
look up answers rather than taking time to actually study or read books in
order to find information. We are living in an age of electronics and it is
making our youth lazy, parents are finding it to easy to sit a child aside with
a game and let them go and this may not necessarily be do to lack of caring but
rather just being to tired because working so much or having to multitaskings
in order to keep the household running.
The
third
There are many
societal forces facing youth. Technology has a huge influence on the youth today
and chases them everywhere. For example, a TV in the restaurant, barbershop,
coffee shop, airport; also, there is an iPad in their pocket, DVD player and
radio in the car, video game, and computer at home. Parents like to provide all
kind of technology to their children to keep them busy all the time; however,
technology plays an important role of students losing concentration and
dispersion of attention in the classroom. The technology is causing the
students to forgot how to use grammar correctly because of the use of internet
slang. In addition, several students are losing their intelligence because too
much technology use.
Poverty rate has
increased every year, and the highest percentage of the homeless is children.
Many children live below the poverty and without health insurance, which make
them become criminals and violence because they try to provide money for
themselves or to reduce the anger inside themselves; however, schools try to
help the children by providing free meal in the school and after school for
them and their family who needs food and home. Even though the school is trying
to help this is still not enough to keep the students in school and on a
positive path. I have read several stories about students dropping out of
school and selling drugs and worse.
Family
structure has changed with every generation. Many years ago, a father was
responsible to provide his family’s needs, and the
mother was responsible of the household and took care of her kids. Both parents
and their kids were grateful for their living. Today, after the problem of
price rises, one parent working is not enough to provide the family’s needs. Therefore,
both parents work to provide the best life for themselves and their kids at the
same time the kids do not get that much attention and care from their parents
which lead some children to not doing well in the school. With both parents
having to work, the children are left to become involved in illegal activities.
Additionally, some girls are starting to become mothers at younger ages due to
no parental supervision. Also, some kids are being raised without parents.
The
forth
I like the statement from our text “We cannot hold teachers and other personnel responsible for finding solutions to all the serious problems facing youth today. Teachers can, and often do, provide meaningful environments for students, but they must compete with all of the societal forces-mass media, material consumption, violence, poverty, changing family structures-that are tremendous influences on the way young people construct meaning in their worlds" (deMarrais and LeCompte, 1999, p.143. The descriptions given for The Lessons of Schooling provide us teachers with several factors that help us to identify with the children we teach. Without exceptions all fall into one category or another. In our diverse communities, our students need a opportunity to express themselves in their academic understandings, but this is also seen as a challenge in life. Not having a strong voice or enough courage, students fail to meet academic and society’s needs. Building a community that is tolerant of our differences and celebrates our achievements goes a long way in helping students break down diverse barriers. Defining the “new role” as a student does depend on how we as teachers model our solutions to problems that arise. Personally, I feel students are always watching. How do we celebrate achievements, take our losses, and keep things together when sometimes they just fall apart. We are not personally responsible but at all parts of our day we are expected to model daily solutions to problems.
The
last
Chapter 3 provides great
insight into the social development of children as indivuals as well as the
development of youth culture. The authors suggest that the terms peer group and
youth culture are 'linked terms', resulting in the need to use the terms
interchangebly and together. Children are not born with the instinct to
survive. Rather, children are formally and informally taught by watching others,
developing skills and learning through interaction. This process is called
'socialization'. Chapter 3 provides insight into the changing cultures of our
youth. Within the context of patterns of consumption, technology, cultural
survival and family structure -- children's process of socialization continues
to evolve. With the addition of compulsory school attendance, education as a
whole plays a greater role in the socialization of children than it did for
past generations. Given the exponential growth of technology, media, social
networking along with the decline of family structures -- children of today are
presented with tremendous distractions. As educators, we must remain aware of
all influences that impact our students. It is important to consider the experiences
of students within a broader context. Students are not simply what we teach in
school. Easy access to technology brings a controvesial level of 'addiction' to
social media. Stress within the student's family (poverty, divorce, violence)
will impact each student in very unique ways. For students who drop out of
school, the authors suggest that these students may have already been placed at
risk and were further forced out of societal norms by an institution that was
unwilling to provide flexibility to meet the student's needs. Moving forward,
perhaps school administrators and all stakeholders need to seek meaningful and
effective solutions to reach all students -- especially those who need some
flexibility in finding their way.
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