Page 439 - Sociology and You

Section 4
Chapter 12 Education 409 Symbolic Interactionism
Key Terms
• hidden curriculum • self-fulfilling prophecy
The Hidden Curriculum
Symbolic interactionists are very interested in how schools transmit cul- ture through the socialization process. Besides teachers and textbooks, which we will discuss later, the most important agent of this socialization
process is the hidden curriculum. Modern society places considerable em- phasis on the verbal, mathematical, and writing skills an adult needs to ob- tain a job, read a newspaper, balance a checkbook, and compute income taxes. However, schools teach much more than these basic academic skills. They also transmit to children a variety of values, norms, beliefs, and attitudes.
Section
Preview
Preview
Symbolic interactionists emphasize the socializa- tion that occurs in schools. Through the hidden curricu- lum, children are taught val- ues, norms, beliefs, and attitudes. Much of this social- ization helps young people make the transition from home to the larger society.
What is the hidden curriculum?
The hidden curriculum is the nonacademic agenda that teaches children norms and values such as discipline, order, cooperativeness, and conformity. These citizenship skills are thought to be necessary for success in modern bureaucratic soci- ety, whether one becomes a doctor, a college president, a computer pro- grammer, or an assembly-line worker. Over the years, schools, for example, socialize children for the transition from their closely knit, cooperative families to the loosely knit, competi- tive adult occupational world. The school provides systematic practice for children to operate independently in the pursuit of personal and acade- mic achievement. The values of conformity and achievement are em- phasized through individual testing and grading. Because teachers evalu- ate young people as students, not as relatives, friends, or equals, stu- dents participate in a model for future secondary relationships— employer-employee; salesperson- customer; lawyer-client.
hidden curriculum
the nonacademic agenda that teaches discipline, order, cooperativeness, and conformity
Fire drills teach safety procedures, but they also reinforce the importance of obedience and cooperation, part of the school system’s hidden agenda.