The Scandinavian school system educates their students by lifting pressure in academics and establishing an egalitarian school environment. But at the same time, they accentuate the importance of education and believe that it is empowering. They establish this by putting a greater emphasis on students that attempt to excel, even if at a slower pace, rather than prioritizing the ones at the top. Thus, in the Scandinavian culture, education focuses on instilling ideas of equality and collectivism in order to cultivate their students to become united and close-knit members of Scandinavian society. But the question remains: which mechanisms do the Scandinavian school system use to inform students on how to create such a cohesive community?
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It seems that generations before, this democratic type mentality did not exist. Instead Scandinavian education used to focus on prioritizing the elite. In the 1950s, compared to the 1970s, the elite were educated in private schools, even private boarding schools, in order to get them ready for the economically competitive world. This concept is portrayed in the Swedish movie, Evil (2003), where the children of the elite were praised in the boarding school, and were allowed to control the school and its students. Set in the 1950s, the movie revolves around reproducing the upper-class elite instead of focusing collectively on the students in the lower levels. Although, the teachers in the boarding school attempted to bond the students together by allowing the lowerclassmen and the upperclassmen to sit together on the lunch tables, this is not adequate to create a unified school. Thus, the individual seemed to play a greater role in the boarding school environment as opposed to the entire student body, which was portrayed and a central focus in the 1970s unity school reform …show more content…
Yet, the collectivist and egalitarian Scandinavian school system has begun to shift towards an individualistic approach. No matter how collectivist one aims to be, economic success usually occupies the mind. Especially in a peasant’s life, it is important to create economic stability, which can in turn result from being the brightest and most intelligent student inside a classroom. Since academic pressure is hard to lift once teachers begin to categorize and rank students according to their performance, some students create a tendency to overpower others. In the Norwegian classic novel, A Happy Boy, by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the protagonist, Oyvind, is a peasant who strives to excel and leave his peasant life. The story claims “that poverty hemmed him in on every side, he felt, but for that reason his whole mind was bent on breaking through it” (Bjørnson 30). Oyvind was constantly thinking about his future, it was an important mission for him to make something of himself, first by aiming to become number one in the school setting. Thus as the plotline progressed, Oyvind pushed himself to excel and outshine academically. A ranking system was established in Oyvind’s school. The schoolmaster was the one in charge of ranking the entire student body by numbers according to their performance. The schoolmaster assigned each
Through his eyes, he has experienced two very different worlds which are to be much alike in expectations and attitudes. However, this being not the case, it leads me to question how much the psychological and social effects of being in a remedial class weight on the minds of the adolescent. It is interesting to me that the expectations were so vastly different in a world where we teach our young minds that anyone can achieve with enough effort. Effort itself, was not pressed in the lower classes (or at least not expected, let alone strived for), and thus, students suffered from the psychological effects of being placed in a class in which they felt intellectually inferior to those who were in a higher stratum of
Juveniles are being taught that in order to have a nice car, branded cloths and the house of their dreams, by getting into an expensive mortgage, they have to be an employee of a huge corporation. In addition, they have to undergo to a prestigious school, study hard, have excellent grades in order to become popular and respectable in the world. However, many people would not become those super leaders, but these majority of people have a great role in the capitalism society of the US. As Gatto says, “We buy televisions, and then we buy the things we see on the television. We buy computers, and then we buy the things we see on the computer. We buy $150 sneakers whether we need them or not, and when they fall apart too soon we buy another pair” (38). Such results are in part of a wrong education that teenagers have received trough many decades. In addition, Gatto highlights that modern educational system has been working in a six basic functions methods that makes the system strong and unbreakable: The adjustable function, indulge students to respect authorities. The integrating function, which builds the personality of the students as similar to each other as possible. The diagnostic and directive function, which allows a school to set permanent scholar grades in order to determinate his or her future role in society. The differentiating function, which gives to the student a good education and after his or her role is diagnosed, they prevent any educational progress. The selective function, function that the system has used to prevent academic growth for the non-selected students. The propaedeutic function, which works in the selection of specific groups of intellectual adults to keep perpetuating the system all over again making it a continuous sequence. (Gatto 34). Gatto’s facts revealed the survival of the educational system for decades,
Students today face a great deal of school-related pressure. Their parents and teachers constantly expect them to put their classes first and to do their best on all their work. However, their friends and peers sometimes put negative pressure on them, putting down people who always do well. Emily Dickinson addresses what can hold people back from achieving their best in her poem “We Never Know How High We Are,” which explains that people don’t know what they can achieve until they have a challenge before them. The majority of people then manage to rise to the occasion and achieve what they might have believed impossible. Dickinson goes on to state that what people consider heroic could actually be ordinary if people put forth their best effort. The fear of success and of standing out in a crowd holds individuals back. This poem sends the message that fear of success holds people back through
Tozer, Steve, and Guy Senese. School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Previously in class we had a lecture about education in our society. This lecture stressed the education gaps between students. These gaps were explained in the lecture by the social background of the children’s families. The article from Calarco also tries to explain these gaps by looking at the cultural background. In this paper she referred to the background differences as the cultural capital of the child. This article was very easy to relate to not only because of my own experiences going through the school system but because of the background knowledge from our class lectures.
Education is one of the cornerstones and pillars to the establishment and preservation of democracy. In history, countless scores of philosophers and political thinkers believed that only an educated citizenry can take on the quintessential task of upholding democracy. Thomas Jefferson, the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, stated that “an informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.” A renowned defender of public education, Jefferson proposed plans for an education system that included grammar schools in his presidency. As a result of these relentless policies for education, the United States expanded on the concept of public instruction through the establishment and upkeep of a practical education system. The United States continued this tradition and established a reputation as one of the best education in the world. Currently, this is no longer valid as other countries such as Finland, China, and South Korea are competing for the dominant position through rigorous reforms that aim to boost student performances (“Best Education”). Meanwhile, the American system is inefficient, inhibited by political obstacles and gridlock while Finland, the top ranked country in terms of schooling, is continuing to improve. According to the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) examinations that tested pupils across a variety of subjects such as reading, mathematics, and science of 2009, Finland’s students were ranked among the top (“PISA 2009”). The American students were ranked below average for industrialized countries in the world, revealing the reality of the educational crisis in the country. Finland’s education system, compared to the Americans, offers major differences that greatly ...
In the United States, diversity is seen all over. People relocate to North American for the opportunity to experience the “American Dream”. Business owners, investors, employees and consumers are located in the U.S. and at the same time will conduct business internationally. One of the differences that is seen in Iceland versus the United States in regards to cultural differences is their general education policy. With the four levels of education, ranging from pre-school to higher secondary stage with compulsory, at the age of 16, students that have completed the compulsory education have the opportunity to leave school.
In the breakfast club a group of 5 students have the unfortunate turnout of having Saturday detention together with a teacher most despise. If this isn’t bad enough everyone of the 5 students are completely different from one another you’ll see the jock, the pretty girl, the delinquent, the nerd, and the weird girl. In the beginning they are all not very tolerant of each other because they are not friends and don’t get along but that will change throughout the movie.
Education does not only alter the mindset of the individual child, or all of the youth but the entire social construct due to interaction. Therefore, education can be viewed as a form of social control (Kunzer,
Scandinavia is a vast region with many musical traditions and practices. Although Scandinavian music has very traditional roots, a large amount of modern music has also come out of this region; much of which was influenced by traditional music and practices of the Scandinavian people. Firstly, It’s important to note that Scandinavia is comprised of a variety of countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Although these countries are in different geographical locations, they are similar in their cultures. Many of the countries in the Scandinavian region hold onto at least some of their traditional practices, and they often share common factors such as instrumentation, dancing, and vocal styles with other Scandinavian countries. Over time, most if not all of these countries have developed their traditional practices into modern ones and some have even become well known to other ethnic groups outside of Scandinavia.
Lack of access to school uniform can lead to bulling as children “don’t fit in”, so worrying class pupils are at a disadvantage. As I have stated before, on the other hand there is evidence to show that cultural factors do determine differential class attainment as well. It blames working class culture and ethnic minority culture for failure to achieve, it suggests that the reason working class and ethnic minority children fail is because their home culture is inadequate, especially in terms of parental attitudes, child rearing practices and language development. Douglas argues that working class and ethnic minority parents are less interested in there children’s education. He measured parental interest by counting the number of times parents visited schools for parents evenings etc.
... pupils allowing for egalitarianism ship in addition to lifelong learning based upon its tradition for education. One may suggest that the absence of an evaluation system in Danish primary schooling provides Danish teachers with the proficiency of pastoral duties therefore, allowing particular interest with regards to the readiness of their pupils unlike its English counterparts. Teachers in the UK are constrained through teaching the curriculum, therefore, the child’s emotional, social and cognitive development is limited to the outer environment and therefore not the responsibility of schooling unlike its Danish counterparts, which is a shared responsibility of that of the school as well as the pupil’s home life. However, both countries share relatively the same traditions of education with the exception of evaluations throughout the extent of primary schooling.
Scandinavia is a region of Northern Europe that includes Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. All the countries of Scandinavia share similar languages, are ethnically homogeneous, and are known to be punctual, honest, and modest. While each country does have its differences, they all have one major thing in common: the Nordic Model. All the Scandinavian countries are Social Democracies, which basically means that citizens pay high taxes, but in return the government provides a great deal of things to everyone. However, there is also criticism of the welfare state, with complaints ranging from people taking advantage of the system to dissatisfaction of the brutal taxation. Although the Nordic Model has its problems, the benefits and the quality of life that results from it outweighs the bad, which is shown by the prosperous Scandinavian states.
Social institutions are an important element in the structure of human societies. They provide a structure for behavior in a particular part of social life. The five major social institutions in large societies are family, education, religion, politics, and economics. While each institution does deal with a different aspect of life, they are interrelated and intersect often in the course of daily life. For example, for schools to be able to exist they rely on funding from the government. This is an intersection between politics and education. Social institutions affect individual lives through other aspects of society such as culture, socialization, social stratification, and deviance. This paper will focus on the social institution of education, and how it affects individual lives through socialization, deviance, and social stratification.
Education differs from one country to another because every country possesses its own system of education. However, it is commonly believed that Finland has the world’s best education system (Gamerman,2008). So, its education system differs in many ways from the other countries like the one in Germany. The Finnish education system consists of basic education, upper secondary and higher education (Vossensteyn,2008) whereas German education system consists of primary education, secondary education and tertiary education(Lohmar,2012). Even Though , 9-year schooling is compulsory in both countries, they differ in the types of schools, duration of the education and so on. In this paper, the similarities and differences between these two education system is going to be referred in more detail.