Dewey
argued that social influences are the “great educator” and that schools are
only a secondary agent. Social influences
are important for the children as they are exposed to a variety of context as
they grow from 0-to 5 years old and beyond.
The children come to our schools with personalities that are beginning
to experience their preference and their learning styles. The parent’ home and structure influence
greatly the child. Children that are
growing in a structure household with a caring and loving family are able to
adapt to the new changes that school present to them. Students that are part of an affluent neighborhood
received a vested amount of social influence and social experience that enrich their
life. The student is able to develop a
background knowledge that will help them to develop critical thinking and
evaluating skills. Because of the
exposure to new things in a frequent amount of time, these students receive education
and educator as a facilitator. They want
to be in control of their learning, because many times they can request how
much assistance or independent work they can do according with their
interest. In this case, education is a secondary
agent.
What
happen to those children that do not have many positives social influence?
Those children that do not have positive influence will require a different set
of teaching and caring skills that other students to teach them to be
productive at school. Those students
will need to learn social conduct that helps them interact with other students
and adults. Connection, safety, love and
emotional support help those students to belong to a group, to experience a
sense of family and to drop their affective filter toward others. When the affective filter is lower, students
are ready to learn and participate better in the learning process. But when the affective filter is higher,
students are not able to learn to their maximum potential.
Students
that come to school every day without the appropriate support at home do not have
the correct social influence. These
students have an emotional support through the television screen and the video
games (Video Games is not use as an educational tool). They arrive to their
homes after school and spend hours playing video games and watching
television. What kind of social
influence are they receiving from the television and the video games
screen? Are all those influence
re-directed and challenges? Or do they accept them as this is the way that the
world operates? These questions should
lead us to be aware of the students’ need, and then educators will target not
only the content area but the human being too.
In
conclusion, we are living times where the “great educator” is not social
influence in isolation the one that help the child to learn and become a
successful thinker and learner. Social
influence that are well directed and working together with the school are
becoming an important factor of human being/academic students’ success.
