A stable and harmonious society is constituted on the foundation of moral consensus on, for instance, life, liberty and possession, all of which call for education of socialization. And actually, education, defined by both Plato and Rousseau, aims at a just society with strongly shared values. Based on such truth, some people draw a hasty conclusion that the future of our society depends on how children are socialized. However, socialization, although important, is not decisive factor, and fortunately most citizens, realizing this point, learn how to bring up their children who can help creating a more promising society.
Admittedly, socialization always plays an important role in maintaining a stable environment and circumstance in our life in contemporary society by effacing contradictive conceptions. With socialization, we avoid culture conflicts which originate from various customs and relives in great extent; with socialization, we enjoy society harmony where we share thoughts with others without ideology gulf; with socialization, we taste the civilization where the sound ethics are protected and criminal behaviors castigated.
However, different from stability, the development, which is determined by such as innovation, human nature etc, of the society is out of the scope of socialization if not impaired. For instance, innovation--the milestone of development of science and technology--identifies itself by breaking the traditional conceptions which is, on the contrary, socialization wants to reserve. To illustrate this, one only need to look no further than Darwin who, breaking the bondage of religion believes which maintain the social stability at that time, initiated the researches of the origin of human beings and actually the later researches of gene.
Human nature contributes to the future of society as well. Not like nurture, “nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.” (Cited from <<Of Nature in Men >>) We are born guided by nature to fight for justice and freedom, and to disgust evil and dissimulation, making the society progress. That is what encourages James Meredith-- the first African-American to be admitted to Ole Miss in 1962—striding with his fateful step onto the then-segregated campus—defying a violent, angry mob and protected by the National Guard. And that is what endows Mahatma Gandhi strength to lead the independence of India by nonviolent movements. What they were doing then defied the social consensus, however now proved to be great significative milestone in the history of human beings’ fighting for freedom and democracy. In a word, socialization preserves social stability rather than social improvement.
That is what encourages James Meredith—the first Afican-American admitted to Ole Miss in 1962—to stride with his fateful step into the then-segregated campus, defying a violent, angry mob. And that is what endows Mahatma Gandhi strength to lead the independence of India by nonviolent movements. What they were doing them both defied the social consensus, however, now proved to be great significant milestone in the history of human being’s fighting for freedom and democracy. In a word, socialization preserves social stability and more often than not impede the process of progress.
Finally, as mentioned above, traditional education is actually a process which ensures individuals’ behavior follow the rules represented, for example, by cultural frameworks, communication systems or value systems. Based on this, we add new conceptions into such traditional education--such as encouragement in innovation, concept of cooperation and competition—to adapt the rapid development of our society and build the modern system of education in contemporary society, in which children who can create a more promising world are brought up properly. Cooperation and competition, as we can see, those are words looming in every child’s mind, instructing and guiding them throughout their childhood. Through cooperation, one learns to show tolerance of different views and share thoughts with others; through competition, one learns to show determination and achieve success by innovations. The significative development of science, technology, politics, laws and economy all show the great success of the prevailing education system. In a word, we learn both socialization to maintain a stable society and competition to make an ongoing society.
In sum, how child socialized actually has little to do with the fortune of our society, and instead, factors such as innovation and human nature in fact explain the progress. As for education, the achievement we gain in the past long period makes it unassailable that what we are persisting in now is the right and helpful things for children who can maintaining a stable society and more important, an ongoing promising society. |