Introductory Notes

Class,

Here are the notes for "Critical Thinking" and the "Sociological Approach."

WARNING: CRITICAL THINKING AHEAD

Over the past few years I have found myself frustrated with teaching social problem classes. It seemed like I covered important issues, but found my students bored or uninterested in much of the material.

In an effort to energize the students in Social Problems, the department has chosen to use John J. Macionis' Social Problems. This text does not define and describe as much as it attempts to look behind the typical expectations associated with social problems. As the essentialists would contend, our text attempt to look past observable society, the descriptive level, to the causal level, which is often abstract and difficult to understand.

Students may find some of the material in this text highly controversial. They may, in fact, vehemently disagree with some of the points raised. This is GOOD! You don’t have to agree with the material. This, after all, is only a perspective - a way at looking at the social world - and we all have different and conflicting perspectives. I would hope that, in the process, students share their points of view. I would also hope that students will be open to understanding the perspectives encountered. There are seldom right or wrong answers in Sociology - only perspectives. The trick in a class like this one is to be open to multiple perspectives.

THE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH: SOME INITIAL OBSERVATIONS

We are what we study. The student should realize that we are participants in what we study. To investigate a social problem is to become involved. We cannot be objective like the natural scientists. People create reality as they interact in society. To study a phenomenon is to alter it.

Bias is a preference or an inclination for something. Bias can inhibit impartial judgment. Realizing that we have biases is important. We have feelings and values that determine what we study. However, once we have acknowledged our biases, we cannot only report facts that we discover that support our point of view.

The study of social problems cannot be value-free. Defining the problem to be investigated allows subjectivity to creep in. To identify a phenomenon as a problem implies that it falls short of some standard.

The sociological imagination refers to the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society. As opposed to looking at isolated events by themselves, the student of social problems is encouraged to look at social problems in relation to other aspects of society.

TOWARD A DEFINITION OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Some sociologists argue that we can judge some social problems objectively. Some social conditions are detrimental in any situation. There are conditions in society such as racism, poverty and sexism that cause material or psychological suffering for parts of the population. They prevent members of society from developing and using their full potential.

A requirement of the sociological approach to the study of social problems is that the student adapts a critical stance. It is important to note at this point that to use a critical approach is not necessarily to criticize. The critical approach calls into question existing myths, stereotypes and official dogma.

Social research is always political. There is a tendency to judge only that research that challenges the system as political. Often we hear the charge of BIAS directed only against research that finds fault with the system on behalf of the powerless. We must not automatically accept only those definitions that define social problems from the point of view of those in power.

People in power control the mass media and, therefore, control public opinion. Often relevant issues are defined by those who wield power through the media. Problems arise when the powerful, through the media, set the agenda.

1. The media may overlook conditions that are detrimental to powerless segments of society.

2. It diverts attention from what may constitute the most important social issues.

3. Attention may be diverted to specific social instances and away from the cause of many social problems.

Examples:

1. We study the criminal instead of the law or the prison system that tends to perpetuate crime.

2. We explore the culture of the poor rather than the characteristics of the rich.

3. We study the pathologies of the students rather than the inadequacies of higher education.

NORM VIOLATIONS

Norm violations assume that a standard of behavior exists. People who study norm violations are interested in society’s failures like the criminal, the mentally ill, or the school dropout. Norm violations are symptoms of social problems rather than the problem itself. Deviants, for example, are victims and should not be blamed entirely. The system in which they live should be blamed as well. Often, when one attempts to understand deviance, they will look at characteristics of the individual to explain deviance. The source of deviance is found within the social structure. Society plays a role in creating and sustaining deviance by labeling those viewed as abnormal.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AS THE BASIC UNIT OF ANALYSIS

There is a strong tendency to blame social problems on the individual rather than on the social. For most people, the system has an aura of sacredness because of traditions and customs they associate with the system. Logically, those who deviate are the source of trouble. Because most people view themselves as law abiding, they feel those who deviate do so because of some kind of unusual circumstance: accidents, illness, personal defect or character flaw. The flaw then depends on the deviant not of societal arrangements. For example, a person-blamer may argue that a poor person is poor because he is not bright enough to succeed. In other words the deviant is the cause of his own problem.

There are consequences for blaming the individual for his own deviance.

1. Person-blame distracts attention away from institutions. It frees the government, economy and the education system from blame and ignores the strains that are caused by the inequalities within the system.

2. Person-blame makes it more difficult to institute systematic change. By excluding the existing order from blame it makes it only much harder to initiate change in economic, social, or political institutions.

3. Blaming the individual allows the government to control dissidents more easily. Deviants are sent to prisons or hospitals for rehabilitation. Such an approach directs attention away from the system.

4. Person-blame reinforces stereotypes. It tends to argue that people are placed in the system according to their ability or inability.

Sometimes individuals are the problem. Blaming the system also presents problems for social scientists as well. The system-blame approach may absolve individuals from responsibility for their actions. For example, when a robber breaks into your house, damn the problems with the system. You have problems with that particular individual.

Blaming the system tends to assume a very rigid dogmatic approach to understanding society. It tends to present a picture that people have no free will.

I tend to use the system-blame approach for a couple of reasons.

1. Sociology is concerned with societal issues and society’s institutional framework is responsible for creating many social problems.

2. Since institutions are human creations, we should change them when they no longer serve the will of the people. Accepting the system-blame approach is a necessary precondition to reconstructing society along more human needs.

Prof. Mike

Education

Class,

One problem with our educational system is conformity. Please watch the following video by Harry Chapin about conformity in our school system.





What do you think?

EDUCATION

"The cost of tuition is the price of admission to much more than a set of classes.... it’s the cost of exposure to events and concepts and, if you’re lucky, people who inspire you." ---- Rebecca Shirley

I. The American Educational Institution Education is the social institution that is responsible for transmitting knowledge, skills, and cultural values in a formally organized structure.

II. Sociological Perspectives on Education

A. Functionalist Perspectives

1. Manifest Functions a. Socialization From kindergarten through college schools teach students the student-roles, specific academic subjects, and political socialization (e.g., the importance of the democratic process)

a. Transmission of culture Schools transmit cultural norms and values to each new generation. It plays, as well, an important process in the assimilation of new immigrants. Immigrants learn the dominant cultural vales, attitudes, and behaviors so that they can be productive members in their new society.

b. Social Control Schools are responsible for teaching discipline, respect, obedience, punctuality, and perseverance. They teach conformity by teaching young people to be good students, conscientious future workers, and law abiders.

c. Social Placement: Tracking Schools are responsible for identifying the most qualified people to fill advanced positions in society. Schools often channel students into programs based on their ability and academic achievement. Graduates receive appropriate credentials for entering the paid work force. Tracking is the assigning students to specific courses and educational programs based on their test scores, previous grades, or both.

d. Change and Innovation Schools are sources of change and innovation. To meet student needs at a given time, new programs (such as AIDs education, computer education, and multicultural education are created. College and university faculty are expected to conduct research and publish new knowledge that benefits the overall society. A major goal of education is to reduce social problems.

2. Latent Functions Latent functions are the not-so-obvious functions associated with education. Some examples are the role schools play in keeping young people off the streets. School also provides the service of matchmaking. We often meet our future mates in school. The transmission of cultural values and norms is often done quietly via the hidden curriculum.

a. Cultural Capital Cultural capital are social assets such as values, beliefs, attitudes, and competencies in language and culture that they learn at home, but which are reinforced in school.

b. Hidden Curriculum The hidden curriculum is the way certain cultural values and attitudes, such as conformity and obedience to authority, are transmitted through implied demands in the everyday rules and routines of schools.

B. Conflict Perspective

1. Local Control of Schools: We finance most education in the US on a local level. We guard local control of schools "jealously." Local school boards have control over such matters as allocation of monies, curricular content, school rules, and hiring and firing policies. One positive benefit of locally based education is that we teach a greater diversity of material to the population at large. Problems related to extreme local control of schools may include the following:
· Tax bases vary from community to community. The tax base influences the quality of education provided to local students.
· Local taxes are much more subject to tax revolts than taxes assessed by higher levels of government.
· Usually ruling bodies of school boards are not representative of the total community. They often represent business and professional interests and under represent blue-collar and minority interests.
· Curriculum standards vary from school districts to school districts. This causes problems to many because the average American moves about once every five years.

2. Education as a Conserving Force. The American education system as conservative because its goal is the maintenance and preservation of culture and society. In school, we teach one to be patriotic. We teach one the myths of the culture and society. "The American way is the only really right way." Example: "Politics of the Classroom." Seldom are students taught to consider the viability of alternate approaches. How often have you been taught about Karl Marx and world government in High school? When we raise controversial subjects, pressure is brought to bear to rectify the situation. The consequence of that activity is to limit creativity and questioning attitudes of students.

3. Competition Schools teach one to be competitive. Competition extends to virtually all school activities. We see competition in athletic teams, cheer leading squads, debate teams, choruses, drill teams, bands, and casts for dramatic plays. Grading is obviously one component of the competition. There are two important "hidden lessons" embedded in such competition. The first lesson is the idea that "your class mates are your enemies" and the second is "the fear of failure."

4. The Sifting and Sorting Functions of Schools: Cooling Out the Failures Schools plays an important part in determining which youth will finally come to occupy high-status positions in society. There are two criteria: a child's ability and his or her social class. The aspect related to ability is assumed. The ascribed status, one's social class, is more hidden, but none-the-less plays a major role in the way teachers relate to a child.

a. Cooling Out The classroom is not only an area where students "learn to succeed," they also learn how to fail. "Cooling-out" refers to the process where schools handle "the failures." Society does not want a group of disenchanted and rejected people running the streets waging revolution against the system that rejected them. Citizens must not identify the social system with the problems experienced by ordinary people. The blame has to be directed at the individual.

b. Steps in the Cooling-Out Process Cooling-out happens at various levels.

1. Self Selection Many students do not even have to be cooled-out, because they learned at an early age "that they were stupid." Many failures cannot wait to get as far away from school as possible. They experience complete alienation.

2. The Ideology of Stupidity For those who need a little cooling-out, one often uses ideology, individualism, and equal opportunity. Schools teach students that people make their own way up the latter of success based on their own abilities. If you do not make it, it is your own fault. The individual is to blame.

3. The School Counselor For those whom ideological messages do not convince, there is the school counselor. Counselors will direct you to areas that are "more suited to your abilities." The counselor may say to a student "You will be happier doing something else."

4. Look at Those Who Passed Another technique used in "cooling-out" poor students who came from lower SES's is to point to members from that student's particular group who have made it. Obviously many have made it, but their numbers are few. The act of allowing some members of poor populations to "pass" may do a great deal to keep the lid on social revolution on a more general scale.

5. The Preoccupation with Order and Control Another function of school is to instill a sense of order and control. "School is a collective experience requiring subordination of individual needs to those of the school."

a. The Clock and the Tyranny of the Schedule Among the constraints placed on the individual freedom are constraints related to "the clock." Activities begin and end on highly regimented schedules and no one addresses these activities according to the interest of the student or the learning obtained. This is called "the tyranny of the lesson plan." There is a preoccupation with discipline.

b. The Dress Code The quest for conformity may take the form of "dress codes." Example: Dress Codes in the Inner City. Dress codes are coming back into vogue in some school districts, but the conformity that this involves is welcome by many. In poor neighborhoods, competition (drug monies enhance this problem) has become so extreme that children are killing children in school over arguments involving who has the "badest threads." By requiring children to wear uniforms, schools hope to remove this element of competition."

c. Give the Answer the Teacher Expects Schools also teach conformity through more academic matters, such as the setting of margins. The student learns to answer questions about what teachers expects. The belief in order is so important that schools rate teachers, not on their ability to get students to learn, but on their ability to keep quiet and order in the class room.

d. What You Remember and What You Forget Maintaining discipline is more important than student self-inquiry. Schools see learning to be a secondary consideration when compared with the order and social control aspects of education. The notion presented suggests that after 12 years of school, many students have forgotten how to do algebra, they have learned to hate literature, and they cannot write. Nevertheless, students can follow orders. They give up expecting things to make sense . . . things are true because the teacher says they are true. Miss Wiedemeyer tells you a noun is a person, place or thing. So, let it be. You do not give a rat's ass and she does not give a rat's ass. The important thing is to please her. Back in Kindergarten, you found out that teachers only love children that stand in nice straight lines. And that's where it's been ever since.

III. Problems in U.S. Education

A. What Can Be Done About Illiteracy?

1. Functionally illiterate is being unable to read and/or write at the skill level necessary for carrying out everyday tasks.

Notes on Wealth and Power is next.

Prof. Mike