Dbq Conformity

The schooling system has become an accepted part of young education in America. Although this system creates a standard system without much deviation, it still provides children with many opportunities to develop their passions. Many people feel constricted by this set education, however, this education is the key to success later in life. The skills learned not only academically, but how to behave in a scheduled environment, guide children to behave correctly throughout their lives. The schooling system uses ideas of conformity to make children value the idea of working together while still gaining an abundance of knowledge. One of the main concerns with the world’s focus on a schedule is that children will be bored in their set ways. John

Conformity, however, does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. As stated by Neil Postman, “You cannot have a democratic -- indeed, civilized -- community life unless people have learned to participate in a disciplined way as part of a group (Source D).” Children have to be put in a structured system that forces them to do things that they are not interested in if they want to learn how to work together. As seen in the student expectations, in the real world people are expected to behave in certain mainstream manners, and this behavior has to be taught from a young age (Source G). When put in an environment where children are uncomfortable and forced to behave a certain way or do something they might not like, they are forced to learn how to deal with it. As seen in Source F, some of the children look slightly uncomfortable with having to sing all together. However, this broadens the child’s horizons to something they might have never tried and also teaches them how to participate in an activity in groups. Working in groups not only teaches conformity, but it als teaches individuality because each person bring something special to the group. The school system teaches both these values to children, and by going to one extreme you lose out on the