Education As the Most Powerful Agent of Political Socialization

Assess the view that the Education system is the most powerful agent of political socialisation.

Socialisation is learning the customs, attitudes, and values of a social group, community, or culture. Socialisation is essential for the development of individuals who can participate and function within their societies, as well as for ensuring that a society's cultural features will be carried on through new generations. Socialisation is most strongly enforced by family, school, and peer groups and continues throughout an individual's lifetime.

Education Systems differ from country to country. In most of the western world there are three levels of education, primary, secondary and higher. The contemporary goal of British, American and Irish Education is to help children fit into a technological, hierarchal, yet democratic society. Schools are recognized as institutions, ones that should prepare students to take their places in society. Schools are believed to give young people the ability to develop skills and acquire knowledge so that they can survive on their own in the future. The very structure of today’s schools and the messages that they send to children are seen as training for future employment. Students learn to form momentary social relationships, accept categorical treatment, and loose their personal identities. Students move through the school in an orderly fashion, follow precise directions, and learn information that they will be tested on. However, schools should not only be a place where children learn skills that make them employable in the workforce. People are more than just workers- they are parents, citizens, neighbours, and individuals with private goals and desires. It is the role of public education to see that children develop the abilities for all of these roles. They should foster an environment that promotes individual interests and a quest for knowledge. Public education often overlooks the way that children learn best, and they often try to teach students according to national goals and standards.

Webster defines education as "the action or process of educating or being educated". The educational system must help all individuals fulfill their needs and reach their fullest potential. This process helps learners acquire the skill of learning by enhancing their ability to inquire, postulate, reason, make decisions, prob...

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...queens on television, adults and adolescents views on gender roles have been challenged.

Peer groups are also a very strong agent of political education. The adolescent struggles with being a part of a group and being themselves. Peer groups usually consist of people of similar ages and social status.

In conclusion it is fair to say that the education system plays a major role and is one of the most powerful agents of political socialisation. We learn most when we are young children, in the very first year of a child’s life it learns the most important and difficult task it will ever do, it learns to speak. Children are like sponges they absorb everything that goes on around them and from childhood to adolescence the majority of their time is spent in some form of education so of course it will influence them socially and politically. That is why it is vital that schools promote a healthy ethos and create an environment in which children can learn and grow physically and spiritually as well as mentally. Education should not just be aimed at producing adults that are qualified to fulfil a certain role but should be to produce good citizens with healthy values, morals and beliefs.