Sometimes it is said that childhood is the most perfect period of a human life. During this period a person gathers different characteristically traits and attributes which develop inside the person and ultimately shapes his character. From the perspective of developmental psychology, childhood is a stage which is promptly divided into four divisions, “toddler, early childhood, middle or school childhood and finally, the adolescence” (Johnson 2009), which is medically termed as the post-puberty age.
A lot of childhood activities, especially the last two stages and obviously the two longer phases are spent in the classroom for a child. It is said that the atmosphere of schooling and the subsequent activities that come along with schooling forms the basic professional outlook of a child and later as he or she grows up, it gathers inputs from other sources too (Bond 2007). It is rightly said that “childhood is a complex conception with multiple of variables” (Johnson 2009) and it definitely has an impact on the child’s education process. Let us look at the different atmospheres that a child faces and how it affects their conception on education. The family provides the most important influence on the character and the child’s capability to respond to education, along with the atmosphere he grows up. His circle of friends, relatives and their attitude towards education will also “influence his outlook in a very large scale too” (Furlong 2009).
In modern schooling process, all the factors are considered before providing a child with education. More over, with the development of behavioral psychology, “the teachers and counselors try to find out what is the real interest of the child”, (Johnson 2009) and try to mould him according to his wishes. This is a very effective way of teaching and this is very different from the conventional ways of schooling, where every one was made to study the same syllabus and examinations were conducted on the basic of the syllabus (Furlong 2009). If a person looks around himself then he will clearly see that the society is made of different classes of people and there are children from all the spheres. According to the economic condition of the family, the children get enrolled to private or public schools. As they go to the schools they also try to adopt with the atmosphere of the school and mix up with fellow students, “learn from the teachers and all of these aspects ultimately broaden their perspective of life” (Furlong 2009).
The basic aspects to classroom teaching have basically not changed in recent times, but the processes in which the teachers teach have been changed with the change of time. We are now in the age of computers and it is becoming an essential part of our life, so from a very tender age the children are learning to use the computers, which is a great difference. Earlier, the students used to learn computers when they became mature enough, but now “it is an integral part of Pre School learning too” (Bond 2007).
Socio-cultural theories often say that the most important part of a life is the childhood and it is definitely true. We can add in the theory that the most important part of childhood is the schooling of the child and the subsequent guidance that the child gets from his family and other guardians. Eventually, the impact of the society on the child is the most (Pojman 2003). So, we can say that along with classroom training the society plays a very important part in shaping the future of the children that resides into it.
Reference list
Bond, B., 2007. Principals and school resource officers: Defining roles. Principal Leadership, 1 (8), pp. 52-55.
Furlong, M., 2009. Development of the California school climate and safety survey-short form. Psychology in the Schools, 42 (2), pp. 137-149.
Johnson, S., 2009. Improving the School Environment to Reduce School Violence. Journal of School Health, 79 (10), pp. 451-465.
Pojman, L., 2003. The Theory of knowledge: classical and contemporary readings. London: Wadsworth Pub. Co.