6 An Introduction to Clearer Thinkingaffected by those cultural guideposts and they tend to affect our
attitudes.
The importance of the school as a transmitter of attitudes can
not be overstated. Obviously some of the most basic values are
learned in the classroom as a part of the curriculum. In addition,
the school inculcates values and thus creates attitudes as a result
of the lessons taught by the organization of the school, the
structure of the system, and the attitudes of the teachers.
The organization of the public schools in America is based,
generally, on a September to June school year, with the better
part of a youngster’s day spent in the school. The system is so
organized that virtually every child spends thirteen years of his
life from age five to eighteen in this environment. Holidays are
structured around traditional celebrations: Thanksgiving, Christ
mas, Easter and other assorted religious, political, and ethnic
holidays. At a very early age children learn that not all days are
the same, some are special. The repetition of these celebrations
year after year affects how students define the values of society.
In school students are exposed to a life style different from the
one they experienced in the home. The school has rules, lots of
rules, formal rules; and through this system, in which the rights
and wrongs of behavior are spelled out and systems of punish
ment for violations are in place, students soon learn the meaning
of authority. They learn how formal authority operates, that there
are different levels of authority, and that the outside world works
more like the school than the home.
Many other values are encouraged simply by the mission of
the institution. Intellectual values are encouraged by teachers,
competition is encouraged by grading systems, excellence is
honored by organizations such as the National Honor Society,
and athletics are encouraged by coaches, parent groups and
newspaper coverage. And in America today, the public school
has assumed a wide range of responsibilities, from providing sex
education to testing students’ eyesight, all of which affect
students’ value systems.
Generally, in the public school there is a homogeneity of the
student population. The students come from areas close to the
school, certainly no farther away than a bus ride. This results in
a general cultural homogeneity of race, ethnic background,
parental occupation, and social status. Yet the homogeneity of