Those who have read any of my previous articles will know that I try to address issues of social concern in Cambodia. As a police officer, I am often the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. If we genuinely want ...Read more
Those who have read any of my previous articles will know that I try to address issues of social concern in Cambodia. As a police officer, I am often the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
If we genuinely want to address the issues of crime in our society, we need to address the root causes. The causes are almost always found in childhood, particularly when the social environment is heavily emphasized. Socialization is a term we all need to understand and acknowledge. Even if we don’t have children, we should question our roles in the socialization process as adults.
A simple definition of socialization can be explained as follows. Socialization is how individuals learn and adopt the norms, values, behaviors, and social skills appropriate to their society. It is a lifelong process that starts in childhood and continues throughout a person’s life, influencing their development and integration into their community. Socialization occurs through various agents and mechanisms:
First is family, the primary agent of socialization, where individuals learn about social norms, values, and behaviors. Second is school, which provides formal education and teaches social skills, discipline, and cultural norms. Third is peer groups. This involves influencing behaviors, attitudes, and social skills through interactions with friends and colleagues. Another one is mass media. This imparts cultural norms, values, and knowledge through television, the internet, books, and other forms of media. Second to last is workplaces. The workplace reinforces professional norms, values, and behaviors specific to occupational roles. Lastly, it is religious Institutions. These institutions impart moral values, ethical behaviors, and community norms.
Below, I will try to explain in detail how each point influences individuals. First, as adults, family and schools are perhaps the areas where we can have the most influence.
Within our families, we need to make a special effort to appreciate how our actions affect the next generation. If a child goes off the rails, rather than blame the child, we need to consider where we might have failed. No one can be the perfect parent; all we can do is try our best and not let our imperfections stand in the way of raising the best child we can.
Cambodia has made tremendous strides in the schooling of the young. Indeed, many more developed nations have far more issues with the behavior of children attending schools than Cambodia does. Most Cambodian children are very keen to learn. We must not allow ourselves to fail where other nations are failing. As parents, we can play a supporting role in school activities. A teacher’s lot is not always easy, so anything we can do to support the school and its staff has a payback to us in creating a better society we are a part of.
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