Social Structure (Chapter 9)

           Social Structure’s play a vital role in American Society, especially when it’s discipline revolves around education. The process of whether students succeed or fail in the education system, foresees the student’s future role in society. Our country is based on a bureaucracy, which is a large hierarchical organization governed by formal rules and regulations and having clearly specified work. Meaning, our society has a division of labor. The quality of career you receive will more likely than not, revolve around your quality of education, your work ethic, your major, and overall your GPA. The career you receive, whether it’s at the top, middle, or low end of the career spectrum will reflect your education. This is why students often suffer through the most pressure in society. We often feel that we’re already at the point, where our situation can make or break our lives. We’re not pressured to learn, but to receive our ideal grade. We now must put education at the top of our priorities. It may conflict with our everyday lives, structural needs, and what we would like to be doing, but education must come first. However, I didn’t always feel this pressure from society.

                In elementary school, I really cared less about my education. In fact, I re-call being put in the lower level reading classes. However, I didn’t feel pressure in elementary school to work hard for an education. I don't believe the social structure in elementary school explains that knowledge is the path to success. I thought elementary school was more just for fun. I actually thought people were considered lame for being intelligent. I often would fake sick and skip school, which I was never punished for by the school system, and never second guessed by my teachers. What I was really focused on was swimming, dance, and my friends. School never interfered with my interests at the time, most likely because I wasn’t putting a strong emphasis on my education. In middle school that changed. I was taking normal classes and I at least got a B in everyone. School coincided with my social life. It coincided with swim practices, because I took it right after school. I even got a part time job in the eighth grade as a swimming assistant at my middle school. I didn’t feel a lot of stress, or pressure. I felt good about my education.

                When High School came around everything began to change. The demands from my teachers became greater. The level of difficulty from my classes became higher. The homework load kept piling up as the years went on. I began taking honors courses and AP courses that just provided more work. Most importantly, in high school my work ethic became greater because I knew that college was right around the corner. I was not only heavily involved in school, but heavily involved in swim team. We were already waking up early to go to school, but my swim team had 5am morning practices. Then after school we had another 3 hours of practice. Then there was swim meets that lasted until 9pm, or sometimes later. I was also working a part time job as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. I joined clubs and became a senior stable captain, an officer of Deca, and yearbook. The social demands from my friends in high school became greater as well. During this time, I felt a great ton of pressure to succeed in everything I was doing. Most of the time, I only began taking classes and signing up for extracurricular that I thought would look good on my college application. I was often over worked, over stressed, and was on a very limited amount of sleep during this time. My social structures seemed to all conflict with one another. Teenagers require the most sleep, however we get the least, because of the times of are school schedule. We also get even less sleep, because of the hard demands social structured school sports put on high school students. It's very hard to be an athlete and an A student at the same time. However, all of this stress and hard work paid off, because I graduated from Mounds View High School with honors, and was accepted into every college that I applied, but I chose to go to Hamline University.

                There is a lot to factor in when choosing a college. The school you go to often correlates with what jobs will be available to you. I had to decide between going to the U of M, St.Thomas, and Hamline University. I chose the smallest school, because that's what I believed would be the best atmosphere for myself, and I believe it helps me recieve an overall higher grade. However with that, I expect Hamline to provide me with adequate teachers, and really prepare me for my future career, which is why I pay tuition. The pressure I receive at Hamline University is more pressure than I have ever received before in my life, because I know after this level of education I will be out in the real world. How well I do here, will reflect how I do in society. Also, I have pressure to pay off my student loans that are adding up at Hamline. It’s nice that I can choose my class times, and I feel as though my work, friends, family, and education often coincide with one another. However, there are times when things conflict. Since, I chose to go attend college, double major, and obtain a high GPA. I believe my social structure for the future looks promising. If I choose to go on and get my masters, I’m sure my future would be even more promising. The discipline one needs to have to do well in our society’s social structure of education is large. However, it is necessary to do, if we want to have a promising career.