Anna Friars Sociology Chapter 2 Why would parents favor the opinions of a doctor more than that of a teacher, and how do the norms of the classroom play a role in these parent opinions? Parents tend to feel as though they have some sort of leverage over teachers because they went to school for so many years of their lives. They feel much more comfortable judging a teacher because they are much more familiar with the situation at hand. Parents generally have been to the doctors a few times, but lets face it, they didn’t sit in a doctors office every week day of their lives for 18 years. We realize as humans how well qualified doctors must be because of the extensive degrees they must work through, the tests they must pass, and the fact that most of us have never had to do what they do on a daily basis. We are quick to judge the things we are most familiar with, especially when the way someone else might approach it be different for the manner in which you learned. For example, if you grew up in a music class where all you did was sing out of a workbook everyday, and your child was suddenly thrown into an Orff classroom, you might be more quickly to judge. Ideas that are foreign to us are frightening and often the person responsible for trying new things is looked at as messing with tradition, balance, or the “norm.” Froehlich defines “norms” in different ways. She describes “Social norms” as “rules or principles of behavior that define a particular social group and determine the values shared by the individuals of the group. This can directly relate to the classroom, and possibly also the parent-teacher relationship. When a classroom identifies common values, they are able to better work together to achieve a higher standard of learning. When a student doesn’t agree with the general consensus of a class, the parents may feel like their child is excluded, rather than growing as an individual and team member of the class. The teacher and doctor are very different in terms of sociology, because most doctors deal with people one on one or maybe sometimes two if it is a minor. This keeps the doctor from making decisions that benefit a group. Doctors make decisions that will best help and suit the needs of that one person. In a classroom, we can strive toward impacting the lives of every student, but ultimately may never be able to cater to them all individually. Parents don’t always understand this, because every parent tends to think that their child is the most important person in the world, and for that, we are penalized as teachers if we can not cater to them all individually.
