Free Essay Example on Values and Culture

Raising a kid require that they be exposed to values, knowledge, skills and behavior that recognize the criticality of families and the role it plays in their life. Value is founded on the uniqueness of every community, person and families, and as such all need to interlink together in order to give support to the young people throughout their development periods. In todays multicultural society, children from multicultural background face a range of challenges as they find their way into their larger community. Among the common challenges include migration and settlement, discrimination and racism, single parenting and communication challenges. These challenges can be overcome through connecting and developing relationship with others especially during the challenging times (Holloway 98). Through such connections, an individual is able to adapt to a community and develop a sense of belonging which would help to support their mental health and wellbeing.

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The challenges children undergo during their formative stages play profound influence in their lives when we grow up. Majorly, our identity is defined by the values we acquire at the developmental stage and the cultural influences that society bestows on us (Zizek 38). Growing up in a multicultural society exposes us to the importance of understanding of other peoples culture that can as well have a positive impact in our lives. A multicultural setup contributes to educating us on the moral behavior on the confines of what to think, feel, believe and desire. The cultural settings that we go through help to develop ideologies that reproduce to form the social relations of dominations and subordination. For instance, this happens when when people migrate from one region to another due to various reasons which may not be limited to search for better education opportunities, political reasons and even religious reasons. It is sometimes quite complicated to settle in a new society as one need to find new social networks and make connections with agencies (Holloway 106). These notwithstanding, the people who migrate require accessing the support that would enable them settle in the new environment. This can be especially difficult if the families who are supposed to provide support are not present in such moments. This can create feelings of loneliness and anxiety in ones life. However, this is a perfect opportunity for one to be independent and think in a big a picture.

Events like migration into new environments and being brought up under single parent can somewhat present trauma in ones life. These are very stressful experiences that may have an impact in somebodys life even long after they pass their youthful stage. Being away from family members can make one be a traumatizing experience. It may make it hard for some people to make connections with other people in their new environment.

The autonomy that a child acquires when they move to a new environment serve to help them develop and become goal oriented persons and aptly flexible and self-motivated. This do come as a result of the ability to set goals, both long term and short term when is chiefly necessary when it comes to making decisions on specific situations. One is the theory of social representation which basically talks about everyday knowledge within the frameworks of social and interactive environments. Social representation considers the socially acquired knowledge to be a mediating symbolic and dynamic thereby posing an impact in brain development when they interact with their environment.

An environment where a child grows represents a structure of culture that is predominant and that shape their beliefs, ideas and facts that they would come by when they grow up. This system not only works as the mediator in the social environment and self but as well as a semiotic repertoire that is drawn when individuals seek to make sense of the world around them and their role in the whole system. Appropriate interpretation of the world where one lives typically is a reinterpretation of the already held knowledge and beliefs. Thus this representation comes in novelty of ways which are both individual and community specific. The constraints that guide an individual are referred to as structuring. Social representations is thus the activity where an individual tries to position themselves while at the same time the society also tries to position the individual. This is what normally brings about the individual identity in the society (Zizek 57).

The social environment thus profoundly plays a huge role in ensuring that an individual positions themselves in their environment. Societal obligations normally start early in the individuals development from the time they begin to talk and think about what happens to them in their environment. Internalizations of the social perceptions that individuals undergo through constant negotiations dialogue normally take place on either macro or micro cultural level positions. Micro levels of acquiring knowledge can be defined as the acquiring of knowledge via asymmetrical reconstruction of social relationships among peers (Sleeter 100). It can as well take place through powerful transmission of knowledge that take into consideration of the source of knowledge and the prestige associated by it. The macro level argues that knowledge and skills can be transmitted through collective systems that are symbolic and communicates mainly through media sources. The micro levels can as well mean the transfer of knowledge via inherent modes of social settings that surround a particular situation.

Staying in different region provides one with numerous opportunities for learning new values, language and different cultures. Cultural diversity also brings with it the opportunity to understand and appreciate tolerance and co-existence in the community. Children that develop in a multi-cultural locations exude more adaptability in changing situations can easily be trustworthy as compared to strangers. Such kids develop the rare notion of viewing the universe as a global village instead of putting their focus on only what happens in their immediate environment (Sleeter 108). However, the downsides of migrating to a different location as one pursues the opportunities in life also do exist. It is very likely that one would miss their extended family even though technological expansion has tried to find a solution to this phenomenon.

In the US, expansion in culture of the populace has as well transpired into public schools. Studies have shown that children are greatly likely to develop wider understanding of their perspectives if they spring from different backgrounds. The academic performance of multicultural students is also highly enhanced. Learning in diverse community with other students from various cultural backgrounds helps to cure paranoid personality disorder which is caused by familial factors and has huge influence in the development of a child (Zizek 105). Children who grow up in single parental families are twice likely to develop the paranoid personality disorder. Migrating from one location to settle in the other, has always enabled individuals to see the impact their movement have on others.

Moving to new locations also can lead to change in in the places that are left behind, especially where one moves in order to gain personal mileage, as they move, they get an opportunity to impact positively the lives of those they have left behind. These movements have all along been associated with development of conscious, practices and other peculiar feelings to the migrants, those left behind and the new found neighbors. Both parties develop memories of both past and present while forging a head to their desired directions. The sense of importance that memories of past and present bring across would tend to lead to some creative directions that enable one to forge new relationships.

Single parenthood is characterized by a number of factors that could affect the lifestyle of the child in various ways. The problems that associate with this condition include poverty, failure in school and juvenile delinquency which have a high likelihood to undermine the chances of future success of the child (Holloway 156). However, research has always established that many children who come from single parent backgrounds often grow up to become very productive people. Children who come from a single mother background suffer from lack of adequate attention and the parental guidance. This school of thought argues that a child require more than just an economic security in order for them to thrive.

Parental care is necessary to help children do their homework, help them read, and also listen to their daily school experiences. This is very hard for one parent to do in addition to the family duties that responsibility bestows on them. Despite the short comings of single parenthood, it can clearly be noted that at times it works out. The performance of children can be adequately improves when they come from widowed single mothers. But all the same school performance is better when the parents stay together until when the child reach a particular age. Single parenthood is often associated with some social problems in the society. Reports from recent research indicate that girls were more exposed to teenage pregnancy while boys are predisposed to incarcerations. This research established that boys who come from single parenthood are more likely to land in jail when they reach age thirty.

Young boys are less likely to engage in illegal activities if they can access affection, attention and parental monitoring from an early stage (Holloway 174). In as much as there are misfortunes associated with single parenthood, one who has gone through it normally become very successful. However, for individuals to grow and attain their life goals, they need to make personal decisions and sacrifices that would enable them become better human beings in their future life. They must defy all the forces leveled on them by society so as to give a distinction to them and strive to associate with people who would make their lives to be different. Such people should try to interact more with people from diverse backgrounds to enable them realize their potential (Falicov 24). By so doing, they would realize the past does not inform either the present or the future of somebody, that it is hard work, determination and a burning desire to be different that someone can be an achiever in life.

Works cited

Holloway, Susan, Bruce Fuller, and Marylee F. Rambaud. Through my own eyes: Single mothers and the cultures of poverty. Harvard University Press, 2009.Zizek, Slavoj. "Multiculturalism, or, the cultural logic of multinational capitalism." New left review (1997): 28-51.

Sleeter, Christine, and Carl Grant. "An analysis of multicultural education in the United States." Harvard Educational Review 57.4 (1987): 421-445.

Falicov, Celia Jaes. "Training to think culturally: A multidimensional comparative framework." Family process 34.4 (1995): 373-388.