Social facts refer to the cultural norms, values, and structures that may transcend people and determine how individuals exercise social control. It is worth stating that issues related to sociology can be understood better through the consideration of social facts in the society. The process entails looking at the manner in which people act, think, and feel about the recent events that take place around them ( Durante & Fiske, 2017 ). Reflecting back on by educational journey, I have realized that there are a number of social facts that affect how people live and achieve their potential. Throughout the journey, my academic goal was to achieve my full potential by acquiring knowledge that I can use as the basis for transforming the society and helping those around me. It is for this reason that I always strived to exploit the opportunities that are available in the educational sector to achieve my potential. In some cases, however, I experience various social issues that affect my life. Dealing with such problems may not be an easy task. In this paper, I will examine how a social class issue affected my education journey.
Social Facts
Social class refer to the grouping of members of the society in a hierarchy based on the educational attainment, wealth, income, occupation, and membership. In most instances, members of a community are categorized into three major social classes. They include upper class, lower class, and middle class. Most social researchers and scientists usually believe that the society or community is normally grouped into various hierarchical structures ( Martin, 2012 ). These structures will determine the kind of treatment that people get in the society. In addition, it will influence the manner in which people are treated by other members of the community. It is for this reason that social class remains an important and controversial issue in countries such as the United States. Concerns have been raised regarding the manner members of given social class are treated. In most instances, it has been argued that those who belong to the lower social classes are treated unfairly and denied the opportunities that they need to live a fulfilling life. Furthermore, the kind of treatment that such people get in the society may make it difficult for them to achieve their full potential. At the same time, there are scholars who have denied the existence of the discreet social classes in the society. These scholars argue that the structures that may exist in the society are just linked to the ability of specific members of the community to work towards achieving their potential. In spite of this controversy, it is undeniable that people in the community do not live the same kind of life. In addition, the class position that exist in some communities influence the kind of life that people live.
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In most instances, social class stratification has also been linked with a class culture that influences the way people interact in the community. Class culture can be described as the esteem or reputation that is linked to the position of an individual in the society ( Kraus, Côté, & Keltner, 2010 ). The kind of reputation that a person gets in the society is largely linked to their level of economic achievement. Those who have a managed to achieve more in life and succeed in their economic endeavors are usually respected and given certain position of influence among peers. The prestige that people have may also be associated with the family name, occupation, and level of authority in the power structures. It is worth stating that prestige is normally linked with two major indictors of social class; power and wealth. Those who tend to come from families that have powerful connections or can exert their authorities are usually accorded higher standing in the society. The same applies to the people who come from families that are known to own property in the society.
In the course of my education journey, I have experienced social stigmatization due to social class issues. Coming from a humble background, it was not easy to fit into a class that was majorly filled by students who were coming from the high-class families. During the early days, I strived to keep to myself because I felt that I was in the wrong school. With time, I made friends with other two students who I believed were from my social class. Despite this being the case, some of my classmates continued to ridicule us because of our social backgrounds. They would make fun of the items we carried to school and the kind of life we lived. These statements were really hurting for me and my friends. They made it difficult for us to go about our everyday activities. Furthermore, interacting with the rest of the students became a challenge out of the fear that they would make fun of us and talk ill about my background. I really had to struggle to remain composed and focus on my studies. Even though I reported the issue and students who perpetuated the culture of class discrimination were dealt with, these experiences helped reinforce the issue of social class as I got first-hand experience on the issue.
Schools and educators have a critical role of play when it comes to helping learners deal with social stigma. Furthermore, educators should use their skills, positions, and experience to create conducive environment for the students
Concept of Stigma
Social stigma can be described as the discrimination and negative attitudes that some people may have against other members of the society. These attitudes are based on the distinguishing characteristics of the people who are being treated unfairly. Some of the factors that affect the way people are perceived and treated include race, gender, culture and sexuality ( Kraus et al., 2011 ). I had a classmate who was diagnosed with learning disability, a condition that made him feel stigmatized and stereotyped in the school. This had a negative impact on his performance, particularly in mathematics and took a toll on his emotional health. Many students believed that he was just lazy, careless, and stupid. Some believed that his inability to perform well in school was a consequence of some conditions at home, with some believing that he could not be just as smart as other students, no matter what. Such societal perceptions made the student to feel socially devalued, which made him feel ashamed and humiliated. He could try to conceal his learning disability among his peers and some teachers in an attempt to avoid being associated with negative stereotypes. However, this proved futile as he witnessed increased separation from peers, peer rejection, and loneliness. The social barriers had significant impact on his social, emotional, and educational achievements. Worse still, he experienced discrimination from his peers, who could not share learning materials with him. Others often bullied him through name-calling, which further affected his concentration in class. He, together with a few students who understood his situation, reported the matter to the school administration, and explained how the student suffered from stigma due to the learning disability. The school administration felt touched and initiated a program that sought to create awareness about learning disabilities in the school. The administration also put in place serious measures on how to deal with students who would discriminate, stereotype, or bully learners with learning disabilities in the school. After sessions of counseling, the student was able to come back on track and his performance improved significantly.
Conclusion
The education sector has undergone significant transformation over the years. Furthermore, attempts have been made to create systems that will ensure that educational goals in the market. In some case, attempts have been made to identify the social facts and issues that my affect the performance of students in schools. In my case, dealing with social class discrimination have been major challenge. With the assistance of my teachers and parents, I managed to overcome the issue in school.
References
Durante, F., & Fiske, S. T. (2017). How social-class stereotypes maintain inequality. Current opinion in psychology , 18 , 43–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.033
Kraus, M. W., Côté, S., & Keltner, D. (2010). Social class, contextualism, and empathic accuracy. Psychological Science, 21 (11), 1716-1723. doi:10.1177/0956797610387613
Kraus, M.W., Horberg, E., Goetz, J., & Keltner, D. (2011). Social class rank, threat vigilance, and hostile reactivity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37 (10), 1376-1388. doi:10.1177/0146167211410987
Martin, N. D. (2012). The privilege of ease: Social class and campus life at highly selective, private universities. Research in Higher Education, 53 (4), 426-452. doi:10.1007/s11162- 011- 9234-3
