School
School isn’t just for learning from a book or a professor, but also an environment where you achieve personal experiences. College is a place where everything is up to you by taking responsibility and having the freedom as an adult. When you go to college you meet many types of people from culture age and ethnicities. There are a lot of informal groups that are associated with college students, some of which are primary, secondary, in and out groups. When you’re a college student you also have different types of functions and roles that go with you being in school. They are manifest, latent function and role strain and role conflict.
Functions and Roles
The latent function, also known as the unintended function, is or at least should be irrelevant. An example of latent function would be meeting new people and making new friends. While you walk to and from class, you run into many people from diverse religions you may have never heard of before. I think of Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC), as not only a place where I attend school, but a place to explore and observe all the cultures interact with other cultures. For example; MVCC had an event where all students and families got to taste and experience other culture’s foods. School is probably the best way to help you meet new people and make new friends.
Manifest function, also known as the intended, which is relevant. Going to school gives an advantage with learning new material and profiting from that material. Most young adults after high school choose to go to college to earn a degree of their choice. For example; a friend of mine, Nicole, is going to MVCC to achieve her Associates Degree in biology to become a high school biology teacher. Everyone wants to have a good paying job that you could live off of and not have to worry about living pay check to pay check; therefore, we have to go to school in order to learn the appropriate material. School is very important in today’s society, without school you won’t be able to go further in life and pursue your dreams. That is the exact reason why everyone always uses the phrase “stay in school.”
Role strain is when someone is having difficulty with roles of the one status he/she is linked with. Everyone who is in school, their status would be a student. Being a student requires a lot of work, from studying to making it to class everyday to knowing the material being taught to us and getting good grades. Numerous students, who have a job, may encounter role strain with turning the homework in on time or even studying for a test. It is not only about the students who have a job; someone may have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Don’t ever be afraid to ask for a little help when needed.
Another issue some people may run into is role conflict. Role conflict is when a role from on status interferes with a role from another status. This is usually dealing with two or more statuses one’s allied with. For instance; I am working a part time job and going to school, I run into role conflict more than I would like. A part time job interferes with school a whole lot not only with the homework part, but the sleeping pattern also. For example; if Ellen works until midnight on Monday and has school Tuesday morning, she won’t be able to get a lot of sleep before school and this affects many students. But always remember “you got to do what you got to do.”
Informal Groups Primary, secondary, in and out groups are four types of informal groups associated with school. We could say the primary group associated with school could be your friends who are also your classmates. To some students your teacher could be considered to be in one’s primary group. Your friends who are also your classmates are considered to be the people who are closest to you and are more connected to you. To a small amount of people they may say my teachers are because while sitting in a class room, one