Question

CASE STUDY: SOCIALIZATION GONE AWRY

Justin seemed to be the smartest little boy in the world:

An I.Q. test, given when Justin was 6, recording his score at 298 plus, the highest on record. A perfect 800 on the math portion of the SAT [Scholastic Aptitude Test]. Another intelligence test, taken when he was 3, on which he maxed out the scale. Based on such achievements, Justin enrolled in an online high school at 5, and at 6 he took courses at the University of Rochester in New York…He met with Gov. George E. Pataki of New York. He was featured in a BBC documentary about child geniuses. He spoke at conferences about the special needs of highly gifted children (Goode, 2002: A1).

At age 8, after being enrolled in a school for exceptional children, Justin began to show increasing signs of emotional turmoil. He refused to do any work, threw temper tantrums, kicked a hole in a wall, and told a social worker that he did not want to live anymore.

Justin’s mother admitted that she had falsified the records of the I.Q. test Justin took when he was three years old. The SAT scores belonged to a former neighbor’s son. And, she said, Justin had studied the manual for the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale that he took at age 6. Shortly after that, Justin was hospitalized for psychiatric problems and placed in foster care. The mother was charged with neglect because she had caused “a substantial impairment of the child’s functioning and development.” She defended her actions: Justin was unusually bright and she was only trying to open doors for him that would otherwise have remained closed. In effect, she justified her personal decisions to overcome societal constraints that equate test scores with intelligence and which, ultimately, may determine whether we succeed or fail.

Someone once observed that “Ideas are like children; there are none so wonderful as your own.” In Justin’s case, his mother’s ideas about promoting her son—regardless of his ability—damaged his self-identity and emotional health. From a sociological perspective, Justin’s socialization went awry.

DISCUSSION

Do you feel that your socialization was effected by standardized tests in school. Why or why not. What were your challenges in school? your successes? What other factors may have played a role?

Answer 1

The standardized tests are a form of screening or helping the teachers to identify the specific skills in the children and make necessary changes in the academics.This is one aspect that  socializes the children to different and varied other students during the tests and simultaneously socializes the parents as well with each other.The main reason for this is to show the society that their child is the best or an outstanding performer and get a fame out of their child. This overtime may lead to pride and making parents to do anything to make their child score high, if not ,take other means in a wrongful direction.This can greatly affect the behavior of a child as whole.The main challenges which can be faced in the school is competition. Students always tries to do their best when motivated and guided in the right way.The completion of the assigned task in time can be a challenging part.The other factors like adequate resources to learn, implementation of new technology in teaching ,activities ,tasks ,competitive exams,educational trips and camps,etc., can play an important role for success.