Socialisation

Socialisation is the process by which a helpless infant gradually becomes a self-aware, knowledgeable person, skilled in the ways of the culture into which they were born. Without it, a child does not become fully human in the social sense.

• The book recalls the story of the 'wolf-children of Midnapore': two small girls reportedly found in a wolf den in Bengal in 1920, who walked on all fours, ate raw meat, howled and had no speech. Such cases show how much of 'human' behaviour is learned from others.
• Socialisation is not one-way programming: even a newborn affects those who care for it, and people respond, resist and make choices.
• It is lifelong. Primary socialisation happens in infancy and childhood, mainly in the family: language, basic behaviour, early values. Secondary socialisation continues through later childhood and adulthood, through school, peers, media and the workplace.

Agencies of socialisation:

• Family: the first and often most powerful agency. Family forms differ, and children learn different things in a joint family, a nuclear family or a single-parent home.
• Peer group: friends of a similar age ('peer' means equal). Relations among peers are more give-and-take than those with adults, so children learn to cooperate, negotiate and test rules.
• School: a formal agency with a set curriculum, but also a 'hidden curriculum': lessons taught alongside the syllabus. In some schools, for example, girls but rarely boys are expected to sweep the classroom; some schools counter this by giving all children every task.
• Mass media: newspapers, radio, television, films and the internet spread ideas and images that shape attitudes, from what is fashionable to what is fair.
• Work and other agencies: the workplace, religious and community groups, neighbourhoods.
• Agencies can conflict: what a child learns from friends or media may clash with family values.

Socialisation and individual freedom. Socialisation shapes us, but it does not wipe out individuality. By giving us language, knowledge and the ability to think, it makes self-awareness, independent thought and freedom possible.

Socialisation is gendered. Boys and girls are often brought up with different expectations: boys told not to cry and to be 'strong', girls told to stay close to home. The book quotes the scholar Krishna Kumar, remembering how boys used the street to play, watch and ride bikes, while for girls it was only a way to get straight home from school, always in groups, and a story, 'The Bell', about a girl who defies the grown-ups to ring a temple bell.

Example (new): a teenager who joins a school robotics club learns new words, new teamwork habits and new ambitions from older members and teachers: secondary socialisation in action.