Political Socialization Vs Political Socialization

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Political socialization shapes all of us, it is our cultural background, our age, gender, education, parents, surroundings, our place of living and our interests. For some of us the fact that we are of one gender or another will mean different obstacles, different things will impact us. For example, being female might present a challenge of being looked upon as weak and unintelligent in some places or time period and being male may present a challenge such as not being able to like the arts as they might be looked upon as unmanly in some other time. Being raised in a family with more open minded or liberal points of view shaped how I look at the world and the changes that are going on right now. My education having been IB the whole time has …show more content…
It is not that all historical text books or sources do this heroification but the ones that do are still taught in schools which means the students are being denied a full story of their heroes. The books and the movies examined talked about George Washington, the first president of the United States. The movie examined, George Washington: the man who wouldn’t be king shows some good qualities of this hero but had no problem displaying the many flaws he had as well, showing that George Washington was not a leader without flaws. While the movie had no problem showing flaws McDougal Littell’s text book showed some flaws of George Washington. For example, his ownership of slaves and negative opinion towards freeing slaves and his struggles throughout wars but doesn’t show his failure in building a fort in the French and Indian war and having it flooded to only then blame this on two of his subordinates. Additionally the movie depicted Washington as someone who was politically ambitious, who couldn’t accept defeat, and who only intervened in affairs when it concerned his land or interests. Furthermore, the text book does not mention that George Washington took the land gained in the French and Indian war as his instead of leaving it for the veterans. Littell’s text book does more heroification than not especially in the following passage “British leaders made mistakes in judgement. Many had obtained their jobs through personal connections not ability. Washington on the other hand was an excellent leader. He also kept his spirits through such difficult times in the winter of valley forge.” (pg. 214, Littell) although these statements may have been true the lack of flaws shown in the text book itself makes this heroification. However, the second

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