The Night In Question By Tobias Wolff

Russian and American Systems of Socialization A Cautious Cultural Comparison of so-called National Characters essays

Russian and American Systems of Socialization A Cautious Cultural Comparison of so-called National Characters essays Speaking of a nation's national character' can be a rather dicey prospect, from the point of view of political correctness as in light of a responsible academic's fear of making hasty or uniformed sociological generalizations about a people or a country. However, the marked and noted differences between Russian and American methods of raising children and socializing individuals into Russian and American society have created different, observable developmental patterns for those individuals reared in these societies. A sociologist cannot ignore these patterns in the name of open-mindedness. To acknowledge them is not to say that one methodology of upbringing is better or worse, but simply to state that there are manifest and observable differences. In his observations of the then-Soviet Union, the reporter Robert Kaiser noted in the 1970's that "the theme of Russian parenthood" is "don't let go." Although in "public" a Russian child's behavior was sternly regulated, Russian parents and grandparents indulged their children, as best they could, in material terms. (29) Children were not expected to perform many household chores. Rather, they were to focus on their studies, with the hopes of getting into a top university. In exchange for this freedom from onerous household tasks, however, children were also supposed to recompense their parents with hard work and obedience. Kaiser was struck how even older children constantly informed their parents of their various doings, sometimes well past mature adolescence, a phenomenon perhaps underscored by the fact that poverty and housing shortages forced individuals to live with their parents for a long time. The rigidity of behavior in the school system, generally de-emphasizing creativity and emphasizing rote learning, only reinforced the idea that there was a correct mode of public behavior and an incorrect mode of public ...