The state also helped by making it worthwhile for a child to attend school,whether it be by providing students with nutritional supplements or increasing the quality and usefulness of obtaining an education.
Education also prepares children for future employment whilst they obey to the rules and respect authority.
Emile Durkheim suggests that suggests that schools ensure that students are equipped …show more content…
with the skills needed by the economy of the country whilst Karl Marx ”See socialisation as part of brainwashing children into accepting society.” ( Griffiths. J & McIntosh. J ( 2015) Sociology AS & Year 1)
It is easy to criticise Marxist thinking for being over pessimistic about society, but its influence on sociology and social thinking has been enormous.
A number of children do not get the same equality as other children because coming from poorer families or having uneducated parents would prevent them from achieving goals or from affording higher equipped schools or universities therefore would have to settle at low budgeting School.
These schools would then develop a bad reputation therefore preventing some parents of the area that do not approve of letting their child study at the school, leading them to move their children to further away schools. This then leads to worsened problematic issues including transport issues and arguments.
However, most working-class pupils had some experience of schooling, but the pattern of low attendance rates and early withdrawal was detrimental to the progress of educating.
Emile Durkheim claimed that the primary role of education was to ensure that society should be “well-ordered with different people filling appropriate roles to ensure society survived.” Some parents have more understanding and knowledge of the education system and they have more money. They are in a better position to ensure that their children’s future is a
success.
Over the centuries there have been several theories regarding education Some theorists believed that the system was undemocratic, and unequal. Marxists like Raymond Boudon argued that positional theory determined educational success. He is also a key thinker into the role of education in social mobility.
Althuser also notes that working class pupils are taught the upper class thinking, resulting in the upper classes controlling them. They are not allowed to question. He also mentions repressive state apparatus where people are told what to do, with a class viewpoint, for instance, economics and history taught in school.
Secondary education for all became Labour Party Policy in 1923.
Children from middle class families have a better chance on getting their children into the schools with the best reputations and are able to afford private schooling. Rosenthal and Jacobson suggest that working class children, particularly those raised in poverty are lacking the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to be successful in the educational system.
According to Marx and conflict thinkers, education is not based on merit but on class. Intelligence and talent does not matter, all the dominant position goes to students from the upper classes and the workers come from the lower class.
Whereas according to the functionalist thinkers education is based on merit, and everyone at school are all given equal opportunities to show off their abilities by studying for examinations, and each pupil is given a chance to show off their skills and hard work.
Functionalists say education offers poor children a chance to do well, Marxists and Feminists say education exists to protect the children of the rich. Marxism views education as a source of social inequality and a tool of an unequal social system. The inequality in educational opportunity socialises people into accepting that some people have more access to power and wealth than others.
Also Davis and Moore state that education determines your class. If you are talented and hardworking then you will be given the most important positions in society. Your incentive is that you will be rewarded for the work which you do. However, they have been criticized over the fact that not all intelligent perform well in school and those who perform well in school may not find good jobs.
Certain factors can determine what topics and subjects are studied as part of the national curriculum. It is vital that social, political, cultural and economic factors are tied in so that pupils are taught about equality and ensure they do not develop into prejudiced and narrow minded individuals.
1998 saw the birth of the National Curriculum through the Education Act, and within state schools was to be made compulsory, ensuring that children received the same level of education. Subjects such as maths, English and science were made compulsory.
Currently children are required by law to an education until they are 16 years old. Education is compulsory but attending school is not as some children are home educated.
Corporal punishment is also a divisive and debatable issue within the history and sociology of education. Punishment was outlawed in Britain in 1986. However in a response to a 2008 poll of 6,162 UK teachers by The Times Educational Supplement, 22% of secondary school teachers and 16% of primary school teachers supported “the right to use corporal punishment in extreme cases.” The National Union of Teachers said that it “could not support the views expressed by those in favour of hitting children.”
Since 1998, there are six types of state-funded schools in England and Wales. They include; Academy schools, established to replace poorly-performing community schools in areas of high socio-economic deprivation; Community schools which the local authority employs staff and owns the school, land and its buildings; Free schools are newly established schools set up by parents, teachers, charities or businesses; Foundation schools, which a governing body employs the staff and has responsibility for admissions; Voluntary Aided schools, which are linked to organisations, such as faiths or those linked to London Livery Companies and finally Voluntary Controlled schools, which are almost always faith schools, with the land and buildings owned by charity, but the local authority employs the schools.
All state-funded schools are regularly inspected by Ofsted who publish reports on the quality of a school on a regular basis. Those judged by Ofsted to provide inadequate standards of education can be subjected to special measures, which can mean replacing the governing body and any senior members of staff.
In conclusion, opinions and views on the subject of education differs. All children should have equal rights and a chance to be educated to the best of their ability.
Individuals in Britain have the opportunity to win over poverty via successes in childhood education. Although, if the support and encouragement is not visible then that pupil will encounter difficulties in gaining success and moving up the social ladder
Whilst some argue that the schooling system still needs improving, people can all agree that changes are already in the making and are being conducted today to alter how education is perceived and the importance is that each child will fit nicely into society depending on their own suitability and experience. It is simple; Education is necessary for the survival of society.