Culture is entirely dependent on history, however so it’s important to examine the roots of the US education system. The roots of the United States’ education system are intertwined with the roots of the nation as a whole. As stated in the essay: “The Puritans who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony viewed education with respectful skepticism. Schooling in Puritan society was a force for spiritual rather than worldly advancement” (Colombo, Cullen, Lisle 111). In essence, the Puritans used education as a means to control and restrict society.
As a result, they have no option to not work as they have a poor status in society and work under capitalism is poorly paid, alienating, unsatisfying and something workers have no control of. These two systems are the systems that Marx disagrees with and wanted to change as it is creating conflict between the two classes. He wanted the proletariat to recognise this exploitation and demand higher wages, better working conditions and for the whole capitalism to stop. Furthermore, the Marxist, Louis Althusser has a theory of the role of education as being an important ISA. The ideological state apparatus, which is one of the two elements, that Althusser believes in maintains the rule of the bourgeois by controlling people’s idea, values and beliefs.
It involved health care, social services, and education. Parental involvement was a key component, so parents and children were taught together. In practice the policies focused originally upon the assumed cultural deprivation of black children in the USA as the most comprehensive programme Head Start was introduced, which involved health care, social services, and education and working class children in the UK as in the Education Priority Area Programme and have consequently attracted criticism from sociologists who argued strenuously against the concept of cultural deprivation. It may perhaps be argued that later
However Marxists would argue that social problems such as underachievement are simply aspects of a wider structure of class inequality, and unlike functionalists, they do not see the state and its policies beneficial to all members of society. In Marxists view, the state represents the ruling class, and social policies serve the interests of capitalism as opposed to society as a whole. For example Marxists would state that social policies, such as the NHS, maintain the labour force for further exploitation. From a social democratic approach, sociologists, such as Townsend, believe that sociologist
The general argument/point made by Anna Quindlen in her work Life of the Closed Mind is that America has become a country that sets its young people the terrible example of closed minds and that, that needs to change. More specifically Quindlen argues/suggests that we think about the world as good or evil when a statement like that shies away from rigorous intellectual engagement. She writes, “Is that true? Maybe there’s something to what she just said. Let me think about it.
Now, when we know the definitions, we can look at the Marxism view of education. Marxists looks at the society from a conflict perspective. They argue this with saying that education operates as an ideological tool where they manipulating people to think in certain ways to legitimise exploitation by the ruling class and inequality. Louis Althusser (1945) said that education operates as an "ideological apparatus"; in other words this means brainwashing. This idea to schools, could be argued with that the hidden curriculum transmit norms and values, such as punctuality and respect which include authority and other cultural values, whilst free thoughts gives you punishment.
The principles of informal education and the nature of empowerment will be explored and related to the tendency of government policy to attempt to affect social control with regards to power, empowerment, and participation. Youth Policy has a tendency to focus on the idea of ‘youth’ as a problem. The exuberance of youth threatens the established order, and the reaction is distrust. This has become institutionalised as a form of ageism, and can be seen structurally with the stereotyping of the ‘hoodie menace’. It is reflected culturally as a low-key discrimination against young people in general, with little sympathy for their problems in this post-modern era of globalisation (Young 1999).
The conflict perspective is defined in the text as a sociological approach that assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups (Schaefer 15). It’s the competition for scarce resources and how the elite control the poor and week (CliffNotes). This perspective views society as characterized by tension and struggle between groups; the individual as shaped by power, coercion, and authority; and social order as maintained through force and coercion (Schaefer 19). Conflict theorists view education as an instrument of elite domination and thinks that schools take away students individualism and creativity (Schaefer 220). Some conflict theorists believe education is controlled by the state which is controlled by the powerful, and its purpose is to reproduce existing inequalities, as well as legitimize ‘acceptable’ ideas which actually work to reinforce the
My teacher, Mrs. Hamak, has dealt with cases of vandalism recently. The gas sprockets in her classroom have been clogged with pencil leads, papers, and tiny foreign objects. What does this tell you about some of today’s generation? It tells us that some of the future members of our society are exhibiting idiotically pernicious behavior. I feel that these unknown individuals need to grow up.
It focuses on how people come together to create society. It focuses on whether actions are good for the equilibrium of society, these are called functions. It also focuses on things that undermine the equilibrium, these are called dysfunctions. For example functionalist Conflict theory do not see society as whole coming together well for one purpose. It focuses on class conflict.