Bowles and Gintis suggested a ‘Correspondence theory’ between schooling and career. This theory claims that school and careers are closely related and that this correlation is essential for the production of an efficient workforce. One factor in this relationship is hierarchical structure, with the headmaster or headmistress at the ‘top’ and the pupil at the ‘bottom’ or the manager or boss at the ‘top’ and the manual staff at the ‘bottom’. Pupils also have little control over what they learn, when they learn it and how, this is, to some extent, decided by the teacher and the curriculum. This is much the same in work where a person has little option over their task and is set tasks by people above them in the hierarchy. Karl Marx makes the following observations on the workplace:
‘Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy officers and sergeants’
(Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx)
In schools pupils are punished or rewarded according to their behaviour, this encourages them to conform to the hierarchy. Schools reward and promote punctuality and discourage certain independent reasoning, for example, a pupil will think how they can improve their performance on a certain task but they will not question the merits of the task. This is because it is required in the workplace by many employers. These employers do not want the worker to question authority or to be unpunctual or even how to improve and organise the unfair economic system.
Schools are also much alike jobs in the respect that they offer little intrinsic satisfaction to the individual. Both school and work are commonly viewed as laborious and monotonous. Among other external rewards, Pupils are encouraged to aim towards their eventual grades as a motivation. This also relates to work as a person may repeat the same task daily in a factory line or complete the same task daily in an office, either one is monotonous, repetitive and tiresome. If education were exciting, appealing and satisfying then pupils would expect the same from work but when finding that this was false, they may question the values of labour.
Another example of the control through ideology is the 'censorship' of certain topics in the education system such as disorder, socialism and the faults of capitalism and democracy. Pupils are taught about democracy but not the alternatives to democracy, they are taught a ‘censored’ view of history, where conflict of class does not exist.
The idea of competition is reinforced in education through activities such as sports. This provides a concealed ‘barrier’ of separation between workers thus preventing a union and revolution through the demand of equal and full employment rather than the competition for existing jobs. In addition to this, inequality is transmitted as inevitable and acceptable social act. The education system claims that it is a meritocratic one but this is purely ideology, as the social class of the parents determines educational qualifications.
I have observed some flaws and criticisms in the Marxist view such as the portrayal of people as mere ‘creatures’ of the education system and the idea that school is so necessarily closely related to work but capitalism survived for a long period of time before compulsory education. Also, teachers are viewed as ‘agents’ of ideology but many teachers do so because they wish to express their ideas freely. In conclusion I believe that the Marxist view on education is a very critical but valid one.
I would like to acknowledge the use of the following resources:
- http://www.msherrard.freeserve.co.uk
-
Sociology in Focus by Paul Taylor et al
- ‘Schooling in capitalist America’ by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis (1976)
- ‘Communist manifesto’ by Karl Marx
