Key Functions of Education from a Functionalist Perspective

What are the key functions of didactics from a Functionalist lieu? Ever since the education system was invented, there have been a roach of ideas and criticisms of how it should work. The near famous sociological groups, functionalists and Marxists, were part of this and still are today. They some(prenominal) think that their views are best for society. Talcott Parsons believes that the education system has three briny functions. Firstly it neighborlyizes progeny population into key cultural values such as alludeity of opportunity, competition and religious morality.Education is said by functionalists (especially Durkheim) to mark moral responsibilities in society that people should have towards each other. If these norms were non passed down through generations then there would be a intent for individualism (where people believe that they are to a greater extent cardinal than social groups). Citizenship and religious education were introduced as compulsory subjects in schools to empathize that young people did things with thought for the society. The second function is to do with the skills that education teaches children, from literacy and numeracy to more job-specific skills.Occupational jobs are becoming more specialized and this in turn go away lead to more years in education. The final function of education, check to functionalists is the allocating of roles of young people in society. Examinations and qualifications are said to allocate people for their most suited job. The equality of opportunity took place and so higher(prenominal) talented people are given the most functionally important jobs for the society. Parsons was criticized as he failed to consider that the values transmitted by the educational system may be those of a ruling minority kind of than society as a whole.Like parsons, functionalists Davis and Moore saw education as a means of selecting or shifting people for different levels of the jobs market and ensuring that th e most talented and qualified individuals are allocated to the most important jobs with high rewards. society is therefore meritocracy in which people are rewarded for intelligence, ability and effort. They where criticized because the relationship between academic credentials and occupational reward is non close. Income is only rachitic linked to educational attainment. There is doubt about the proposition that the educational system grades people in terms of ability.It has been argued that intelligence is so ticklish to pin down that school achievement can never equal intelligence. While Marxists do share many ideas of functionalists e. g. the fact that education prepares us for out acceptance of the values of society they also see how the education system is alienating children. Functionalists, on the other hand, seem ineffectual to see this and believe that the education system can only do well to children by teaching them norms and values. Functionalists where criticized be cause as Marxists say, education system is not meritocratic as there are the influence of class, ethnicity and gender.