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CHAPTER 12
EDUCATION AND RELIGION
Education is concerned with the
formal transmission of
knowledge.
The dramatic expansion of the
U.S. education institution in the
19th century was fueled by three
forces.
1. Parental Demand
2. Labor Demand
3. Social Control
Demands
Parents demanded more for their
children as literacy was seen as
necessary for good citizenship
and mobility.
Organized labor demanded
education as a means of social
mobility.
Reformers demanded education
to control urban children and
Americanize immigrants.
Six manifest functions of
education
(1) cultural reproduction
(2) social control
(3) assimilation
(4) training and
development
(5) selection and
allocation
(6) promotion of change
Five latent functions of
compulsory education
(1) creation of a
generation gap
(2) custodial care
(3) youth culture
(4) rationalization of
inequality
(5) perpetuation of
inequality
“The hidden curriculum of
schools socializes young
people into obedience and
conformity” (Brinkerhoff, p.
273).
“Cultural capital refers to
social assets, such as familiarity
and identification with elite
culture” (Brinkerhoff, 6th
Edition, p. 316).
“Tracking occurs when evaluations made
relatively early in a child’s career determine
the educational programs the child will be
encouraged to follow” (Brinkerhoff, p. 276).
RELIGION
“Religion is a system of beliefs and practices related
to sacred things that unites believers into a moral
community” (Brinkerhoff, p. 282).
For sociologists, religion (as with
everything else) is a social construction.
Marx, as a conflict theorist, felt religion maintained
basic inequalities between owners and workers.
For Marx, religion maintained
inequality in two ways:
• As an opiate of the
masses
• justifying injustices
Durkheim focused on those aspects of religion
that helped maintain healthy communities.
Three universal aspects of
religion (Durkheim)
• Distinction between
sacred and profane
• set of beliefs about the
supernatural
• set of rituals
Max Weber
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Tension between Sacred and Secular
Low
Tension
Churches
High Tension
Sects
“Churches are religious
organizations that have become
institutionalized” (Brinkerhoff, p.
289).
“Sects are religious organizations
that reject the social environment
in which they exist” (Brinkerhoff,
p. 290).
“A cult is a sect that is independent
of and often in conflict with the
religious traditions of society”
(Brinkerhoff, p. 291).
“Civil religion is the set of
institutionalized rituals, beliefs, and
symbols sacred to the U.S. nation”
(Brinkerhoff, p. 294).