The Sociology Book

288

SCHOOLING HAS BEEN

A T O N C E S O M E T H I N G

DONE TO THE POOR AND

FOR THE POOR

SAMUEL BOWLES (1939– ) AND

H E R B E R T G I N T I S ( 1 9 4 0 – )

S

chools exist to prepare

children for adulthood and

society, but in the 1960s the

benign consensus about this fact

of modern life began to fragment.

At the end of that decade the term

“hidden curriculum” was coined by

Philip W. Jackson, who claimed

that elements of socialization take

place in school that are not part of

the formal educational curriculum.

Although Émile Durkheim had

observed this imparting of values

decades earlier, it was now given a

less favorable interpretation and

since then several sociological

approaches have developed.

The most radical perspective

comes from US economists Samuel

Bowles and Herbert Gintis, who

argue in Schooling in Capitalist

America (1976) that education

is not a neutral sphere but one

where the needs of capitalism are

reproduced by implicitly creating

attitudes among young people

that prepare them for work that

alienates them in their future lives.

Schools prepare the poor

to function well and

uncomplainingly within the

hierarchical structure

of the modern workplace.

Schools for the poor are

established as part of the

popular program of

free education to achieve

social equality.

Schooling has been at once something

done to the poor and for the poor.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

The hidden curriculum

KEY DATES

1968 In Life in Classrooms, US

sociologist Philip W. Jackson

claims that children are

socialized in the classroom

via a “hidden curriculum.”

1973 According to Pierre

Bourdieu, the reproduction

of “cultural capital” (the

ability to recognize cultural

references, to know how

to act appropriately in different

social situations, and so on)

explains middle-class success.

1978 Kathleen Clarricoates’

British study indicates

that gender inequity, to the

detriment of girls, forms part

of the implicit curriculum.

1983 Henry Giroux, US

cultural critic, suggests

that hidden curriculums

are plural, operating along

lines of gender and ethnicity

as well as social class.