FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATION

E

ducation systems serve a wide variety of stated functions: equipping

children with eco nom ically useful mental and physical skills, pre-

paring them for social roles and citizenship, passing on knowledge

deemed to be impor tant, transmitting impor tant aspects of the nation’s

culture and heritage, and so on. But to most people, it is prob ably the

idea of fulfi lling children’s innate potentials in order to access deserved

levels of occupation that matters most.

To most people, too, this seems to be a natu ral pro cess. Since the insti-

tution of compulsory national systems of education in vari ous parts of

the world, school achievement has come to be seen by almost every one

as both the development and ultimate test of children’s potential. Th is is

why IQ tests are, aft er all, calibrated against school per for mance. So to

the general public, schooling is perceived as a fair natu ral se lection pro-

cess: children “prove” their innate potentials by being asked to learn a

neut ra l curricu lu m in a n equa l env ironment. To a l most ever y one, ch i ld ren

are seen to enter the system on an equal basis— and then come out in

grades exactly reproducing the class structure of the society from which

they entered in the fi rst place.

Teachers, in fact, see this natu ral se lection function as their profes-

sional contribution to social and national goals, as well as to realizing

children’s innate potentials. Indeed, the whole gearing of the school and

education system to a hierarchical job market and class- structured soci-

ety makes it diffi cult for them to conceive of their role in any other way.

11. THE PROB LEMS OF EDUCATION ARE NOT GE NE TIC

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