In relation to the first, the school has become a custodial organization because attendance is obligatory, and children are ‘kept off the streets’ between early childhood and their entry into work.
Much is learnt in school which has nothing to do with the formal content of lessons. Schools tend to inculcate what Illich called ‘passive consumption’ – an uncritical acceptance of the existing social order – by the nature of the discipline and regimentation they involve. These lessons are not consciously taught; they are implicit in school procedures and organization. The hidden curriculum teaches children that their role in life is ‘to know their place and to sit still in it’ (Illich 1973).
Illich advocates ‘deschooling’ society. Compulsory schooling is a relatively recent invention, he points out; there is no reason why it should be accepted as somehow inevitable. Since schools do not promote equality or the development of individual creative abilities, why not do away with them in their current form? Illich does not mean by this that all forms of educational organization should be abolished. Everyone who wants to learn should be provided with access to available resources – at any time in their lives, not just in their childhood or adolescent years. Such a system should make it possible for knowledge to be widely diffused and shared, not confined to specialists. Learners should not have to submit to a standard curriculum, and they should have personal choice over what they study.
Bourdieu: Education and Cultural Reproduction
Perhaps the most illuminating way of connecting some of the themes of these theoretical perspectives is through the concept of cultural reproduction (Bourdieu 1986, 1988). Cultural reproduction refers to the ways in which schools, in conjunction with other social institutions, help perpetuate social and economic inequalities across the generations. The concept directs our attention to the means whereby, via the hidden curriculum, schools influence the learning of values, attitudes and habits. Schools reinforce variations in cultural values and outlooks picked up early in life; when children leave school, these have the effects of limiting the opportunities of some, while facilitating those of others.
The modes of language use identified by Bernstein no doubt connect with such broad cultural differences, which underlie variations in interests and tastes. Children from lower-class backgrounds, and often from minority groups, develop ways of talking and acting which clash with those dominant in the school. Schools impose rules of discipline on pupils, the authority of teachers being oriented towards academic learning. Working-class children experience a much greater cultural clash when they enter school than those from more privileged homes. The former find themselves in effect in a foreign cultural environment. Not only are they less likely to be motivated towards high academic performance, their habitual modes of speech and action, as Bernstein holds, do not mesh with those of the teachers, even if each is trying their best to communicate.
Children spend long hours in school. As Illich stresses, they learn much more there than is contained in the lessons they are officially taught. Children get an early taste of what the world of work will be like, learning that they are expected to be punctual and apply themselves diligently to the tasks which those in authority set for them (Webb and Westergaard 1991).
References
Bernstein, B. 1975. Sources of consensus and disaffection in education. Class, Codes and Control. London: Routledge and kegan Paul.
Bourdieu, P. 1986. The Forms of Capital. In J. G. Richardson, & P. Bourdieu (Eds.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood Press.
Illich, Ivan. 1973. Deschooling Society. London: Marion Boyars.
Mead, Margaret. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. New York: William Morrow, 1963; orig. 1935.