Durkheim: Attachment In Schools

The book is an ideal text for those who want to gain a higher understanding of, sociologists trying to concept the cultural erosion from the schools, the religious supremacy of the schools, and the traumatic experiences of the schools and the dark ages of the school’s effects on the students. Psychiatrists in this field will find it very helpful, written with first-hand information by

Consequently, the rational step taken is to deconsecrate schools into outwardly irreversible place of esteemed value of social order (Kozol, 3). He further noted many ways of opening the issue in complete observation of the class, which he believed can be attained by the quotation of many respected people’s word, such as Horace Mann who was diffident in articulating the real utility of public schools. Nonetheless, he also provided some other ways of embarking on this which he conscientiously noted that has exposed their conjecture of public schools as adults (Kozol, 4). Additionally, he said the best way of achieving this is by disseminating this purpose to students through dialogue as recommended by Doris Lessing (Kozol 4). Finally, he stated that there is no deceit of learning to be a responsive, affectionate or sympathetic person.

In contrast to this school can be seen to act as ‘society in miniature’ preparing us for life outside of school. For example both in school and at work we have to co-operate with people who are either family or friends. In school

Emile Durkheim, a functionalist’s view of education is that it teaches us the norms and value of society. Education helps to unite all the individuals of society which creates a sense of belonging and commitment to that

Attachment Theory for Childcare Providers: An Annotated Bibliography Mardell, B. (1992). A Practitioner’s Perspective on the Implications of Attachment Theory for Daycare Professionals. Child Study Journal, 22(3), 121-128. Retrieved from https://www.esc.edu/library/

The impact of schools has been ever changing. From their New England traditions, to civilizing of western settlers, and finally the requirement of educated individuals what schools and education have to do in society is constantly being molded and remolded. New models, ideas, ideals, and requirements for schools are constantly being established and have come a long way from the colonial period to the modern era.

The school ethos should be recognisable as we entering the school setting as it is a part and parcel of the environment of the school and it’s a daily practice of the staff and the children there. I am aware that all members who work in the school are part of the setting having an important responsibility in the modelling values of behaviour, both when they are dealings with children who attend the school and among the colleagues, as their own example has a vital influence on the children.

The Act established a system of 'school boards' to build and control schools in areas where they were needed. Children were taught a standardised curriculum of reading, writing and arithmetic. A Durkheimian would consider the Education Act to be a standardised way of passing down the same information to all of the children in the country. Durkheim believed that ‘for each society, education is the means by which it secures, in the children, the essential conditions of its own existence'. (UNESCO, 2001). Some would say this statement means that education is considered a key mechanism of passing on and preserving society’s culture. The new generation acquires and develops the central values of their society.

A functionalist named Emile Durkheim believes that the education system introduces the importance of social solidarity in people. He says 'Society can survive only if there exists among its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity; education perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity by fixing in the child from the beginning the essential similarities which collective life demands.' So he believes that social life would be impossible without social solidarity amongst people. Social solidarity is when a mass of individuals in a society is united as a whole, and when people learn to respect their community and look after one another and their surroundings. Education teaches people this at an early age, by giving history lessons because this provides a link between the individual and the society in which they live in.

They are therefore, also essential to the survival of the economy. Durkheim believed that pupils, who misbehaved in school and disrupted class, should be given appropriate punishment. He argued that by doing this, pupils would learn that it is wrong to act against the interests of the social group, and would also come to realise that misbehaviour damages society as a whole. Durkheim stressed that it is not only important to punish disruptive pupils, but also to explain to them why they are being punished. All these processes of secondary socialisation, described by Durkheim, contribute to value consensus and the specialised division of labour.

Schools also have a hidden curriculum in which values and norms of behaviour are transmitted. For example, wearing a school uniform and keeping to a set timetable can all be seen as activities that encourage particular standards of behaviour which could be viewed as producing disciplined future workers. Therefore the hidden curriculum implies that pupils not only learn formal subjects such as English or physics but also receive hidden messages about their class, ethnicity and gender from their experience of schooling. Through the choice of teaching strategies and characteristics chosen to be employed by educational institutions it indirectly conveys to students the norms, values and expectations. This is what we refer to as the hidden curriculum. As we will later explore there are many that argue the hidden curriculum and processes within schools help to produce inequalities between children of different social classes. Whitty and Young (1976) view the

Emile Durkheim stresses the importance of the socializing agent in the education system in industrialized societies. He believed that education set the foundation which fostered a child’s cognitive and moral characteristics which was the basis upon which society was founded. Durkheim believed that these characteristics were essential in order to ensure that new member of society would be able to meet the required standards of society. Education had certain advantages over the individual which Durkheim refers to as a methodical socialization. This term refers to the younger generation or new members of society being instructed in certain values so that a certain co relation and degree of homogeneity would be developed by all members of society. Durkheim stated “It is by respecting the school rules that the child learns to respect rules in general, that he develops the habit of self-control and restrain himself. It is a first initiation into the austerity of duty.” (Durkheim 1961) Thus all members of society would be integrated

General collaboration with public schools will help individual students achieve these skills to facilitate the raising of standards to a better society. Attending public schools should have a positive impact for community growth and betterment but also the human development of the individuals attending. Education at home and expanding it at school are the foundation for developing respectable citizens. Parents need to stop thinking of school as a place to send their kids so they are in a safe place while they are at work. Teachers should stop seeing children as just a part of their job and get paid accordingly. Public schools can produce all types of young adults but it takes the support of the family and the efforts of all mature adults that come in contact with them to assist in the grooming and educating of well behaved, respectful and respected young adult citizens (Allaria 2011).

In relation to the sociology of education there are three major theoretical perspectives; Functionalist, Marxist and Interactionist. The functionalist perspective was founded by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Emile Durkheim was born in 1858 and believed that education exists to perform a function in society. “Emile Durkheim saw the major function of education as the transmission of society’s norms and values” (Haralambos and Holborn, Sociology

In The Division of Labour in Society, Durkheim analyses the differences between modern industrial society and forms of society which went before it, and his main concern is to locate the sources and type of social solidarity - the common feelings customs and traditions that make people recognise themselves as part of the same society - in the modern industrial state. In Durkheim's view, a pre-industrial society consists of individuals carrying out the same tasks, or shared life experiences, with the exception of a few i.e. priests and rulers). There will therefore be solidarity based on similarity in shared beliefs, understandings and tradition. (Hudson, 1996,P2) This, as Durkheim calls it, is mechanic solidarity, where the shared rules and customs will function to keep society alive and up and running.