Education System Is Nothing More a Myth Making Machine

Education system is nothing more a myth making machine. Discuss. Education is the social institution guiding the transmission of knowledge, job, skills, cultures, norms and values Socialization starts within the family. The family is responsible for the primary socialization of children. When a child enters the educational system, the school becomes the main agent of secondary socialization. Some Marxist that about this are Bowels, Gintis and Althusser,. For many Marxists education is seen as the ideological apparatus of the state, that is, it disseminates ruling-class ideology. It is a myth making machine, its very existence seems to foster the most absurd beliefs. This is very much the argument of the Marxist Louis Althusser. According to Althusser no class can hold power indefinitely solely on the basis of the use or threat of force. Bowels and Gintis argue that the education system brings inequalities between individuals of different classes. With its myth of meritocracy, individuals blame themselves and not the education system, which provides the basis for social inequalities. They argue that education does not function on meritocracy but rather on the length of stay in the educational system.

They conclude that education creates a myth that those at the top deserve their power and privilege. They admit that while there has been conflict by members of the working class over the educational system. Criticism of Bowels and Gintis question the view that there is a close relationship between education and economic development. They argue it is no longer the case to argue that the educational system is shaped to produce the kind of behavior and personality required by the capitalist employers. Education is something of a myth making machine. All the education in the world may not gain ones entry to the ranks of the capitalist class. One must have the connections to make ones education work for.

Also, the material disadvantages combined with cultural disadvantages all conspire to make the chances of the child from a working class background getting a good education much less. Other factors also come into play, such as the standard of housing and diet of the student, all of which are in favor of the middle class child. Lastly, even when the working class child is successful in terms of education this by no means is translated into success in the labour market as witnessed by the large numbers of people with degrees and other higher qualifications who “underachieve” when it comes to paid employment. In conclusion it is not so much what you know that holds the key to professional and monetary success but who you know. Marxists would argue that true equality of opportunity, be it educational or otherwise, can only be created in a socialist society in which inequalities had ceased to exist.