Education by Macionis

technology; second, the enjoyment of life, through friendship, nature, literature, and art; and, third, the understanding
of life, through history, science, religion, and philosophy. Two processes constitute education and unite in it; in the
one, the race transmits to the growing individual its profuse and accumulated heritage of knowledge, techniques,
morals, and art; in the other, the individual applies this inheritance to the development of his capacities and the
adornment of his life. In proportion as he absorbs this legacy he is transformed from an animal into a man, from a
savage into a citizen. Perhaps, if his digestion is good, he is transformed from a simpleton to a sage. Education is the
perfecting of life — the enrichment of the individual by the heritage of the race. Let this vital process of transmission
and absorption be interrupted for half a century, and civilization would end; our grandchildren would be more
primitive than savages.
Education and Social Order by Bertrand Russell (Book)
Almost all education has a political motive: it aims at strengthening some group, national or religious or even social,
in the competition with other groups. It is this motive, in the main, which determines the subjects taught, the
knowledge, which is offered, and the knowledge which is withheld. It is this motive also which determines the mental
habits that the pupils are expected to acquire. Hardly anything is done to foster the inward growth of mind and spirit;
in fact, those who have had most education are very often atrophied in their mental and spiritual life, devoid of impulse,
and possessing only certain mechanical aptitudes which take the place of living thought. The examination system, and
the fact that instruction is treated entirely as training for a livelihood, leads the young to regard knowledge from a
purely utilitarian point of view, as the road to money, not as the gateway to wisdom. In some degree, education appears
as a means of acquiring superiority over others; it is infected through and through with ruthlessness and glorification
of social inequality.
Sociology by Macionis (Book)
Higher education is part of the American dream for almost all young people in the United States. But many
face the types of challenges that delayed Lisa Addison in her journey toward a college degree. Especially
for people growing up in low-income families, often with parents who are not college graduates, the odds of getting
to college can be small. Who goes to college in the United States? What difference does higher education make in the
type of job you get or the money you make? This chapter answers these questions by focusing on education, the social
institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job skills,
and cultural norms and values. In high-income nations such as the United States, education is largely a matter of
schooling, formal instruction under the direction of specially trained teachers.
In the United States, young people expect to spend most of their first eighteen years in school. This was not
the case a century ago, when just a small elite had the privilege of attending school. Even today, most young people
in poor countries receive only a few years of formal schooling.
The extent of schooling in any society is tied to its level of economic development. In low- and middle-
income countries, which are home to most of the world’s people, families and communities teach young people
important knowledge and skills. Formal schooling, especially learning that is not directly connected to survival, is
available mainly to wealthy people who may not need to work and who can pursue personal enrichment. The word
school is from a Greek root that means “leisure.”
In ancient Greece, famous teachers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle taught aristocratic, upper-class men
who had plenty of spare time. The same was true in ancient China, where the famous philosopher K’ung Fu-tzu
(Confucius) shared his wisdom with a privileged few.
Today, the limited schooling that takes place in lower-income countries reflects the national culture. In Iran,
for example, schooling is closely tied to Islam. Similarly, schooling in Bangladesh (Asia), Zimbabwe (Africa), and
Nicaragua (Latin America) has been shaped by the distinctive cultural traditions of these nations.
All lower-income countries have one trait in common when it comes to schooling: There is not much
of it. In the world’s poorest nations (including several in Central Africa), about one-fourth of all children never
get to school (World Bank, 2011).Worldwide, more than one-third of all children never reach the secondary
grades (what we call high school).As a result, about one-sixth of the world’s people cannot read or write.
Schooling has not always been part of the Japanese way of life. Before industrialization brought mandatory
education in 1872, only a privileged few attended school. Today, Japan’s educational system is widely praised for
producing some of the world’s highest achievers. The early grades concentrate on transmitting Japanese traditions,
especially a sense of obligation to family. Starting in their early teens, students take a series of difficult and highly
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competitive examinations. Their scores on these written tests, which are like the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) in
the United States, decide the future of all Japanese students.
More men and women graduate from high school in Japan (95 percent) than in the United States (87 percent).
But competitive examinations allow just 48 percent of high school graduates—compared to 70 percent in the United
States—to enter college. Understandably, Japanese students (and their parents) take entrance examinations very
seriously. About half attend “cram schools” to prepare for the exams, which means very late nights completing
homework. Such hard work is one reason that Japanese students often nap in class—seen by teachers as the mark of
a serious student (Steger, 2006; OECD, 2010).
Japanese schooling produces impressive results. In a number of fields, notably mathematics and science,
Japanese students (who rank fourth in the world) outperform students in almost every other high-income nation,
including the United States (ranked in twenty-sixth place) (World Bank, 2011).
During the Middle Ages, schooling was a privilege of the British nobility, who studied classical subjects,
having little concern for the practical skills needed to earn a living. But as the Industrial Revolution created a need
for an educated labor force, and as working-class people demanded access to schools, a rising share of the population
entered the classroom. British law now requires every child to attend school until age sixteen.
Traditional class differences still affect British schooling. Most wealthy families send their children to what
the British call public schools, which we would refer to as private boarding schools. These elite schools enroll about
7 percent of British students and teach not only academic subjects but also the special patterns of speech, mannerisms,
and social graces of the British upper class. Because these academies are very expensive, most British students attend
state-supported day schools (Department for Children, Schools, and Families, 2010). The British have tried to reduce
the importance of social background in schooling by expanding their university system and linking admission to
competitive entrance examinations. For the students who score the highest, the government pays most of the college
costs. But many well-to-do children who do not score very well still manage to get into Oxford or Cambridge, the
most prestigious British universities, on a par with our own Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. Many “Oxbridge” graduates
go on to positions at the top of the British power elite: Most of the highest-ranking members of the British
government—including Prime Minister David Cameron— have “Oxbridge” degrees.
The United States was among the first countries to set a goal of mass education. By 1850, about half the
young people between the ages of five and nineteen were enrolled in school. By 1918, all states had passed a
mandatory education law requiring children to attend school until the age of sixteen or completion of the eighth grade.
A milestone was reached in the mid-1960s when for the first time a majority of U.S. adults had earned high school
diplomas. Today, 86.7 percent have completed high school, and 29.5 percent have a four-year college degree (U.S.
Census Bureau, 2010).
In the United States, the educational system stresses the value of practical learning, knowledge that prepares
people for future jobs. This emphasis is in line with what the educational philosopher John Dewey (1859–1952) called
progressive education, having the schools make learning relevant to people’s lives. Similarly, students seek out
subjects of study that they feel will give them an advantage when they are ready to compete in the job market. For
example, as concerns about international terrorism have risen in recent years, so have the numbers of students choosing
to study geography, international conflict, and Middle Eastern history and culture (M. Lord, 2001).
The Making of Pakistan by K.K AZIZ (Book)
Religion and education are the two most important parts of that spiritual superstructure which is the essence
of nationalism. An integrated system of education influences social ideas and develops national character. It is trite
but true to say that those who control the schools command the destinies of the people. In this respect, education is
the mother of politics and precedes, or should precede, it. It is a proof of Sayyid Ahmad Khan's wisdom that he saw
the truth of this principle and insisted on a sound educational foundation before entering the whirlpool of politics.
As in other fields so in education, Muslim ideals differed from those of the Hindus. Generalizations are
notoriously fragile, but it can be affirmed that on the whole Muslims were less quick than the Hindus to pick up new
ideas and more opposed to Western methods and content of education. During the post-Mutiny period Muslim
conservatism kept them away from Government schools and colleges. Muslim parents distrusted the 'newfangled'
theories of education and were content to send their children to the traditional maktab and madrassah where the
curriculum was rigidly confined to religious teaching and, at some places, rudimentary arithmetic and history and
geography. The Muslims did not take the English language, and thus denied themselves opportunities of material as
well as intellectual progress. Material, because Government jobs were open only to English-knowing persons;
intellectual, because the entire corpus of Western knowledge and learning was shut out from them. It is usually said
that Indian nationalism was brought up on the writings of Burke, Mill and Paine. But this was not true of Muslim
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technology; second, the enjoyment of life, through friendship, nature, literature, and art; and, third, the understanding

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