Schools As Instruments for Socialization

The beliefs of Plato, Dewey and their kind in the social function of the school system as institutional actor is constantly given lip service in the educational environment of America today. Those beliefs, however, are largely ignored in the practice of education as expounded on all levels: in the experience of day-to-day schoolyard reality; by policymakers and administrators of the educational "establishment;" and in the dialogues and funding priorities of the body politic (Illych, After Deschooling, What?, 1973, pp. 1-21).

In the day-to-day reality of American schools, there is reflected all of the diversities, tensions and conflicts of the society as a whole - and few of the positive, cohesive values (Si

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system was largely a hodgepodge of local improvisations. Those improvisations were standardized and improved radically in the next decades, reaching their peak of societal support in the post-World War II period of economic boom that ended for the United States in the early 1970s. School systems grew rapidly; bureaucracies of enormous size were necessary to maintain the body flow of "baby boom" students gushing in ever-greater numbers through the halls. Where the "little red school house" once dominated - a single teacher educating classes of forty to sixty from grades one through eight - now thousands of teachers offered students their chance at knowledge - and were still outnumbered fifty to one. It was "catch-up" time in the schools for thirty years. Part of that growth process involved building a support team around the teachers: principals, guidance counsellors, program directors, secretaries, et al. - these were administrative roles that were needed to provide long-term oversight and immediate practical support for the student-teacher process which is the integral element of any educational system. These are also bureaucratic roles - and the history of institutions points out that bureaucracy creates its own momentum.
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Approximate Word count = 2170
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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