Bowles and Gintis - Education (Marxist)

Question 1

What are some of the key ideas on education of Bowles and Gintis?

Answer 1

• The main role of the education system is to reproduce a workforce with the necessary qualities to meet the needs of the capitalist economy. These qualities include: being hardworking, disciplined, obedient and reluctant to question authority.
• Schools reward students who display these qualities with high grades. Students who show greater independence and creative thinking are more likely to get lower grades. Schools produce unimaginative and unquestioning workforce with the necessary attitudes for exploitation.
• The education system helps to produce a workforce for capitalism mainly through the way schooling is structured and the hidden curriculum.
• Bowles and Gintis use the term correspondence principle to describe the way education and work connect or fit together (correspond) in capitalist society.
• Bowles and Gintis see meritocracy as a myth. students’ social class background rather than their intelligence quotient is the most important influence on their educational achievements.

Question 2

What are some criticisms of Bowles and Gintis?

Answer 2

• They assume that students passively accept the values taught via the hidden curriculum. But actually, students reject the values of the school and resist their teacher’s authority.
• They exaggerate the power of the education system in forming personalities and attitudes.
• Businesses today require creative, independent workers rather than passive, unthinking workers. Many teaching methods now encourage creativity rather than rote learning.
• Functionalist approaches see the education system based on meritocracy and equality of opportunity.

Question 3

What is the correspondence principle?

Answer 3

The way education and work connect or fit together (correspond) in a capitalist society.