Marginalization, Reproduction and Assaults Against Teachers Ideas on the Contradictions of Ideological Social Control

• NCJ Number: 76146
• Journal: Contemporary Crisis Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1981) Pages: 83-102
• Author(s): J Messerschmidt
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands

Annotation

The role of the educational system in a capitalistic society is examined. The socialization experiences of upper and lower class children are considered as factors linked to the incidence of assaults against teachers.

Abstract

The overall role of schools in capitalistic societies is to prepare children to assume roles as workers. Children from different classes are prepared in different ways for different jobs. Upper class children are prepared for professional occupations through an internalization of authority and the development of the ability to work without direct and continuous supervision. Working class children are taught to assume manual and nonproductive labor jobs through being dependable, disciplined, accepting of firm goals, and able to follow rules. Lower class children are prepared for irregular labor and informal work patterns. All children are taught to be submissive to external authority. Moreover, children are channeled into learning tracks based on class, sex and race. The early training which upper and working class children receive at home is complementary to the behaviors which they are taught in school; however, lower class children learn to function autonomously on the streets, and males in particular learn to value physical strength and courage. These background orientations bring lower class youth into conflict with the school system. While these children's drive for autonomous action conflicts with school efforts to instill submission to external authority, their predilection for settling interpersonal differences and for obtaining satisfaction for unmet needs through physical violence leads them to assault those attempting to reduce them to submission - the teacher. This interrelationship is represented by the incidence of assaults on teachers in lower class schools, and by the incidence of assaults on teachers by minority group students, both of which are abnormally high. Charts and notes are included.