Education and Religion

Chapter 13

Overview

I. Introductory Quiz

II. EducationA. The Credentialed Society

B. Functionalism

C. Conflict Theory

D. Symbolic Interactionism

E. Problems in Education

(cont. next slide)

II. Religion A. Durkheim

B. Functionalism

C. Symbolic Interactionism

D. Conflict Theory

E. Max Weber

F. Varieties of Religions

G. Trends in US

H. Why So Many Religions?

III. Review

II. Introductory Quiz

1. There are no educational social institutions in hunting

and gathering societies.False

2. Formal education requires money, transportation, and

leisure time.

True

3. Conflict theorists claim that schools function to maintain

dominance by the elite.True

4. A childs academic journey can be determined by the eighth

day of kindergarten.True

5. Higher standards cause better students.

True

6. The most segregated hour of the week is during Sunday

worship service.

True

7. All religions started as cults.

True

8. Most religions doctrines remains the same through time, regardless of cultural change.

False

9. The spirit of capitalism (thrift and investment) is a product of

Protestantism.True

10. Science cannot prove that loving family and

neighbors is morally superior to hurting and killing them.

True

II. EducationA. The Credentialed Society

1. What is it?

2. Why did it develop?

B. Functionalism: 1. Six Manifest functions

2. Latent functions

3. Dysfunctions

Y.J.U.: Schools should be able to meet childrens basic needs.

Y.J.U.: Schools should teach sex education.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you

found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life -- learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup --they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned -- the biggest word of all -- LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take anyone of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm.

Think what a better world it would be if we all -- the whole world -- had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are -- when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Robert Fulghum

C. Conflict Theory: Reproducing the Social Class Structure Through

The Funneling Effects of Education:

Race and Ethnicity

D. Symbolic Interactionism: Performance Due to Self-fulfilling Prophecies

E. Problems in Education 1. Violence

2. Low achievement (e.g., SAT scores)

3. Grade inflation

4. Functional illiteracy

What are the solutions?

III. Religion

A. Durkheim 1. Religion

2. Three elements of

3. Definitions

A. Durkheim1. Religion

2. Three elements of

3. Definitions

A. Durkheim1. Religion

2. Three elements of

3. Definitions

A. Durkheim: 1. Religion

2. Three elements of

3. Definitions

A. Durkheim: What is Religion?1. Religion

2. Three elements of

3. Definitionsa. sacred

b. profane

c. beliefs

d. practices

e. church

f. moral community

Q: So, is it a religion if two people meet each morning to sprinkle Fruit Loops on a ukulele to insure good crops?

B. Functionalism1. Six Functions of Religion

2. Dysfunctions of religion

C. The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective and Religious Symbols

provide identity & solidarity

develop from beliefs

are condensations of communication

D. Conflict Theory1. Karl Marx

2. Religion and the existing social order

E. Weber: Religion and the Spirit of Capitalism

F. Varieties of Religious Groups1. Cult

2. Sect

3. Church

4. Ecclesia

See p. 347 of text

Cults usually begin with a charismatic leader

All religions begin as cults

.

G. Trends in US1. More religious in South and Midwest2. Religion and geography are correlated

3. Income and Denomination are Correlated.

4. Most people belong to a church or synagogue

5. Age and religiosity are correlated. Why?

U.S. Churches; Gains and Losses in Ten Years

Q: Why are fundamentalist Christian churches growing and mainstream churches shrinking?

Q: Why is the Roman Catholic Church the exception?

Diversity: 350,000 congregations & 100s of denominations

H. Why so many religions? 1. Social change2. Doctrinal disagreements3. Big Explanation & Definitions

a. Q: What things are traditionally condemned by churches?

b. Q: What things are traditionally valued by churches?

c. Q: What effects would these values have on members?

d. Alienatione. Secularization of Religion f. splintering

Review Theorists

Emile Durkheim

Religion acts to hold a society together

Objects are given a sacred meaning by society

(objects are not intrinsically sacred)

Max Weber

Link between religious and economic institutions

Religion reflects beliefs about economic success

Karl Marx

Religion promotes the status quo

Religion acts as opiate of the masses (encourages them to ignore their economic plight)

Varieties Ecclesia (state church)

Membership by citizenship

Wealthier and clergy has more formal training

the church (organized religion)

compliments values of dominant society

hierarchy of authority- professional leadership

members usually born into faith

Sects and Cults

Contrary to dominant society

Little formal training of leadership, often based on charismatic qualities of person

Members enter sect through adult conversion

The Future of Religion Y.J.U.: Will mankind always need/want

religion?

Q: Why/why not? Group Project: Design a religion

Outline tenets, organization, responsibilities of members and officials, if any

Make sure it meets Durkheims requirements for religion (see I. B. 2) and the three universal human needs (see II. A. 1)

What are your religions virtues?

What are its failings?