Assess The Myth Of Meritocracy

Functionalism is the idea that everyone who is part of a society works together as one ‘body’ to perform efficiently. Functionalists see education as a way to shape the younger generations to fit to that society’s culture, values and norms. Education and schools prepares students for adulthood when they’ll be working in a business, and prepares them for the new set of rules and norms they’ll have to follow.

Davis and Moore suggest that within schools, students are allocated into different bands of intelligence, allowing employers to distinguish between them, and so the higher achieving students will earn higher achieving jobs. Functionalists think this is necessary for a society to function because giving everyone equal chances might mean

This is called meritocracy; where each individual is given their own chance to be as successful as they can be.

However the Marxist viewpoint of meritocracy is that not everyone is given an equal chance to be able to ride above the rest. Marxists believe that the upper classes see themselves above the lower classes, and therefore should receive the higher paid jobs. Bowles and Gintis make this point when they say ‘the myth of meritocracy’. What they are suggesting is that meritocracy is a fallacy to keep the lower classes working hard, though they will never be able to get out of the capitalist system.

Marxists would view the education system as a way for the bourgeoisie to brainwash the proletariat's. They believe that schools pass on the idea of capitalism to the younger generation and justify it, so that the working classes don’t notice the inequality they are facing. A Marxist would argue that within the school system, the students follow the social hierarchy subconsciously, as that creates the idea in their head that some students are better than others, and will achieve greater rewards. This idea of some workers achieving more than others means the proletariat workers accept that some situations there will be inequality and it is