We don't need no education!

Functionalists argue that school provides us with the skills and knowledge necessary to 'fit in' to society and to play a useful role within it. They argue that school sorts and selects and helps match people to jobs.

Marxists, on the other hand, believe that school is there to ensure that we conform. School exists to control our behaviour and channel our energy:

• The official curriculum gives us the information we need to do jobs that create wealth for the elite.
• The hidden curriculum teaches us to obey, to divide up our day in unnatural but convenient time periods, to turn up on time, to accept boredom and to accept gender roles.

• Is the message from Pink Floyd a Functionalist or a Marxist one?
• Do you agree with their message?