The essential attribute of education is to transmit human culture and promote people's socialization, so it presents people's development function or educational function: to make the development possibility provided by people's innate genetic quality come true; Transforming human culture into personal spiritual wealth; Cultivate social members with certain styles according to certain social requirements.
Education has a variety of social attributes, but also presents a variety of social functions. In class society, production education is class-oriented, and its unique function is that education adapts to and safeguards the fundamental interests of a certain class, and safeguards the rule of state power and its political relations. In this sense, education is a process in which the educated gradually realize certain social, political and economic requirements. Therefore, different social forms have different education. The productive nature of education shows that education has economic functions. Education not only comes from the development of productive forces, but also promotes the development of productive forces. After entering large-scale machine production, education plays a more prominent role in improving the quality of workers, raising the level of productivity and promoting economic development. The cultural essence of education lies in its function of preserving, activating, selecting, sorting out, renewing and creating culture. The cultural, economic and political functions of education are the basic social functions of education. Others, such as scientific and technological functions, population functions and ecological functions, are derived or evolved from these basic functions, and many functions are interrelated to form a whole. The cultural nature of education is a more important attribute of education. The relationship between education and social production, economic system and political system plays a role through the transmission of culture. The cultural function of education is the basis for the formation and release of other functions. Starting from the 1940s of 19, many works of Marx and Engels put forward the preliminary principles of Marxist educational view (for example, Capital, chapter 1 volume 13; German Ideology, Volume 1, Part 1; "Critique of Gotha Program" Part 4; The basic principles of communism). It is on this basis that a more systematic educational theory has gradually formed. The October Revolution and its need for Marxist educational practice greatly promoted the development of this theory (Lenin, Krupskaya, Bronsky, makarenko). In fact, Marxist educational theory is basically a practical theory. Some important figures who contributed to this are Baerbel, Rao Leisi, Tsetkin, Liebknecht, Gramsci, Langevin, Valen and Cerf. Many researchers are currently working to further develop this theory. The main components of this theory are as follows:
(1) Free public education is compulsory for all children to ensure that the monopoly of culture or knowledge and educational privileges are eliminated. Originally, this can only be an education run by various public institutions. At that time, it was mentioned to prevent the poor living conditions of the working class from hindering the all-round development of children. Later, other goals were clearly put forward, such as weakening the role of family in social reproduction, cultivating children under equal conditions, and making use of socialized group strength. Undoubtedly, the most successful revolutionary education experiments, from makarenko's schools to Cuba's schools, were carried out according to social plans.
(2) the combination of education and material production (or, in Marx's words, the combination of intellectual education, physical education and productive labor). The goal included here is neither to carry out better vocational training nor to inculcate professional ethics repeatedly, but to bridge the historical gap between manual labor and mental labor and between concept and practice by ensuring that everyone fully understands the production process. Although the correctness of this principle is widely recognized in theory, its practical application has raised many problems (many aborted or only partially successful experiments have proved this), especially under the condition of rapid development of science and technology.
(3) Education must ensure the all-round development of people. With the re-combination of science and production, people can become producers in a complete sense. On this basis, all people, both men and women, can display their potential. In this way, there will be a world that can meet the general needs, so that individuals can fully display their talents in all aspects of social life such as consumption, entertainment, cultural creation and enjoyment, participation in social life, interpersonal communication, self-realization (self-creation). To achieve this goal, it is especially necessary to change the social division of labor, which is an arduous task and is only in the pioneering stage so far.
(4) Society has been given a new and significant role in the process of education. This change in group relations within schools (from competition to cooperation and support) means that the relationship between schools and society will become more open, which is based on the mutual promotion and active cooperation between teaching and learning. The theory outlined above is not over. There are still many difficulties in the interpretation of the above principles or in the practice based on these principles. Among Marxists, between Marxists and non-Marxists, the following issues are being discussed: human personality; "Nature and education"; The possibility of school and education innovation within the scope of popular social determinism; And the relative importance of the content, method and structure of education in promoting social change.
philology
1M。 Ideology and school curriculum, English version 1979.
2 Baerbel: Women and Socialism (1879), English version 1886.
3P。 Bourdieu and J.C. Passeron: Reproduction of Education, Society and Culture, English Version 1979.
4 S. Bowles and H. Quentin: Education in Capitalist America, English version 1976.
5 Zsusa soft candy: forming society, 1979 English version, chapter 4.
6 Paul Foehrer: Pedagogy of the Oppressed, English version 1970.
7 Gramsci Antonio: Alternative Pedagogy, Italian Edition 1973.
8 Jean Rao Leisi: Socialism and Education, French Edition 1899.
9 paul langevin: Thought and Action, French version 1950.
10 V. Lenin: On the Policy Issues of the Ministry of Education (19 13), English version 1963.
1 1 ditto author: tasks of the communist youth league (1920), English version 1966.
12 ditto author: opinions on science and technology education of nadeshida constantinov (1920), English version 1966.
13D。 Lindenbergh: Comintern and Class School, French version 1972. 14M。 A Manacorda: Marx and Modern Pedagogy, Italian Edition 1966.