CHAPTER 2 - Mass Schooling as the Ritual Construction of the Modern Citizen

Abstract

This chapter discusses mass schooling as the ritual construction of the modern citizen. The purpose of the common school is to help all of the country's children become good, enlightened, strong individuals and citizens through a good education and good discipline. The following are four characteristics of mass schooling systems: (1) universality, (2) egalitarianism, (3) standardization of the school system, and (4) individualism. In consideration of the characteristics of mass schooling, it is important to recognize that the sovereignty of the individual has an especially universalistic character. Some individuals are not more sovereign than others; in the modern institutional model, individuals are truly equal, which implies that the multiple inequalities that persist in the social world are all illegitimate. Modern citizen is the key to the future; he or she is to create a better society, in conjunction with all other citizens of the national polity. For this task, passivity and submission are inadequate.