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General Functions of the Family

The general functions of the family are:

1. Perpetuation of the human race. The most important func tion of the family is sexual reproduction to
perpetuate the human race. Without sexual reproduction, humanity would face extinction. But human
reproduction should be tempered to suit the needs of society, particularly economic in nature. Family
planning is now a necessity in the socio-economic life of the people.

FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION

2. Rearing of the young. Children are helpless when they are born. They need to be taken cared of. They
need to be properly fed, clothed, and sheltered and given all the necessary comforts. Then they are sent
to school. All these things are done until the children are capable of leading an independent life.

3. Providing psychological needs of the young. Psychology.

gical needs are as important as the material needs of children. They need love, affection, and sense of
security.

Embracing, kissing, praising, giving them touches and taps of tenderness, playing with them,
admonishing them gently to do good and avoid bad things, and many other similar acts as signs of love
and affection mean a lot to the children for their growth and personality develop ment. A good
environment should be provided for the growth and personality development of the children. A good
aspiration in life must also be inculcated in the minds of children.

Educative Functions of the Family (Home)

What are the educative functions of the family? What do the children learn from it? Some of the things
that children generally learn from their respective families are:
1 Healthful living Children are taught what proper foods to eat, and to eat regularly, to brush their teeth
regularly:

to take a bath regularly, to keep themselves always neat and clean, properly dressed, and well-groomed;
how to use the toilet properly: to keep the house always clean including the surroundings for sanitation,
and keep things in their proper order. They are taught to have proper rest and sleep and avoid things
that are harmful to health such as sleeping too late, drinking liquor, smoking and many others that
would make the body unhealthy.

2. Ethical standards. The rudiments of ethical standards are already learned by the children at home.
Spiritual, moral, and desirable social values are taught to them in simple ways so that they will have
some ideas about what is right and what is wrong. For instance, parents

or elder brothers and sisters would say, "Do not steal, that is bad; do not snatch the food or toy of your
playmate, that is bad; do not gamble, that is bad. Parents usually em emphasize the don'ts rather than
the do's. Children are also taught good manners and right conduct for almost all occasions. Respect for
and obedience to elders are empha sized. Answering or talking back to elders is taboo. Many aspects in
connection to proper behavior are taught to children.

Socialization. The children are taught about their roles and status in society, their roles as children, as
students or pupils, as parents in the future and as workers, or professionals, ete. This is good because
the children are taught to be good and dutiful in their respective respon sibilities

4 Psychomotor and manipulative skills. Children also learn at home some important psychomotor and
manipula tive skills. They are taught how to dance, walk, run, and sit gracefully. They are taught how to
use properly kit chen tools, appliances, and utensils, especially for girls, and carpentry tools for boys. In
the farm, the boys are taught how to use the scythe, bolo, plow, harrow, and how to sow and plant rice
and vegetables.

5. Resourcefulness, industry, and thrift. Training the child dren to be resourceful, industrious, and thrifty
is an im important concern of most parents. Having gone through life themselves, parents know how
important these traits are and they want to transmit them to their own children
6. Recreational skills. Recreation is important to all people and they engage in recreational activities in
one form or another knowingly or unknowingly. Even chatting is a farm of recreation to some. But many
good recreational activities have been developed from the early childhood experiences. Many have
developed the love for tennis, chess, drama, basketball, volleyball, badminton, cycling, and others
because their fathers taught them how to play these in their childhood or boyhood days. Many good
hobbies have also been developed from the experiences of boyhood or girlhood days such as gardening,
hog or fowl raising, fishing, and orchard keeping

7. Better performance in school. Usually parents help their children develop better skills in reading,
writing, and arithmetic by teaching them how to read and write pron erly and how to solve exercises
and verbal problems in arithmetic. This is especially true in the lower grades. The older children in the
family who have already reached the higher grades usually help their younger brothers and sisters in
their school work.

Summing up, all the educative functions mentioned above belong to the cultural transmission or
enculturation function of the family, that of transmitting the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of the old
generation to the young generation.

THE SCHOOL What is a school? A school is an institution established by society in which the accumulated
experiences of the past generations are passed on to the incoming generation by means of systematized
programs of instruction. The school is the center of learning as far as formal education is concerned.

There are three elements of a school: the teachers, the pupils, students or learners and the place where
the teaching-learn ing activities take place. If one is non-existent, there is no school.

Functions of a School The functions of a school are as follows:

1. Conservation function. The school conserves and preserves through its libraries and other devices
recorded accumu lated experiences of the past generations such as knowl.

edge, inventions, mathematics, science, historical facts, skills, customs, traditions, language, literature,
music, writing, and the arts. All these are preserved for the future generations.
2. Instructional function. This function, the main concern of the school, is to pass on the accumulated
experiences of the past generations to the incoming generations. This is performed by individuals
trained for the purpose, called teachers, mentors, instructors, or professors. The recip ients of such
instruction are the young learners called pupils or students. Some call such an instruction encultu ratio
when things of the local culture are taught, and acculturation, when things of a foreign culture are
taught to the students. In the performance of this function, the school is expected to produce leaders in
all fields of en deavor: politics, education, trade and industry, science, especially in medicine, and the
like.

3. Research function. This is also an important function of the school. The school conducts research to
improve the old ways of doing things or to discover hitherto unknown facts or systems to improve the
quality of human life. In the performance of this function, for instance, some schools are said to have
discovered a kind of fuel for machinery that is said to be inexhaustible if made operational or functional

4. Social service function. One justification for a particular school to exist is to render some kind of social
service in the place where it is located. This may be done through some kind of outreach programs. This
may be done by instituting programs that may help improve the literacy level of the community people,
their health, means of livelihood, recreational activities, enjoyment of modern conveniences, and
beautification of the place.

Relationship Between the School and the Community

The term community as used here refers to the whole society.

1. The community supplies the school with the facts about new inventions, discoveries, or new ways of
doing things which are necessary to transmit to the young learners.

The school in turn returns to the community the useful ness and practicality of such inventions,
discoveries, or new knowledge through the work of its graduates to improve the quality of human life:

2. The community makes available and accessible to the school instructional resources that are available
in t place such as farms, rivers, lakes, mountains and forests museums, libraries, industrial and
commercial firms shops, laboratories, offices of different kinds, and man others. The school will return
the service by means of the graduates applying the skills and knowledge acquired in school when they
are employed in the community after graduation

3. The community or society makes possible the existence of the school by financing its operation and
formulating policies. The school will return such service by impro ving or enhancing the social, economic,
educational, and scientific endeavors of society through the work of its graduates.

4. The school may help the community through an outreach community program to improve the
economic life of the people, improve their health, raise their literacy level, beautify the place and the
like. The community may return the service by patronizing the school, give protection to it, and
cooperating with the school in accomplishing its community projects.

Evaluation of a School

The school may be evaluated in terms of the following:

(The question asked should be answered in the positive if the item referred to ranges from good to
excellent)

1. Faculty. Are the faculty members fully qualified edu cationally? Do they have a mastery of the subject
matter they teach? the medium of instruction? the methods and tools of teaching methods and tools of
communication?

the psychology of learning? guidance and counseling? Are they punctual and industrious in teaching?
Are they healthy physically and mentally? In short, are they ren dering high quality of instruction?

2. Students. Does the school select its students so that only those with adequate ability are allowed to
take the high er and more difficult courses? Are the students studious and resourceful? Are the
standards of passing high enough so that when the students graduate they possess the knowledge and
skills required of the course they have finished?
3. Social climate. Is the school atmosphere democratic?

quiet, peaceful, and orderly? Are all administrators, teachers and students, going about their business
duti fully and efficiently? Are there good human relations existing between administrators and teachers?
between teachers and students? between administrators and stu dents? Are the students satisfied with
the conditions existing in the school? Do the teachers seem to be satis fied too?

4. Facilities. Are the buildings and classrooms adequate for classroom instruction? Are the library
references adequate for the needs of the learners? Are the pupils or students adequately supplied with
textbooks and other learning materials? Are the science laboratory and equipment adequate? Are
lighting and ventilation and cooling de vices good? Are the pupils or students free from danger when
there is fire? earthquake? typhoon? flood?

5.

Campus. Is the campus located in a place that is free from too many distractions from moving vehicles?
from noisy people? from blaring music? Is the campus wide enough for the enjoyable movement of the
learners? Is it clean and sanitary? Is it free from floods because it has a good drainage system?

Relevance. Are the courses offered by the school relevant to the needs of the community? Are the skills
developed by the school badly needed by the community? (Other wise, the school might be contributing
to the widening mismatch between the skills needed by the community and the skills acquired by the
graduates. This is an important factor to consider)

7. Social service. Does the school render some kind of social Service to the community where it is
located? Does it have a community outreach program? Does the school help in raising the literacy level
of the people? improving their 122

health conditions? improving their means of livelihood beautifying the place? improv pational facil ties
of the place?
8. Accreditation. Are the courses offered by the school a accredited and recognized by the government?
Has the school submitted some of its courses to voluntary accreditation by a duly recognized and
authorized accrediting agency in which the standards are higher than those required by the
government?

THE CHURCH

The church is a lifetime school of learning for a church- goer, from childhood to death. The beauty of it is
that although He is only one book to study like the Bible for the Christians, or the Koran for the Muslims,
class sessions are usually lively and rarely dull because there are always new thor to learn. The Bible
does not run out of interesting topics to discuss

How Teaching is Done

Teaching in the Christian Church is done through the following:

1. Sermon or preaching. The sermon is the main part of the divine service. Among the Protestants, it is
delivered usually by a minister or pastor and among the Catholics, by a priest. The sermon is equivalent
to the lecture in the secular school.

2. Sunday school. This is a regular class held every Sunday in which the Bible is studied. The class session
usually Tests for one hour. There are separate classes for adult males, adult females, young adults,
young people and children.

3. Bible studies. Bible studies are held at designated times and places usually in houses of church
members. Soe Bible studies are held regularly during week days or Sunday afternoons but some are held
irregularity-

4. Sermons on special occasions. Occasionally, sermons are delivered by a minister during special
occasions such as birthday parties, wedding anniversaries, thanksgiving services, blessing a house, a car,
or any appliance, and necrological services.
Christmas and summer institutes. Usually, young pec ple hold institutes during the Christmas and
summer vacations lasting one week each. During these periods, they study the Bible and also invite
speakers to deliver sermons.

6. Rallies and spiritual retreats. These are gatherings of church members during which the Bible is
studied and some speakers are invited to expound on certain religious topics. These are very similar to
the seminars and work shops held in schools.

7. Evangelistic meetings. These are held for the purpose of proselyting people to join the Church. Some
speakers expound on some parts of the Bible to convince the hear ers to join the Church. There are
many things learned about salvation during these meetings.

8. Daily vacation Church school. This is held during the long vacation. These are Bible studies but the
participants are children only. They are held in many places outside the church

Conferences. The Church also holds conferences during which many of the church activities, the
doctrines of the Church, and the Bible are discussed. Many things are learned from these discussions.

What Are Learned in the Church

1. History. The Bible contains many facts of history. Many facts about the ancient histories of Persia,
now Iran, Mesopotamia, now Iraq, and Israel are contained in the Bible

2. Prophecies. There are many prophecies in the Bible some of which already happened. One example is
the birth of Christ. The birth of Christ was prophesied about five hundred years before He was born.
Many of the Biblical prophecies are still to happen according to many Biblical scholars

3.Divine values. Divine values deal with the right relation ship between God and men and the right
relationship among men themselves. These are prerequisites to the salvation of the soul. Some
examples of divine values are faith in God, love for fellow men, the Ten Commandments faith in Christ,
good works, charity, ete

Characteristics of Divine Values Some characteristics of divine values are the following

a. Divine values are given and mandated by God

The Ten Commandments are given and mandated by God to be obeyed. Love thy neighbor as thyself" is
given by Jesus Christ. And so with the other divine values which are too many to be enumerated here

Human values, on the other hand, are developed by men themselves. Human values are also cultural in
the sense that a value in one locality may not be a value in another locality Take the case of kissing the
hands by the young to show their respect for their elders. This is practiced in some localities but this is
unknown in other localities Shaking hands as a sign of goodwill is prac ticed in the Philippines and in the
United States but this is not a common practice in Japan and in other countries.

b. Divine values are universally intended.

Divine values are mandated by God to be applied to all The Ten Commandments mean to be applicable
to all.

And so with the other divine values

Human values are cultural. The kissing and shaking of hands are practiced only in some localities but
they are not in others. In some tribes in India and in New Guinea, women can have two or more
husbands and among the Muslims a man may take two or more wives. These are already violations of
the monogamous marriage mandated by God

c. Divine values are eternal

Divine values are eternal in the sense that they do not change They remain the same for all time. The
Ten Commandments are the same and still in effect as when they were given by God thousands of years
ago, Divine values are the same now and forever as when they were originally given

Human values are not so. They change, though slowly and gradually. Some years ago, kissing in the
movies was taboo. Now, it is a common practice. Some years ago, seldom if at all could one hear about a
girl being pregnant before her wedding day. Now, premarital sex and preg.

nancy are becoming more and more common.

d. Violators of divine values are punished.

Violators of divine values are always punished by God. The only escape is for them to be truly repentant
and ask forgiveness of God. If God forgives them, then they escape punishment, otherwise they surely
suffer for their deeds

Not all violators of human values are punished. One may lie to another and he will get away with it
unpunished.