INSTITUTIONAL GROUP

AGENCIES FOR
EDUCATION
 As far as education is concerned, there are three very important
institutional groups that serve as agencies for learning: the family, the
school , and the church.
THE FAMILY
The family is the smallest social institution. Bertrand defines family
as a “ socially sanctioned group of persons united by kinship, marriage
or adoption, who share a common habitat generally and interact
according to well-defined social roles that maintain and protect its
members and perpetuate the society.” (Lardizabal, p. 91-92). In similar
terms, a family is composed of a father, a mother, and their children.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE FAMILY
• The family may be classified as follows:

1. According to Structure
a. Conjugal or nuclear family- consisting of husband, wife, and children.
b. Consanguine or extended family- consisting of married couple,
children and relatives.
2. According to the Number of Spouses
a. Monogamy- consisting of only one husband and one wife married at
a time. This means that a widower or a widow can marry again.

b. Polygamy-plural marriage. There are three classes.

1) Polyandry- one woman married to two or more men at the same
time.
2) Polygamy- one man married to two or more women at the same
time.

3) Cenogamy- group sex. Two or more men and two or more women
having sex together at the same time one after the other.
3. According to Line of Descent
a. Patrilineal- descent is through the father’s line.
b. Matrilineal- descent is through the mother’s line.
c. Bilineal- descent is through the father’s and mother’s line.

4. According to Residence
d. Patrilocal- when the newlyweds live with the parents of the
husband.
e. Matrilocal- when the newlyweds live with the parents of the wife.
f. Neolocal- when the new couple live by themselves and have a
separate household.
5. According to Dominance
a. Patriarchal- when the father is the head and makes the major
decisions and is dominant.
b. Matriarchal- when the mother is the head and makes the major
decisions and is dominant.
c. Equalitarian- when the father and mother share in making major
decisions and have equal authority.
General Functions of the Family
1. Perpetuation of the human race – the most important function of
the family is sexual reproduction to perpetuate the human race. But
human reproduction should be tempered to suit the needs of
society, particularly economic in nature.
2. Rearing of the young - children are helpless when they are born
and they need to be taken cared of. They need to be properly fed,
clothed, and sheltered and given all the necessary comforts.
3. Providing psychological needs of the young - they need love,
affection, and sense os security.
Educative Functions of the Family
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 clean and keep things in proper order.
2. Ethical standards - 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.
3. 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, etc.
4. Psychomotor and manipulative skills - they are taught how to use
properly kitchen tools, appliances, and utensils, especially for girls, and
carpentry tools for boys.
5. Resourcefulness, industry, and thrift - training the children to be
resourceful, industrious, and thrifty is an important concern of most
parents.
6. Recreational skills - recreation is important to all people and they
engage in recreational activities in one form or another knowing or
unknowingly.
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 properly and how to solve exercises and
verbal problems in arithmetic.
THE SCHOOL
A school is an institution established by society in which the
accumulated experiences of the past generations are passed on the
incoming generation by means of systematized programs of instruction.
Functions of a School
1. Conservation function - the school conserves and preserves
through its libraries and other devices recorded accumulated
experiences of the past generations such as knowledge, inventions,
mathematics, science, historical facts, skills, customs, traditions,
language, literature, music, writing, and the arts.
2. Instructional 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.
3. Research function - 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.
4. Social Service function - this may be done through some kind of
outreach programs.
Relationship between the School and the
Community
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
usefulness 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 he place such as farms, rivers, lakes,
mountains and forests, museums, libraries, industries, industrial and
commercial firms, shops, laboratories, offices of different kinds, and many
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 improving 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.
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 there 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 things to learn. The Bible does not run out of
interesting topics to discuss.
HOW TEACHING IS DONE
Teaching in the Christian School 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 by a minister or
pastor and among the Catholics, by a priest.
2. Sunday School – this is a regular class held every Sunday in which
the Bible is studied. The class session usually lasts for one hour.
3. Bible Studies – are held at designated times and places usually in
houses of church members.
4. Sermons on Special Occasions – usually delivered by a minister
during special occasions such as birthday parties, wedding
anniversaries, thanksgiving services, blessing a house, a car, or any
appliance, and necro logical services.
5. Christmas and Summer Institutes – usually, young people 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.
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 hearers to join the Church.
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.
9. Conferences – the church also holds conferences during which many
of the church activities, the doctrines of the Church, and the Bible are
discussed.
WHAT ARE LEARNED IN THE CHURCH
1. History – the Bible contains many facts of history. Many facts about
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. It was prophesied
about five years before He was born.
3. Divine Values – divine values deal with the right relationship with God
and men and the right relationship among men themselves. These are
prerequisites to the salvation of the soul. Some examples of the divine
values are faith in God, love for fellowmen, the Ten Commandments,
faith in Christ, good works, charity, etc.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DIVINE VALUES
a. Divine values are mandated and given by God.
The Ten Commandments are given and ,mandated by God to be obeyed.
“Love thy neighbor as thyself” is given by Jesus Christ.
Human values, on the other hand, are developed by men themselves.
They are also cultural in the sense that a value in one locality may not be a
value in another locality.
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 not in others.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DIVINE VALUES
c. Divine values are eternal
Divine values are eternal in the sense that they not change. They
remain the same for all time. The Ten Commandments are the same and
still in effect as when they are given by God thousands of years ago.
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
pregnancy 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.