Exam 12: Education and Religion

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Religious groups vary in their organizational structure. Sociologists have developed typologies or ideal types of religious organizations so they can better study a wide variety of religious groups. The most common categorization sets forth four types: ecclesia, church, sect, and cult. Some countries have an official or state religion known as the ecclesia-a religious organization that is so integrated into the dominant culture that it claims as its membership all members of a society. Membership in the ecclesia occurs as a result of being born into the society, rather than by any conscious decision on the part of the individual members. A church is a large, bureaucratically organized religious organization that tends to seek accommodation with the larger society in order to maintain some degree of control over it. Church membership is largely based on birth; typically, children of church members are baptized as infants and become lifelong members of the church. Churches have a bureaucratic structure, and leadership is hierarchically arranged. Usually, the clergy have many years of formal education. Churches have very restrained services that appeal to the intellect rather than the emotions. Midway between the church and the sect is the denomination-a large organized religion characterized by accommodation to society but frequently lacking in ability or intention to dominate society. Denominations have a trained ministry, and although involvement by lay members is encouraged more than in the church, their participation is usually limited to particular activities, such as readings or prayers. Denominations tend to be more tolerant and are less likely than churches to expel or excommunicate members. This form of organization is most likely to thrive in societies characterized by religious pluralism-a situation in which many religious groups exist because they have a special appeal to specific segments of the population. Perhaps because of its diversity, the United States has more denominations than any other nation. A sect is a relatively small religious group that has broken away from another religious organization to renew what it views as the original version of the faith. Unlike churches, sects offer members a more personal religion and an intimate relationship with a supreme being, who is depicted as taking an active interest in the individual's everyday life. A new religious movement, formerly termed a cult, is a loosely organized religious group with practices and teachings outside the dominant culture and religious traditions of a society. Leadership is based on charismatic characteristics of the individual leader, including an unusual ability to communicate and to form attachments with other members.

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One of the biggest problems in public education today results from unequal funding. Most educational funds come from state legislative appropriations and local property taxes. Per-capita spending on public and secondary education varies widely from state to state. In part, this is because the local property tax base has been eroding in central cities. Many middle- and upper-income families have moved to suburban areas with their own property tax base so their children can attend relatively new schools equipped with the latest textbooks and state-of-the-art computers, advantages that schools in central cities and poverty-ridden rural areas lack. In many areas of the United States, schools remain racially segregated or have become resegregated after earlierattempts at integration failed. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas) that "separate but equal" segregated schools are unconstitutional because they are inherently unequal. Efforts to bring about desegregation-the abolition of legally sanctioned racial/ethnic segregation-or integration-the implementation of specific actions to change the racial/ethnic and/or class composition of the student body-have failed in many school districts throughout the country. Some school districts have bused students across town to achieve racial integration. Others have changed school attendance boundaries or introduced magnet schools with specialized programs such as science or the fine arts to change racial/ethnic composition of schools. According to recent studies, predominantly minority schools have lower student-retention rates, have higher teacher-student ratios, and employ less qualified teachers who typically have lower expectations for their students. According to researchers, schools tend to reinforce rather than eliminate the disadvantages of race and class during the years of a child's educational experience