Which claim did Parsons make about education's role in society?

• A. It passes on core values and facilitates transition from family to wider society
• B. It primarily reinforces class positions and inequality
• C. It has no role in socialisation
• D. It creates manual labor roles through reproduction

Answer: (A)

Parsons sees education as secondary socialisation that passes on shared values and prepares young people for life in the wider society. It transmits norms such as punctuality, discipline and achievement, and uses universal standards to assess merit rather than family or local customs. This helps individuals move from the family’s particularistic values to the broader, universal expectations of adult society, while also sorting people into appropriate roles through merit-based assessment. Because it both instills common values and facilitates the transition from family to public life, this description best captures his view of education’s function.