College of the Immaculate Conception

Cabanatuan City

A Research about Function of Schools according to Calderon:

Conservation Function,

Instructional Function,

Research Function,

And

Social Service Function

Submitted by:

Mylene S. Abergas, BEEDII

Submitted to:

Mr. Virgilio F. Manalang, MaEd.

I. Introduction

McNergny and Herbert (2001) described the school as first and foremost a social

institution, that is, an established organization having an identifiable structure and a set of

functions meant to preserve and extend social order. As such its primary function is to move

young people in mainstream society. The curricula, teaching process of evaluation and

relationships among people reinforce a public image to which young people are expected to

aspire.

The school is a place for the contemplation of reality, and or task as teachers, in simplest

terms, is to show this reality to students. At home, parents teach reality to children in

profoundly personal, informal and unstructured way. But in school, teachers teach reality in a

professional, formal and structured way. Hence, in school there is a set of curriculum which

includes knowledge subjects, skill subjects, and enabling subjects.

Schools certainly act as a transmitter of knowledge and academic or the macro skills like

reading, writing, speaking, and listening. But they also serve other functions in our society as

well. The school is expected to produce leaders in all fields of endeavour: politics, education

trade and industry, science, especially in medicine and the like.

II. Discussion

There are four functions of schools: Conservation, Instructional, Research, and Social

Service Function (Calderon 1998).

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. All these are preserved for future generations.

Instructional Function

The main concern of the school is to pass 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 recipients of such instruction

are the young learners called pupils or students.

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 unknown facts or systems to improve the

quality of human life. In the performance of this function, for instance, some schools are said to

be inexhaustible if made operational or functional.

Social Service Function

One justification of a particular school to exist is render some kind of social service in the

place where it is located. This may be done through outreach programs which could be in a

form of literacy, health, means of livelihood, recreational activities, etc.