David Hargreaves Durkheim supporter Functionalists have criticised the Comprehensive school model because of its emphasis of developing the individual. David Hargreaves argued that not enough stress is placed upon the duties and responsibilities that an individual has towards the group life of the school.

And Hargreaves ‘School’ is not following the ideals of Durkheim of a micro society. He also accused schools of not providing enough of a sense of dignity for working class children. Such children who do not have dignity and a sense of belonging to the school will rebel and create their own subcultures which reject the school and the values that it is promoting and therefore reject wider society as a whole.

Hargreaves Hargreaves argued for more stress to be placed upon the social role of the individual pupil within school. Competence, contributions to school life and being valued need to be enhanced. In order for this to occur Hargreaves proposed the following changes to the curriculum:-

Changes should be 1. Provision for students to pursue areas of study that they have a special interest or talent in. 2. Compulsory part of the curriculum e.g. Community Studies so that students realise their role in society. 3. Art, craft and sport to play a vital role. Plays etc. allow students to contribute to a collective enterprise. This would develop a sense of loyalty to the school and foster respect for each other and the contribution that they are making to the school.

And also 4. But recent changes in education encourage individual competition and lead individuals to make vocational decisions. Therefore community studies and sport could be argued as not the best subjects for preparation for working life. 5. As functionalists Emile Durkheim and Hargreaves are against individual competition in an exam system but other functionalists - The New Right - see competition as a vital aspect of modern education.

Criticisms of Emile Durkheim 1. Do schools in the UK adequately transmit shared values, promote self-discipline, cement social solidarity? Is it there responsibility to do so? 2. Are the norms and values assumed by Emile Durkheim, as transmitted by schools, those of society as a whole, or are they the norms and values of the ruling classes - an elite? 3. Hargreaves is more aware of the variety of cultures and values in society and points to the limitations of modern day education.