All of us grown up and developed within a family and matured to have our own families. We may differ in the system of Education we received either formal or informal Education.
One may ask,'' what is a family?''
A family is the smallest institution or unit in a community ,other institutions found are religious groups ,schools,social clubs etc.
Jary and Jary (1995) says a family is any group of persons united by ties of marriage,blood or adoption.
This may conclusive to mean a family is a social group characterised by common residence ,economic co-operation and reproduction, hence it comprise of adults of both sexes who maintain a social approved sexual relationship and children who might be their own or adopted.(Scott and Marshal 2005)
The important criteria of a family is members who are bond together if not by blood , then by some cultural ceremony such as marriage or adoption this ties them together relatively permanent so that they can live together and assumed the responsibility for each other.
The functionalists perceived the society as a social system with integrated social institutions of which a family is part of an institution which ensures order and stability in the society. Haralambos and Holborn (2008)say a family is a social instituation which has its specific functions ,thus socialisation,reproduction ,economic production and regulation of sexual behaviours which are shaped by values and consensus.
When the family fails to play its part it becomes dysfunctional and the society becomes sick , the whole system is affected. The consequence is social pathology where the moral fibre of the society decays. The family dyfunctionals are child abuse,divorce ,domestic violence ,death among others.
In the Education system a family function as an agent of primary socialisation that transmits society's norms ,values ,beliefs ,knowledge ,system ,skills and attitudes to the next generation (Ezewu 1993).
In other words a family is responsible of moulding the child into an acceptable responsibility and productive member of the society,hence the family is the foundation of all related Education of the child for social acceptable behaviour.
Protective and nurturing of family should fulfil the child's needs ,for example Education ,shelter,food,health,security ,love,a sense of belonging ,clothing etc. According to Mwamwenda (1995)if this needs are not fulfilled the child's academic performance may be affected we are also likely to have child abuse,street kids,thieves and child prostitution.
The family also functions as biological reproduction of humanity ,the society needs new generations to ensure its continuity and survival thus reproduction as a primary and extremely important function of the family. If this function fails we are likely to experience a society to extinct.
The family regulates the sexual behaviours as it established norms, values and respect of moral sexual activities which cannot threatened family members to contact sexually related diseases,involve in sexual related violence , ended up in divorce or associate with multiple sexual partners among others. Hence it is the family that the child is socialised into strict rule and taboos like ripe ,incest ,adultery and pre-marital sex (Pretorius 2000). The failure of family to carry its responsibility, arised to the problems that might affects its functions which include rape ,prostitution ,sodomy ,incest and bestiality.
Therefore this seems to be lack of 100% total freedom advocated in any society or culture . Punishment for transgation differs from the society to society when family fails to play this role.
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