J.M.J/S.A.

W
Notre Dame of Jolo High School-Kasulutan
Gandasuli Street, Jolo, Sulu
Philippines

Getting
. To Know The Topic

Social Institutions in General

How do we define social institutions in general?

In a society, social institutions are its structural

components. They play one or more fundamental activity and/or
function. No society could ever exist without social institution
because they play different but specific roles in the development
of a human being. They guide human behavior and they also
shape human interaction.

Indeed, social institutions play a pivotal role in putting order and structure to individual’s behavior.
They are the barometers that determine what may be termed as normative character. They dictate what
are the proper behaviors for particular situations. They guide the individuals on their relationship to
themselves, to others, to society as a whole, and to a Higher Being.

Functions of Social Institutions

Some scholars see social institutions as performing three important functions, namely:

1. They create the structure where human social relationships are formed and distinguished. In the
context of everyday life, social institutions serve as catalysts for the expected roles individuals must
play in relation to other individuals and the community. in other words, social institutions determine
and sometimes dictate the role we play in the community.

2. Social institutions list down “rules” covering how and where one may find the gratification for certain
needs; they answer for certain needs of an individual and of society. They also assign available
positions of power to suitable persons, depending on what needs must be responded to, meaning,
they facilitate discovery of leaders for certain needs and for certain community.

3. Social institutions also assign meanings to symbols, policies, and ideologies. They set the
parameters and the contexts by which those meanings exist in the social systems.

THE TRADITIONAL ROLES OF THE SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Traditionally, there are five social institutions, namely the family, school, church, government, and
media. Some add the economy as another social institution. However, for our purposes, we will discuss only
the roles played by traditional social institutions in the life of an individual and of society.
.
FAMILY.

The first in our list is the family. In the Philippines, the family is the first
and most basic unit of society because it is here where the child learns his or
her core values, beliefs, and behavior. The family is also where he or she
realizes his or her character.

The family provides a kinship system for social organization. It

provides the basic living arrangements; it furnishes companionship,
emotional and social support for its members. It is the family that cares for
the young physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually.
 The family also ensures responsible citizens, preserves society, and balances the desires of individual
liberty with the demands of community responsibility. James C. Ure, professor at George Wythe University,
refers to the family as the “first place [where] a child learns to make personal sacrifices for the good of the
whole.” In the family, the parents expose a child to various activities or ideas to allow him or her to discover
his or her unique interests and enhance his or her sense of self. In the family, the parents also teach a child
to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of the family and others.

SCHOOL.

The next most influential social institution to the individual and in the
community is the school. The school is always referred to as the second
home and the teachers are the students’ second parents. It is where one
finds opportunity for intellectual, social, and emotional growth.

One of the school’s functions is to pass on essential cultural

knowledge to members of a society. It informs and passes on to generation
after generation the community’s culture. It teaches values that Filipino
treasure.

The school also instils knowledge about the world. While it keeps the local culture alive, the school introduces
the young to the diversity of the world. It teaches respect to differences in culture. It opens the minds and
hearts to peaceful coexistence among people of different social classes, ethnic backgrounds, and religious
beliefs.

The school is also the seedbed for the young to grow and acquire skills necessary to be competent in
the work place. It helps prevent socio-economic inequities by educating the young in knowledge and skills. It
breaks the boundaries of human ignorance and fear, helping societies to avoid repeated historical mistakes.
Together with the Church, and the media, the school keeps the citizens informed of civic affairs and duties to
that government will always be checked.

John Adams saw the role of the school as the gatekeeper of knowledge that facilitates maintenance of
freedom. Adams said: “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people… They
have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of
knowledge – I mean, of the characters and conducts of their rulers.”

CHURCH.

While some modern thinkers regard the Church or Religion with little
importance, not a few great men find value with her. For instance, John
Adams wrote that religion and virtue are the foundations of a republican and
free government. George Washington said that no national morality can
prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

The Church or religion is the repository of society’s moral belief system,

which can include ideas about magic, superstition and an explanation about
the origin of the universe. It tackles some fundamental questions about human
being’s existence and end.

Religion is necessary to determine group values or a common belief

system. It teaches a moral code that is generally reflective of the society and its
members. It sets the rules for meaningful living and how one should treat one’s
neighbors. It reminds citizens of their duties to God and neighbors.

When all else fails in the family, school, government, and media, the
Church or religion provides an answer. She provides answers for questions that
other social institutions evade or had no response.
 GOVERNMENT

The government is society’s political

organization. Generally, it keeps order and
protects inalienable rights. It is the
institutionalization of force to ensure society’s very
existence and order

In the Philippines, the government has three branches: the Executive, the Legislative, and the
Judicial branches. The first executes and implements the law to keep order at the various spheres of
society; the second passes laws and appropriates the budgets; and the last renders decisions to protect
rights and redress wrongs.

Thomas Jefferson declared, “…a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring
one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement,
and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”

MEDIA

Finally, media is the last social institution. While media may be the last
among the social institutions, its force and effect to individuals and to society
can never be underestimated. Media’s role it to disseminate information,
highlight important current events, and stand as a witness to these events. It is
an observer of cultural, political, communitarian, and educational events.

If media is free and credible, it provides a check on the government, the

church, and the school and it increases the political astuteness of republican
citizens. At the same time, it may challenge and change long-held values in the
family.

THE CHALLENGES FACING THE TRADITIONALL ROLES OF THE SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

The five basic institutions are facing challenges today, from within each and from one another. For
instance:
1. FAMILY
The family is now challenged as the primordial basic social institution.
Traditionally, the family is composed of a mother, a father, and the children
(and sometimes the extended family). However, in the Philippines, parenting
has become a singular task by either a mother or a father alone as one parent
goes out of the country to work as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW).

With the advent of same sex relationships, the basic male-female relationship is now being challenged as
more and more same-sex partners want to establish a conjugal home with all the “trappings” of the family.

Furthermore, the area of discipline and formation of the child used to be the exclusive domain of
parents, shared only by the school and the Church. Moreover, today, media, especially the internet, has
taken a passive, if not an active, part in disciplining the child. Social networking sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, and so on share the parents’ primordial role as the child’s formators.

2. SCHOOL
The school is now faces challenges to its secondary position in the
hierarchy of influence. As earlier pointed out, the media and the internet
take part in the child’s formation; and some of the values the school teaches
run diametrically against the values prevalent in the media and the internet.
Aside from the challenges to its value formation role, the school is also
facing the problem of lack of funding so as the student-teacher ratio has
become so difficult to manage. Basic infrastructure and personnel are not
also available.
 3. CHURCH
The widespread secularism has relegated the Church and Religion to the
sidelight. What used to be an influential force in the formation of an individual and
society has slowly become helpless. This could be because the Church has stopped
responding to the basic needs and questions of a person. She may have remained
in her antiquated position on many issues, thus turning irrelevant to many people
and to society as a whole.

4. GOVERNMENT
Graft and corruption has become the albatross of the
government. The institution tasked to protect basic rights has now lost
its credibility here in the Philippines as more and more scandals are
exposed. Public or government services have become synonymous to
corruption as many of its branches and officials lose credibility.

5. MEDIA
The world of media used to be the newspaper, radio, film and
television. Now, there are different platforms where media
practitioners can now speak, not limited by the censorship to the
traditional media. Now, we have the Internet with social networking
as a more potent force. Furthermore, media with the advent of the
Internet is no longer exclusive to the professionals but shared to
people who boldly use the World Wide Web as their platform.
Lastly, media is also plagued by corruption within the ranks of its
practitioners, thus hitting it with credibility questions (especially now
that many media personalities migrate to politics and the
government service).

We have set the individual challenges of the five basic social institutions. However, as a group, they
are also challenged. For freedom to reign, all the five societal institutions must be on an equal plane; no one
must claim being more important or having more power or influence that another. When one gains
predominance, a form to tyranny emerges. For instance, a family can become a mafia or an oligarchy;
religion may turn the state into a theocracy; a government may become a monarchy, aristocracy, or even a
dictatorship.

The best way to keep the five social institutions on a level plane is to keep the government play its
proper role. It must be the balancing force, without favoring any one institution, including itself. At the same
time, the government must allow all institutions to play their individual functions in society without weakening
any of them. It must not take the place and academia as citizens are kept in the dark on important matters.
For the Philippines to survive and thrive in this century and the next, the Government and business’ influence
must not eclipse that of the family, community, religion, academia, and media. They must supplement one
another and let each function accordingly.

Wisdom from Others

In social institutions, the whole is always less
than the sum of its parts. There will never be
a state as good as its people, or a church
worthy of its congregation, or a university
equal to its faculty and students.
-Edward Abbey
“An aristocratic society is on where the desire
for personal perfection is the animating spirit
of the social institutions.”
-Nicolas Gomez Davila