296 l:Iarvard Educationa/ Rcvie¡U

cultural obstades to the Sllccess Q[ programmes o[ edllCational expansio n in The School Class as a Social System:
underdeveloped societies.
Our thesis, ¡hen, is ¡hal lhe wcaknesses of the soóo]ogy of educarion are Sorne of I ts Functions in American Society~
lhe result, in pan, of the faet that too few professional sociologists hase
paid it dctailed and systematic attention, so tbat ¡he ocw problems raised
br ¡he dcvelopment of industrialism have gane unnoticed ar unexplor~d
ror their theoretical and pr;:ctical implicarlo»s; lhal ¡he currcrn interest
of social anthropologists in educatioll js proving, fOl" methadolagical rcaSOns
a mixed blessillg; ami that lhe ficld of work for ¡he sociologist concerned
with developed societies must be definee! in il15titutional, llot functional TALCOTT PARSONS
terms- that is, in terms of the study of ,pedalised euucational ínstitutions Harvard Univeuity
and their personnel, and not in term, oE educatíon as socialisation, or an
exercise in "genelic psychology." The sociology of educational ínstitutions
in deve\opeel socicties needs tú Le undert¡¡ken for Íls own s¡¡ke and in the
'ro same terms as [hc spedalised study of other social institutions. Only the
'. detaiIcd study of educational iostitutions io relatioo to various aspects of the
THls .E$SAY WILL A"fTEMPT TO OUTLlNE, if only sk(;:tehily, an analysis of the
dementary and seeondary sehool dass as a social system, and lhe relation of
wider social structure can providc [he iodispens¡¡bk fr¡¡mework for the its strueturc [O ilS primary functions in the society as an agency of sociali-
, analysis of thcir structure and functioning and of their contribution to zatíon and alloeation. While it is important that the sellool dass is nonnally
• the perennial anel crucial problems of social organisation; namely, lhe
part of the Iarger organization of a sehool, lhe dass ralher thJn the whok
problems of socialising individuals, trammitting eul[unc, and maintaining
school will be lhe unit of analysis here, for it is rceognized both by che
) social cohesion. ¡choo! SySlcm and by the individual pupil as the place where lhe "business"
oí formal education actually takcs place. In elememary sehools, pupils of

el·:
. j
one grade are typieally plaeed in a single "c\ass" under onc main teaeher,
bul in the sccondary school, and sometimes in the upper e1ementary grades,
. ) the pupil works on differcnt subjecls under differem teachers; here lhe
j. compkx of c\asses participatcd in by rhe same pupil is lhe signincant unit
.\
ji for our purpases.

:JI' THE PROBLEM: SOCIALIZATION AND SELECl"ION

Our main interest, then, is in a dual problem : fint oí how the school dass
functions to imernalizc in íts pupils both lhe eOffirnitments and capacities for
5ueeessful performance oí their future adult roles, and second of how it
functions to alloeate mese human resourees within lhe role·structure of the
adult socielY. The primary ways in which [hese two problems are inter·
related wil! provide our main poims oí refcrenec.
First, from the funetional point of view the school c\ass ca n be treated as
an agency of socialization, That is to say, it is an agency through which
individual personalilies are trained to be motivationally and teehnically
adequate to lhe performance of adult roles. It is not lhe sole such agency;
• 1 am ind~ble<! lo ),.{rs. Catolyn Cooper for rerearch a$Si'(ance in the r~l~vant literaturc
~nd for editorial ,,"or1< on th. first draft o/ this papero

[Volu me T we nty· nine Nu mbe r 4 Fall 1959 ]

[ 298 Haroard Educational Review
the family, info nnal "pecr group5." churches, and sundry volulHary Or
7.ations al! playa part, as does actual on-lhe-job training. But, io lhe ~ru.
o 0 '!!nl gra d e unu°1 emry mto
eXlen d mg f roro entry lOto ° lhe labor fo""
rc;e or
marriage. lhe school dass may be regarded as lhe focal socializing agen
The socializa!ion function may be surnmed up as lhe development ¡ n ~.
d ividuals ol the commitrncnu and capacities which are es5em ial prere qUl..
Sile:¡ oC their fUlUre role-performance. Cornmitments mar be brolen clOwn
in turn into t\VO components: commitmem lO lhe implementatían al lhe
~
broad va/ll t s of socicty. and commitment to lhe performance o l a spedfic
lype of r ole within (he struclurt o( society. Thus a person in a relative\
hllmble IX(llpalion may be a "sol id citizen" in the sense of (Ommi!ment t~
honest work in that occupation, without an intensivc and sophisticated
<:oncern with lhe implementatioll of society's higher-levd values. Or con_
versely, someone else might objcct lO lhe anchorage of [he feminine role in
marriage and lhe family on the grounds that such anchorage keeps society's
total talent resources from being distributed equhably to business, goven¡.
ment, and 50 on. Capacitics can also be broken down into two (omponents,
0'
[he first being competence or lhe skill to perform [he tasks iovolved in [he
individuaJ's roles, and (he second being "ro!e-responsibility" or [he capa_
city to Uve up to other people's expeclations oí lhe interpcrsonal behavior
appropriate to these roles. Thus a mechanic as well as a doctor need! to
have nOl only lhe basic "sk ills o í his trade," but also lhe ability lO behave
responsibly toward lhose people with whom he is brought into COntacl in
his wo rk.
While 011 lhe one hand, lhe school c1ass may be regarded as a primary
agency by which these differem cpmponents of commitmems and capacitics
are generaled, on the other hand, il is, [rom the poim of view of the socielY,
an agency of "manpower" allocalion. I t is well known that in American
society lbere is a very high, and probably increasing, correlation belween
one's status level in the socicty and one's level oI edu<:ational auainment.
Both social status and educational leve! are obviollSly re1ated to the cecu·
pational status which is auained, Now, as a result oE the general process of
both educational and occupational upgrading, completion of high school is
increasingly coming to be the norm for minimum satisfactory educational
attainment, and the most significant line for future occupational status has
come to be drawn betwecn members ot an age·cohon who do and do not go
to colIege,
We are interested, then, in what it is about the school das! in our society
that determines the distinction between the comingents of the age-cohort
which do and do not go te collegc, Because of a tradition of localism and
¡-he 5clloo l C/ass as a Social SyJtem 299
. a rather pragmatic pluralism, dIere is apparemly considerable variety
aJIl0ng school systems oC various cities and Slates. Although the situatio n
Od in melropolita n Bas ton probably represents a more hig hly structurcd pat·
ler n lhan in many other parts of the country, it is pro bably not so extreme
In.
as tO be misleading in ies main features. Thcre, though of cou ne actual
tlltry into college does not come umil alter graduation (rom high school,
tite main d ividing Hne is between those who are and are nOI enrolled in lhe
coJlege prcparalory course in high school; lhere is only a small amount o(
shihillg either way afler about the nimh grade when lhe decision is nor-
ma[\y made. Furtherrnore, lhe evidence seems tO be that by C(Ir tite mast im-
portant critcrion of selectioll is lhe record of school performance in clernen-
lary school. These records are evaluated by lcachers and principals, and
lhac are few cases oí emcring tlu: college preparalory course against lheir
advice, lt is therefore not stretching the evidence too far te say broadly that
¡he primary sclcctive process occurs through dHlercntial school performance
in e1cmelHary school, and that the "seal" is pUL on it in junior high schooJ.l
The evidence also is that lhe seJective process is genuinely assonative, As
in virtuall y aH comparable processes, ascriptive as wcli as achieved factof$
influence the outcome, In this case, the ascr iptive factor is lhe socio-ecollomic
5talUS of the chi!d's family, and the {actor underlying his opportunÍly for
achicvement is his individual ability. In the sludy oC 3,318 Boston high
scltool boys on which these ge ne ralizations are based, each oí t\tese CaclOn
was quite highly correlated with planning college, For examplc, lhe per-
«mages planning college, by father's occupation, were: 12 per cent for
serni-skilled and unskilled, 19 per (em for skilled, 26 per cent for minor
",hite conar, 52 per cent Cor middle white collar, and 80 per cent for major
",hile collar. Likewise, imemions varied by ability (as measured by I Q),
namely, I I per cem for the lowe'n quimile, 17 per cent for the next, 24 per
,em for lhe middle, 30 per cent for the next to lhe top, and 52 per cent
for lhe highest. lt should be noted airo lhal ",ithin any ability quimile, the
relatiomltip of plans to {alher's occupation is secn. For example, within tite
very imponant top quintilc in ability as measured, the range in college
intentiOlls was from 29 per cent for sons of laboren lO 89 per cem for sons
oC major white collar persons. 2
'Thc princip31 roure" for lhese ,tatcmenl< i, a ,ludy 01 soci::tl mobilily among boy' in
len pub lic high II<:hool. in lhe IlOSlon metropoli t3n area, conducled by Samue l A,
SloufIcr, ~'lorcn,c R. Kluck.hohn. and lhe pre,enl author. Unforwnately lhe material
u IlOl available in l'ubli,llcd (orm.
' See lable {rom lhis ¡lUdy in J. A. Kahl, TIt~ American Clau Slructur~ (New York:
Rineh art &; Co" (953), p. 283. Dala (rom a nation",ide sa.mple of hig h $(hOOI $ludenu,
publi shed by the Educaliolt"l Testing Servi,e. show similar patterns of relationships.
For exant ple, lh e ET$ Itud y . ho"" variation. by fathe,', occupation , in pTo po Ttlon of high
rchool sen!ors planning college. of from 35 per ,enl lO 80 per cenl fo. OOyl Ind 27 pe '
tent lO 79 per cent fo. girl • . {From Bad,vound F/JCrof'J Rtlaud lo Col/eSe Plons "na
ColIlg~ Enrollm~nl among High School Srudenu (Princeton, N J.: Educational T csling
Serv,,:e, 1957J ).

300 Harvard Educational Re-vie:;,
The essen.tial points here ,eem to be that there is a relative1y . ,,-1 bases. Morcover, this is not an ascribed bul an achieved status; it is lhe
, un¡fo
critcrion o[ sdection operating lO dilferentiate between lhe COlleg' d nn
ao the
non-college contingents, and thal COI a vcry important part oI lhe coho
r
lhe operatían of chis criterion is llat a "put-up job"~it is llOl simpl t ¡[lC
o fffi · · l d · d · ·
a rrnHlg a prevlOus y etermme ascnptlve status. To be Sur .\. Yaway
e, elle
high-status, high-ability boy is very likely indeed to go to (ollege, 3nd {he
!OI'i-status, low-ability boy is very unlikely to go. But lhe "cross-pressured"
group Cor whom lhese two factors do llat coi ncide is oí considerable im.
portancc.
Comiderations like lhese ¡ead me lO conduele [hat lhe main process of
d¡¡ferenliatían (which from another paint of view is selection) lhat OCCurs
during elemenlary school takes place on a single main axis of achieuement.
Broadly, moreover, the differemialion lead, up 'through Iligh ,chool to a
bifurcation into college-goers and non-college-goers.
To assess lhe significance oí this pattern, Iet us look at its place in the
socia!üation oí the individual. Entering lhe system oI formal educalion i.s
the child's fUSl major ster out of primary involvement in his family of
orientatÍon. Within the family eertaÍn foundations of his mOtivalional
,I"io system have been laid down. But the only characterlstic fundamental to
later roles which has clearly been "detennined" and psychologically stamped
in by lhat time is sex role. The postoedipal child enters lhe system of
iJ formal ed ucation clearly categorized as boy or girl, but beyond thal his
i~
.
Tole is not ya dillerentiated. The process of selection, by which persons wil!
select and be seiectcd for calegorjes of roles, is yet to take place .
On grounds which cannot be gone into hefe, it m;)y be said lhat the most
important single predispositional factor with which the child enters the
, ochool is his leveJ of independence. By this is meant his leve! of seu-sumo
ciency reiative to guidance by adults, his capacity to take responsibility anJ
to make his olVn Jecisions in coping wjth new and varying situations. This,
like his ,ex role, he has as a (unction of his experience in the family .
The family ls a collectivity within which lhe basic status-structure is
ascribed in terms of biological position, thal is, by generation, sex, and age.
There are inevitably differences of performance rclative to these, and they
are rewarded and punished in ways lhat con tribute to differential character
formation. But these differences are nOl given th e sanction o( institutional·
ized social status. The school is lhe first socializing agency in the child's
experiem:e which institutionalizes a differentiation of status on nonbiologi·
• Thcre secm tú ~ !wo main rcaSOn5 why !he high ·status. low ·abili!y group i. no! SO
import an! as iu obvcrse. The tir,! i, that in a SOCiC1y of expanding ,:ducational and occupa·
tional 0l'portunüy ¡he gencral trend is One of upgrading, and (he social pressu re! IQ
downward mobilily are not a. greal a. !hey would otherwise ~_ The second is lh:u there
are cushioning mechani,ms which tend to proleCt the high status hoy who has dilficulty
"making the grade." He mar ~ sent lo a wllege with low academic Slandard" he may go lO
schools where the !ine between ability levels ;5 not rigorously drawn, etc.
301
\ "hl: Scllool elass as a Social System
\¡atUS " earned" by differ ential performance of the tasks set by the teacher,
~'ho is acting as an agent oí lhe community's school system. Lel us look at
structure o( this situation.
THE STR!JCTURE OF THE ELl';¡.,n;NTARY SCllOOL CLASS
In accorel with the generally wide variability of American institutions,
¡od of course the basically local control of school systems, there is con-
siderable variabiJity of school situations, but broadly they have ;) single
rdativeJy well-marked framework. 4 Particularly in the primar)' part o[ the
dcJUcntary grades, i.e., the firsl three grades, the basic pattern ineludes one
iJlain teacher for the dass, who tcaches all subjects and who is in charge of
lhc dass generally. Sometimes this early, and frequently in later grades,
other teachers are brought in for a few special subjects, particularl)' gyIll,
music, and art, but this does not alter lhe central position oí the main
tcacher. This teacher is usually a womall.~ The dass js with this one tcacher
lar lhe school year, but usually no longer.
The dass, lhen, is composcd of about 2.'5 age·peers of both sexes drawn
¡rom a relatively smalJ geograpliical area- the neighborhood. Except for
Jex in certain respects, there is initially no formal basis for dilIerentiation
of statuS within the school dass . The main structural dilIerentiation devel-
ops gradually, on the single main axis indicated aboye as achievement.
That the differentialion ~hould occur on a single main axis is insured by
tour primary íeatures of the situalion. The [¡rst lS lhe initial equalization of
lhe "contestants' " status by age and by "family background," the neighbor-
hood being typically much more homogcneous than is the whole society.
The second circumstance Ís the imposition oi a comInon set of tasks which
is, compared to most other task·are;)s, strikingly undilIerentiated. The school
situation is far more like a race in this respcct lhan most role·performance
situations. Third, there is the sharp polarization between lhe pupi]s in
their inítial equality and t he single teacher who is an adult and "represents"
the adult world. And fourth, lhere is a relatively syslematic process of
evaluation of lhe pupils' perfonnances. From the point of view o[ a pupil,
this evaluation, particularly (though not exclusively) in the form o( repon
card marks, constitutes reward andjor punishmenl for past performance;
'Th;s discuss;on refen; to publi.:: schools. Only about 13 per C<:rll oI all clemem~ry
and .~wndary ..:hool pupils atlend non·public school<, with th;$ proportion ranging
rrom about 22 per cent in the Northea,t 10 about 6 per cen! io me South. u. S. Offi,e of
Ed"ca{;oo, Bienn;al Suroey 01 Educalio" in lhe Un;led States, 1954·56 (W ~shington:
U. S. Goycroment l'rintíng Office, 1959), chap _ ii. "Statis,ics of Stale School Syltems,
1~55·56;' Table 44, p. 114.
' In 1955.56, 13 pe.- cen! of (he pub!ic e1ementary $Chaol ;Ilstrllctional staff ;n the
Uniled Stat« were meno lbid., p. 7.
t;;; - 56 :W nf 5 rnhñ'rteeiilt t ;
304 HarvaTd Educational Review
co-operativcne~ in relation to (ellow-pupils, and good "work-habil$"
the Cundamentals, leading o n 10 capacily (or "Iead~rship" and " ini tiativ:~
The slriking Cae l a boullhis achicvemc nt eo nte lll IS thal in Ihe eJem
entary
grades these twO prima ry eomponclus are not c1carly differellliated lro
caeh other. R a ther, lhe pupil is evalualed in diffusely general ltrms. III
gaad pupil is deflned in terms oC a Cusion of the cognitive and lhe moral
.,
componenLS, in which varying we ight is given tO one or lhe other. Broadl
speaking, lhen, we may say Ihat the " high aehievers'· of the clementa/
sehool are bolh lhe ·'bright"' pupils. who cateh on easily lO their mor~
striclly inlellectual lasks, and the more "rcsponsible" pupils, who '·behave
weU" and on whom lhe lcacher can ··eounl·· in her diflicull problem~ of
managing the c1ass. One indicatíon lhat lhis is lhe case is lhe fact lhat in
elementary school lhe ¡lurely inlcllectua l tasks are relatively easy for the
pupil of high intelleetual ability. 1n many such cases, it can be presumed
that the prünary chaHenge to the pupil is nOI tú his imellecmal, bUl lO his
"moral," CapaCilics. On lhe whole, the progressive movemcnt seems to
have leaneJ in lhe clirection of giving: enhanced emphasis lO this compo..
nenl, suggesting that o( lhe lWO, it has tended tú become the more prohlelu.
aticaP
The e.$l!cmial poinl, then, seems to be that lhe elementary 5chool. re.
gardeJ in lhe light oC iLS socia!ilation Cu nction, is an agency which differ.
entiates lhe 5chool class broadly along a single continuum of achievemenl,
lhe content oC which is relative exeeUence in living up to lhe expectatioll$
imposed by lhe teache r as an agenl of lhe adult society. The criteria of
lhis achievemem are, generaUy speaking, undifferemialed into lhe cogni.
tive or lcchnical eomponem :lIld lhe moral or "social"· component, Hu t wiLb
respeel LO iu bcaring on socielal values, il is bwadly a differemialion o(
leveu oC capacity LO aCl in accord with thcse values. Though (he rdalion
is Car [rom neatly uniform, this differemiation unde rlies lhe processes o(
selcction Cor Icvels oC Slatus and role in lhe adull society,
Next. a few words should be said about lhe out-oC-school context in
which this process goes on. Besides lhe sehool class, thcre are c1early twO
primary social Slructures in which the child participa les: lhe family ami
the child's informal '·peer group."
FA"HLY AND PU:R GROUP IN RELAT10N TO THE SCHOOL CLASS
The sehool age ehild, of course, continues to live in the parental houre·
hold amI lO be highly dependent, emotionillly as well as instrumentally, on
'Thi, ~CcO"nl of ¡he IWO ( olllpon r ms of elcmemary ""hoal achi~v~m~m ~nd lh.ir
rclalÍon $umm~ri~cs imI' T<:ssioo! g~io ed fro m .he Ii!<: ramre, ra.I,c r ,han being bou-ed o"
¡he opinion:l of panicular ~ulhoTj¡ieJ. I have lhe impresaion ¡ha¡ achieve m~nI in lhis
ten"" corrQpond$ d06<'ly 10 wha¡ Í$ mUnl by lh~ tCrm as uw by McClelland ar>d hu
aMOCiateJ. Cf. D. C. McCleJland el at., The Achievemenl Motive (:-Iew York: APl'leton·
Cl!o.ury-Crofl$, Ine., 195').
Sc}¡ool Class as a Social System !O5
bis parenLS. But he is now spending se\'eral hours a day away from home,
il,lbjeCl to a disciphne and a reward s)"slem which are essentially independ-
(111 oE lhal administcred by the parenlS. M oreover, lhe range oí this mde-
ptlldeJlce gradua lly increases. As he grows older. he i5 pernlllted to range
Jl,lrlher terriLOrially Wilh neilher parental nor school supervision, and lO do
~n increas ing range oC things. He oflen gCLS an allowallee for personal
.peudillg and l>egins LO earn $Ome money of his own. Gene rally, hO\'/eve r, ¡he
entolional problem of dependence-independence continues LO be a very
saliem one through this pcriod, frequently with manifeslations by the child
oí compulsive independence.
Concolllitantly with Ihis, Lhe arca for association Wilh age-peers without
detailcd adult supcrvision expands. These associations are lied to lhe
family, on the one hand, in thal lhe home and yards of childrcn wlto are
neighbors and the adjacent Slreets serve as localions for theil· acliviLies;
and LO the 5chool, on the other hand, in that piJ.y periods ami going LO and
¡rom sehool provide occasions for informal association, even though oro
ganiled extracurricu lar activities are introduced oniy latero Ways of bring-
ing: some of this activity under another son o[ adult supervision are [ound in
such organizalions as the bay and girl scouts.
Two sociolog¡cal Characlerislics of peer groups al Ihis age are parlicularly
striking. One is lhe fluidity oC lheir boundaries, with individual ehildren
drift ing imo and out of associations. This element of "voluntary associat ion"
contrasts slrik ingly w¡th the child·s ascribcd membership in the family and
lhe school c1ass, over which he has no control. The second charaeterislie is
Ihe peer group's sharp segregalion by sex. To a striking d egree lhis is en·
forced by lhe children themselves ralher lhan by adu[ls.
The psychological Cunetions oC peer association are suggested by lhese
IWO charaCleristics. On lhe one hand, lhe peer group may be regarded as a
Jield for Ihe exercise of independence from adult control; hencc it is not
surp risi ng that it is Oflen a focus of bchavior whieh gocs be}"ond independ-
encc from adulLS lO the range of adull-disapproved 1>ehavior; when lhis
happens, i¡ is lhe sced hed from which the extremists go over into delin·
quency. But anolhe r very important fUllction is to provide lhe child a
source of non·adull approval and a(ceptance. These depend on '·technical"
.nd "moral"' criteria as diffusc as those required in lhe school situalion. On
lhe one hand, lhe peCf group is a freld for acquiring and displaying various
types of "prowess··; for bays t!lis is especiJlly the physical prowess which
may laler ripen into athlelic achievernent. On the other hand, it is a malter
c[ gaining acceplance from desirable peers as "belonging·· in the group,
which laler ripens inlo the conception of lhe popular teen-ager, lhe "right
guy. " T hus the ad uh paren ts are augmented by age·pecrs as a 50urce oC
rewards Cor performance and of secu r ity in aceeptance.
 306 H arvard Educali07ial
T hc importancc o f lhe pece grou!, foc sociali1atiOIl in OUT type oC ¡ .
should be clcar. The motivational foundat ions of charanee are ,-n ~b"Y
.. eVHa I
finl bid clown th rough idcm ifiC3lion Wilh parents, who arc gen . y
.. eTaliol\.
superiors, and lhe gcneralioll difference is a type examplc o f a hierarchi
¡[alUi dilIerence . .Bul 3n immerue pan of (he individual's adu h ro L Qj
,
ormancc WI·"have to 1.._' ""
lA; 111 aSSOClauo n WIl h status-equa Is oc near-equals.
cpc:r.
In lhis ¡itualian j t is impona m lO llave a reorgan ization of lhe motiva.
lional stcuclUre so lhal lhe original dom inance of lhe hie rarchical axis u
modified to ¡uenglhen lhe egalitarian componCIlLS. The pece group pla s
. . ,. Y
a prOffilllent p an In 1 liS process.
Sex segregation of l ~ lcncy period pecr groups may be regardcd as a prOCeM
of rcinforcement of scx-rolc idcnlificalion. Through intensive asso.::iation
with sex-peers and involvcmenl in scx'lyped aClivities. they strongly reino
force beiongingncss wilh other membcrs of the same sex and contrast with
the opposite sexo This is the more important because in the coeducationa!
school a set of forees opcratcs which speci/ically plays clown sex.rol~
diITerentiation.
cri Il is no ta ble that the l:l.tcncy period sex-rolc pattern, instcad o[ in5titu_
t
tional¡úng rclations lO mcmbers 01 lhe opposite sex, is characterized by an
avoidance of such relations, whieh only in adolescence gives way to dating.
This avoidance is clea d y associated with the proccss of reOTganization 01
the erolie compo nen ts ol motivational structure. The pre-oedipal objects
01 erot ie attachment lVere both imra-fam ilial a nd gene.-ation-superior. In
ooth res pcets lhere must be a fundamenta l shHt by the time the child
J reaches adulthood. 1 would suggest that o ne of lhe main functiol15 o ( me
avoidance pa u ern is lO help cope with the psychological difficulty 01 over-
coming the earlier incestuous attachments, and hence to prepare the child
for assuming a n altachmem to a n age·mate of o pposite sex later.
Secn i n this penpeclive, the sociali lation funct ion of the school eI.us
assume5 a panicular significan~. The socia lization (unctions 01 the famil y
b y this time are relatively residual, though thór importance should not be
underestimated. But lhe school remains adult-controlled and, moreover,
induces basicaliy the same kind of idenlifica tion as was induced by the
family in the child's pre--oedipal $lagc. This is to say that the learning of
achievemenHllOtivation ¡s, psychologically speaking, a process of identifi·
cation with lhe teacher, oC doing well in schooi in order to please lhe
lcachcr (often backed by the parents) in lhe same sense in which a pre·
oedipal child learns new skills in order to please his Itlother.
In this connection 1 maintain that what is internalized through the pro.
cess oí identificatio n is a reciprocal paucrn oC roIe.relationships.8 Unlesos
'0" ¡he ¡d~"¡¡Acatio,, proceu in (he f¡m;ly IoN: my p'per, "Soc;.l Structure .00 ¡he
Dnclopmenl 01 Penonality:' P.sychialry. XXI (Novcmber, 1958). pp. ~21.40.
1
School Class as a Social System '07
¡bere is a drastic fail ure of internaliution ahogethe r, not jusI one, but
!:10 th 5ides o f the interaction will be imernalized. Therc will, howe"er, be
JO emphasis on one or the olbcr, so that some children will more nearly
ideotiry with the sociali úng agent, and othen wiIJ more nearly idemily
~ith Ihe oppositc role. Thus, in the pre-oedipal slage, the "i ndependenf'
dlild has ideutified more with the parem, and the "dependent" one wilh lhe
child.role vis-a-vis the parent.
In school the tcacheT is institutionaliy d efined as superior to auy pupil
in tnowledge of cu rrieulum 5ubject-matter and in res ponsibili ty as a good
citizen o f the school. In so far as the school elass tends to be bifurcatcd
(and of co uese lhe dicholomizalion is [ar {ram absol ute), it will broadly be
on the basis, on the o ne hand, of identification wiLh the tcacher, or ac-
eepla nce of her role as a model; and, on the other hand, of identi/ication
with the pupil peer group. This bifurcation of the class on lhe hasis of
idcntification ;vith teacher or with pcer group so strikingly corresponds
with the bifurca tion into coliege.goers and non-collcge·goers that it wo uld
be hard to avoid lhe hypothesis that this structural diehotomintion in the
school systcm is the primary source of thc sclective dicho tom ization. Oí
course in detail the rdationship is blurred, but certa inly not more so than
in a great m3ny other field s of comparable analytieal complexity.
l ' hese considerations suggcst an imerpretation of some features of the
e1emelltary teacher role in American society. The fi nt major !tep in 5oci::lli-
tatio n, beyond that in t he famil y, takes place in the c1ementary 5chool, 50
it seems reasonable to expect tha! the teacher-figure should be characterized
by a combination of similarities lO a nd differences from parental figu res.
The ¡eacher, t hen, is a n ad ult, characterized by {he generalizcd superiority,
which a pa rent. also has, oí adult status re lative to ch ildre n. She is not,
however, ascriptive ly rclated to her pupils, but is performing a n occupa-
tional role-a role, however, in which the redpients o f her services are
tightly bound in solidar ity to her and to each other. Furthermore, com-
pared to a parent's, her res ponsibility to them is much more universalistic,
this beitlg reinforced, as we 5aw, by the size of lhe elass: il is a\so much
more o rienled to performance ralher than LO solicitude (or the emolional
"needs" o( the children. She is not emitled to suppress the distinction be·
tween lIigb and low aehievers, just beca use not being able tú be included
among the hig h graup would be too hard on liule Johnny- however much
tendencies in this direction appear as deviant panerns. A mother, o n lhe
other hand, must give first priority to the needs of her child, regardless of
his capacities to achieve.
I t is also sign ificant for the paralld of the elementary school clas! with
the family that the teacher is normally a woman. As background it should
be noted Ibat in most European systems until recently, and o(ten today in
 308
Han;ard Educational Reuie-r"
our prívate parochial lnd non-sectaria n schools, {he scxcs hay b
e ten
scgregatcd and each sex group has been taught hy teachers of ,h .
Clr oWn
sex, Given cocducation, however, ¡he WOIIlan tcacher rcpresents con,. .
" lllUlty
with lhe role of ¡he mo ther. Precisely lhe lack of diffcrentiation in th 1
e e (.
mcntary school "curriculum" betwecn lhe CQmponents of subJ"cctm - alter
competente and social rcsponsibility tits in wÍth the greatcr diffusencss 01
lhe fem ininc role.
BUl at (he same time, it is essenti~l tilat (he tcacher is not a rnother to
her pupils, bUl rnust insist on univcrsalistic !lorms ;J,nd lhe differential re.
ward of achievement. Above all she must be (he agent of bringing about and
legitimiúng a differcntiation of the school class on an achievement axis.
This a,pect of her role is furthcred by the fact that in American sodety the
femininc role is less confined to lhe familial context than in m05l other
societies, but joins the maseuline in oecupational and assoeiational Con_
ccrns, though sti1l with a greatcr relative emphasis on the family. Through
identification with their teacher, children oí both sexe5 lcarn thar the
category "woman" is not co-extensive with "mother" (and future wife), but
tbat the feminine rolc' pcrsonality i5 more complex than thar.
In thi, connection it may well be that there is a rela[ion to [he once.
controversial issue of lhe marriage of women teachers. lf rhe differentiation
between what may be called [he maternal and the occupational components
Jp. of [he {eminine role is incomplete and insecure, confusion between them
,e
, may be avoided by insuring [ha[ both are not performed by the same
i~ persons. The "old maid" teachcr oí American tradition may thus be
thought of as having renounced the maternal role in favor of the occupa.
tional. 9 Recent1y, however, the highly a[ective concern over lhe issue oí
married women's teaching has conspicuously abated, and their actual partie-
ipation has greatly increased. It may be suggested t/¡a[ this changc is
associatcd with a change in the feminine role, the most conspicuous feature
of which is the general social sanctioning of participation of women in the
labor force, not only prior to marriage, but also after marriage. This 1
should imcrprct as a process of structural differentiation in that the same
category of persons is permitted and even expected to engage in a more
complex set of role·functions than before.
The proeess of identification with the teacher which has been postulated
here i5 furthered by the fact that in the e1ementary grades the child typkally
has one tcacher, just as in the pre.oedipal period he had one parent, th~
mother, who was the focus oE his object-relations. The continuity between
the two phases is also favored by the faet that (he teacher, Iike the mother,
' l e i. worth noting that th~ Catholic parochial .chool system is in line with the moro
gen(ral older American traditÍon. in thal lhe lypical t~ach~r is a nun_ The only djf(~re","
in In," re.peu i. th~ .harp religiou. ~ymbolization of the difference l.>etween mother and
teacher.
rhe School Class as a Social System 309
js a woman. Bm, if she acted only like a mother, there wouid be no genuinc
reorganizaríon of the pupirs personality system. This reorganizaLion i5
lurthered by the features of the teacher role which diflerentiate it from the
¡llaternaI. Que further point is that while a child has one main teacher in
each grade, he \ViII usually have a new teacher when he progresscs to the
next higher grade. He is [hus accuSlOmed to the fact tbat teachers are,
"nJike mOlhers, "interchangeable" in a certain sense. The sehool year is
long enough to form an important relationship to a Pllrticular teacher, hut
not long enough for 11 high!)" particulari5lic attachment to crystallize. More
Iban in the parent-child relalionship, in school the child must internalize
his relation to the teacher's Tole rather than her particular personality; this
is a major ¡tep in the internalization of universalistie patterns.
SOCIALlZATION AND SELECTION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
To condude this discussion of the elementary school dass, something
should be said about the fundamental conditions underlying the process
which is, as we have seen, simultaneously (1) an emancipation o[ thc child
from primary emotional attachment lO his family, (2) an internalization of
a leve! oí societal values and norms that is a step higher than those he can
karn in his family alo ne, (3) a differentiation of the school class in terms
both of actual achievement and of differential valuation of achievement,
and (4) from society's poin t of view, a selection and allocation of its human
resou rces relative [O the adult role system. 10
Probably the most fundamental condition underlying this process is the
sharing of common values by the two adult agencies involved~the family and
the school. In this case the core is the shared valuation of achievement.
It indudes, aboye all, recognition that it is fair to give diITerential rewards
lor different levels of achievement, so long as there has becn fair acces, lO
opportunity, and faiT th:H these rewards lead on to higher.order opportuni-
ties for the successful. There is thus a basie sense in which the elementary
school class is an embodiment of the fundamental American value of equal-
ily of opportunity, in that it places valuc bol!! on inidal equality and on
di[erential achievement.
As a se<:ond condition, however, the rigor of this valuational pattcrn
must be tempered by allowance for lhe difficulties and needs of the young
(hild. Here the quasi.mo[herlincss of the woman teacher plays an important
part. Through her the scfIool system, assisted by other agencies, attempts to
minimize the insccurity resulting from the pressures to karn, by provicling a
(ertain amount of emotional support defined in terms of what is due to a
child of a given age leve!. In this respect, however, the role of the school
i5 re1ativcly smal!. The underlying foundation of suppon is given in the
>O The followinf(" summaty ;$ adapted from T. Parron •. R F_ RaTes el al.. Family,
SocjoUzatl"on and InteTactian PrauSJ (Glencoe. Ill.: The Free PrcM, 1955). esp. chapo ¡v.
 310 Harvard Educaticmal R evitw
homc, and as we have seen, :In important supplement to it can be providc
oy the informal peer assodations of lhe child. lt llIay be suggested lhat th~
developmcnl o[ extreme patttrns oí alienaríon {rom lhe school is "
related lO inadequate supporl in there re3pects. ,,"
Third, there must be a prOCCS5 or selective rewarding oC valucd pedorm.
ance. lIere lhe [cacher is c1carly l he primary agent, though lhe more pro-
gres~ive modes oí education altcropt LO enllSl dassmates more systematic.
ally lhan in lhe trad itiona l paueen. This is [he process that is lhe diree!
source of intra-class differentiation aJeng the achicvcmen[ axis.
T he final condition is tllat Ihis ¡nitia] differcnti:uion tcnds lo brillg about
a status systcm in [he c1ass, in whit;h nOI only lhe immediale rcsulu of
school work, bUl a whole series o[ influences, converge to consolidate
different expcctations whit;h may be thoughl oC as the children's "lcvels of
aspiralion." Generally sorne differentiation of friendship groups along this
line occurs, though it is importanl that it is by 110 means complete, and
l that children are sensitive to the attitudes nOl only o f their OWll friends,
bU[ of others.
j W ith in this general diseussion of proce:sse:s and eonditions, il is important
) to distínguish, as 1 have attemptcd 10 do all along, [he socialiuliolt oC lhe
individual from lhe sclective allocation o( comingents 10 future roles. For
lhe individual, the old familial identifieation is broken up (the family 01
orientatíon bccomes, in Freudian tcrms, a "lost objcct") and a new identifi_
cation is gradually buih uj>, providing the first-order structure of the child·s
identíty apan (rom his originally ascribed idemilY as son or daughter of
the "Joneses." He both transcends h is [amilial idcntification in favor of a
more independem one and comes to occupy a difIerentiated status within lhe
new system. His personal status is inevitably a direct funetion of the position
he achieves, primarily in lhe formal school dass and secondarily in the in·
formal peer group structurc. In spite of the sense in which achievement·
ranking takes place along a continuum, 1 have put forward reasom to sug·
gest that, with respect to Ihis status, there is an important differemiation
inlo two broad, relativcly distinct leve/s, and tha! his ¡>OI;ilion on one or Ihe
other enters imo the individual's definition of h is own idemity. To an
imponam degrce (his process o ( dillerenti ation is independent of the
socio-economic status of his family in the community, which to the child
is a prior ascribed status.
,.vhen we look at the same system as a selective mechanism from the
societal point o ( view, sorne further consideralions become important.
Firsl, it ma y be nOled that the valuation of achievemem and its sharing
by family and school nOI orliy provides lhe appropr ia te value! for internali:
zation by individuals, but abo pedorms a crucial integrative funetion for
lhe system. Differentiation of the dass along lhe achievement ax.is is
rhe Scllool CIIJ.I5 as a Social Syslem 3Il
inevitably a source of strain, becau~e it confers higher rewards and priv-
iltges on O!le eontingent than on ;lnother witilin the same system. This com-
Illon valuation hel~ make possible the acceptanee o f Ihe crucial diITeremia-
tian, especially by the losen in lhe competilion. Bere il is an essential poim
¡hat Ihis common value on achievement is shared by units with differem
st3.WSCS in the syslem. II cuts across the differemiation of families by socio·
economic status. It is necessary that then: be reaUstic opportunity ami that
the teaeher can be rdied on to impkment it by being "fair" and reward-
ing achievement by whoevcr shows capacity for iI. The faet is crucial that
!he distribution of abilities, though correlatcd with farnily status, dearly
does not coincide with il. There can [he n be a genuine sclective process
\vithin a set a l "rules of lhe game."
This commilmem 10 eommon values is flOt, however, the sole i nlegrative
mechanism coumeracting tite strain imposed by differentiation. Not only
does lhe individnal pupil enjoy familial wpport, but teachers also Iikc and
indeed "respect" pupils on bases independcnt o[ achie vement-status, and
pecr.group friendship Unes, lhough correlated with pasition on lhe ach ieve-
menl scale, again by no menns coincide witlt it, bUl cross<ut it_ Thus there
are cT0S5·cuuing lines oC sol idarity wh ich mitigate [he strains generated by
reward ing aehievemem difTerentially.ll
It is only within this framework of institutionalized solidarity that the
crucial selective process goes on through sclcetive rewarding and lhe con-
solidation of Íls results into a status-diITercntiation within the sehool dass.
We h ave caHed special auem ion ro the impact of lhe selective proces! on
me children al relatively h ig h ability bUI low family status_ Precisely in
tbis group, but pervading school dasse:s generally, is another parallel to
wbal was found in the studies o( voting behav ior. 12 In the voting studics il
was found that the "shifters"-thosc voten who werc transferring their
alJegiancc from onc major party 10 the other- tended, on the one hand, to
be the "eros.s-prcssured" people, who had multiple status characteristics and
" '" this. as in "","~ral olher respecu. lhere is a para!!.::l 10 olh~T im¡><>rlanl allocativ~
procnses in t h~ society. A luiklng exampl~ í. Ihe vot;ng proas:. by ... h;ch politlca]
lupporl js alloc:ned ""twee" parly nndidales. Hen:. Ih~ stra;" ari.scs from Ihe fael lht
on~ ClIndidue "nd his parly will come 10 ~njoy all Ihe perquisiles-abov~ al! Ihe power-
ol office. ",hile lhe olher will be exducted for Ih~ time being from the3<'. This s¡ra;n is
mitiga\l:d. on th~ one band, by Ihe common commitment to (QnS,ilutional procedur.:,
ando On lhe other hilnd. by the fael thal lhe nunpolitical bases uf ~oc¡al .olidarity. whieh
figure 1-0 prominently as delcrminanu of vOling bcha,,¡or.• lill cut acre.. parly lines. The
av<:n~e person ;s_ in vuious of his ro¡~... ",>oc;ated wilh pcop1e whose poliliul preference
il diltcTenl 'rom hí. own; he lherdore (QuId nol rc.::~rtI lhe oppMire party as coO\¡>Q3eU
01 unmitigated .scoundre4 "';lho"l introd"cing a ,ift wilhin Ihe gro"ps 10 whith he is
au.ached. This feature of lhe e]«lorale', structure is brought OUl strongly in B. R.
1lcrelson, P. F. L.azal"$f~ld and W. N. Mcl'hee. !'Ol"'it (Chicago; liniY~l"$ily of Chicago
Press, 195-4). -rhe conceptual analr,i, 01 il i. d~""loped in OIy o"'n paper, "·Votinf and
lh~ Equillbrium of lhe Amerlcan POlilka.l Sy~tem'- in E. Burdick ¡nd A. J. Brodbeck
(ed •.), Amcric"" !'oli"g B~h"fJ;or (Clencoe, 111.: The Free Presa, 1959).
" lbid.
 312 Harvard Educa/ional Revi
ew
group allegiances which predisposcd thcm simultaneously to Vote in o . cation, ,,"ould accentuate Ihe strain in this area ami !lenee the tendency
dircctions. The an:alogy in the school dass is clearly lO lhe child;!O$;te
whom ability ami ramily stalUs do not coincide. On the olher hand , 1, " was
ar
prcciscly in this group oí cross-pressured voters tlult political "indiffercncc"
was mast conspicuous. Non-vating was particularly prevalent in this grou
as \Vas a generally cool emot ional tone toward a campaign. The sugg' ShOIJ P,
is lh:ll some oC lhe pupil "indifferencc" to school performance may have- a
sim ilar originoThis is c1early a complex phenomenon alld cannOl be [unher
analyzed here. But rathcr lhan suggesting, as is usual on comman ,
grounds, that indiJTerence to 5ehool work reprcscnlS an "alienation" {rom "'''
cultural ami imdlectual \·alues. 1 would suggest exactly lhe opposite: that
an important componem of such ind ifIerence, illduding in extreme cases
\ oven revolt against school discipline, is conneCted with thc [act that the
~
stakes. as in politics, are vecy high indeed. Those pupils who are exposed to
cOllu'¡¡clictory preSS1.lres are like\y to be ambivaleru; at the same tirue, (he
personal stakes for them are highcr than for the others, beca use what hap-
pens in school may make much more o f a dillerence for thdr futurC$ than
tU ror the othecs, in \\':lom ability and (amily status point lO the sa!Ue CXpCCla.
'~) tions for the future. In particular [or the upwardly mobile pupils. too rnuch
f
r emphasis on school success would pointcdly suggest "burning their bridges"
of association with their families and status peen. This phenornenon $Cems
lO operate even in elementary school, altho ugh it g rows romewhat more con·
spicuous Jater. In general 1 think that an imponant pan of the anti·
imellectualism in American youth culture stems from the importaltee of the
selective process through the educational system rather than lhe oppositc.
r. Dne further major point should be made in ¡his analys is. A$ we have
noted, the general (rend of American society has becn toward a rapid
n upgrading in [he educational status of the population. This mearl5 that, rela·
(ive lO pan expectations, Wilh cach generatioTl thcl'e is increased pressure
..1 to cducatiooal achievemcnt. oílen associated with parents' occupationa!
I ambitions Ior their children.\3 To a sociolugist this is a more or less dassical
situa t ion of anomic strain, and the youth-culture idcology which play:-¡
down illlellectual in tercsts and school perfomlance seems to lit in this con·
text. The orientation oí the youth cuhure is, in the nature of the case, am·
bivalent, but Cor the reasons suggt'Sted, [he ami·intellectuaI side of the
ambivalence tends to be overtly stressed. One of the reasons (or the !lomi·
nólllee of lhe anti-school side of the ideology is that it providcs a means
oí protest against adu lts, who are at lhe opposite pole in the sociali¡alion
situation. In certain respects one would expect that the trclld toward greater
emphasis on independence, which we have associated with progressh'c edu-
,. J. A. Kahl. "Educational ~nd Occuparional A'p¡r~rions 01 'Common Man' lkIyJ."
H6nH1rd Edtlc6lionn¡ Rroicw, XXllI (Summer. 1953). pp. 186·203.
lIol.....'-
rM School e/oss as a Social Syslem m
lO deay óldull expeclaliollS. The wholc problem should be subjccled to a
¡Ilorough analysis in lhe ligln of whal we know aboUl ideologies more
generally.
The same g(!neral considcrations are relevant lO the much_discussed probo
lem of juvenile delinquency. HOlh lhe general upgrading process and the
pccssure 10 enhanced independencc should be expecte<l lO increase stra in
oa lhe lower, rnost marginal groups. The ana¡~is oC lh is paper has becn
concerned wil!! lhe line between college and non.collcge contingenls; ¡here
;S. however, anolhe r lille betwecn those \Vho achieve solid rlon.college educa-
lÍonal status and those {or whom adaptatioll lO educational expectations
at o.lIy leve! is dimcult. As (he acceptablc minimum oí e<lucational quali-
~cation rjses, persons near and below the rnargin will tend lO be pushed
into an altitude of repudiation of [hese expeeta[ions. T ru ancy and deJin-
q~eney are ways of cxprcsing this rcpudiation. Thus the very improvemen.t
of educational standards in the society al large may well be a major factOr
in the failure o f the educational process (or a growing number al lhe lower
~nd of the status and abjlity dinribution. Jt should therefore not be tOO
ta.sily assumed that dclinqueney is a symptorn o f a gen.eral failure o ( [he
educational proces5.
DIFFI!R.L'ITrATION ANO $E.L.ECTIO:-.I 1:-.1 TUI! S¡;CONOAR.Y SCHOOl.
It will not be possible lO discuss Ihe secondary school phase of education
in nearl y as much detail as has been done Cor the elementary sehool phase,
but it is wonhwhile to sketch its main outline in order to place the above
analysis in a wider context. Very broadly we may say lhat the elementary
Khool phase is concerned with the internalizalion in chi ldren of motivation
10 achievernent, and the selectjon of persOIlS on lhe basis of differential
capacity for ach ievement. The focus is on the leue{ of clpacity. In Ihe
serondary school phase, on lhe other hand, the focus is on the dillerentia·
tion oí qlralitative types of achieveme nt. As in the elcmentary sehool, this
differe n tiatio n cross-cU(s sex role. 1 should also maintain that it cro.ss-cuts the
\evels oí achievemem which have been difIerentiated out in the elememary
phase.
In approaching the question oí [he types of capadty differentiate<l, it
Ihou ld be kept in mind that secondary school is the principal springboard
from which lower-s{atus persons will enter the labor force, whereas those
achieving higher stams will continue their formal educat ion in college,
and sorne oí thern beyond. Hence for the Iowe r-status pupi ls the important
¡ine of differentiation should be the one whieh wilI lcad into broadly
different categories oí jobs; for the higher-status pupils the differentiation
wiH lcad lO broadly difIerent roles in college.
d
 314 Haruard Educalional Revieu,
My suggestion is Ihat Ihis diffcrcl1liatioll separatC$ (hose two compo
of 3ch ievemenl which we labeJJed "cognitive" and "moral" in d,.,~ ne~ts
,UUlng
lhe elcmentary phase. Those relatively high in "cognitive" achiev
wil· ] f i L · · f i ( · 1 h ' COleO[
t ucHCC In specl le· unClJon, more oc ess [ce JUeal roles; ¡hOSe rda_
tively high in "moral" achicveme nt will lend lOward difEuser• IUore
"sodally" or "huma ni y" oriented roles. ] n jobs nO{ rcquiring colle e
training, lhe one calegory may be lhouglll of as comprising lhe more .8
'm·
personal and lech n ica l occupations, such as "opcralivcs," mcchaniq¡, Oc
clerical workcrs; lhe other, as occup:llions where "human relatio ns " are:
prominent, sudl as salesmcn and agents of various sorLS. Al lhe (ollege
level, the djfferentiation cenainly relates tO concern, on the one hand, wiLh
the spccifically intellectual curricular work of college and, on the other
hand, with variou$ lypes of difIuser responsibility in human relatio ns ,
such as leadersllip roles in studen t governmem and extracurricular activi_
tieso Again, candidates for POst·graduale professional lraining wi!! probably
be drawn mainly from the lirst of these two groups.
In lhe SlrUCLUre of the 5chool, there appean LO be a gradual mmsitio n
from the carliest grades tbrough high school, with the changes timed
differendy in diffcrent school systems. The structure emphasized in the
fina pan of this discussion is most dearly marked in the first threc "primary"
grades. \Vith progrwion LO the higher grades, (here is greatcr frequency of
1.i plural tcachen, though very ge ncrally still a single main (eacher. In (he sixth
grade a nd 50met imes in lhe lihh, a man as main teacher, though uncomlllOn,
is by no means unheard o L Wil.h junior high school, however, (he shift of
jJ paltcrn bewmes more marked. and still more in senior high.
By lha t time lhe pupil has several difIerent teachen of both sexes u
teaching him diITerent subjecl.$, which are more or less formally organized
imo difrerem courses--(;ollege preparatory and o(hen;. Funhennore, with
lhe choice of "deClive" subjects, lhe members of lhe c1ass in one subjecl no
¡onger need be exactiy the sarne as in another, so the pupil i.s much more
systematically exposed tO association with different people, both adult.s and
age·pcers, in differenl contexu. Moreover, the school he attends is like1y to be
substantially \arger lhan was !lis e!ementary school, and to draw from a
wider geographical arca. Hence the child is exposed to a wider range of
statuses than before, bdng thrown in with more age·peers whom he does
not encounter in his neighborhood; it is less likely that his parents wj]] know
the parents oC any given child with whom he assodates. It is thus rny im-
pression that the ltansitions to junior high and senior h1gh school are apt
to mean a considerable reshuffiing of rriendships. Another coospicuou$
difference between the e1ementary and secondary levels is the grcat increa,e
" Men malle u p about h31f (49 per cenl) 01 Ihe publi<; oerondary $Chool imlrucüon31
staff . Bjenn;~1 Surve"J (JI EduCdlion ;n ¡he Uniud S¡dteS, 19H·J6, op. cil., eh3 p. ji , p. 7.
rlit School Class as a Social Sptem 315
in high school of organized extracurricular activities. Now, for lhe lirsl
um e, ol'ga nized athlelies become importa m, as do a variely of ciubs and
~atio ns which are school·sponsored and superviscd to varying degrees.
1"wo particularly ImponanL shifts in rhe pauerning of youth culture occur
in chis ¡>criod. One, oC course, is lhe emergcnce uf more posiuve cross,sex.
rclationships ouuide the c1assroom, lhrough dances, daling, and lhe like.
rbe otiler is lhe much sharper prcstige-strallFication oC informa! peer gro up·
illSi' wilh indced an elemem of snobbcry which often cxcecds lhal o[ lhe
aJu!t community in which lhe school exisu.'¡ H ere il is important that
¡lIough there is a broad correspondence belween (he preslige of fr iendship
groupS and tbe Camily status of their members, lllis, Iike the aehievement
arder of the cJemenlary school, is by no means a simple "mirroring" of the
collllllunity stratification scale, for a considerable number of lower-status
,hildren gel accepted imo groups including members with higher family
¡tatllS lhan t loemscJves. This stratified yüuth syslem opCl'ates as a genuine
a:lSort;llive mcchanism; it does not simply reinlorcc ascribcd status.
Tite promincnce of this youth culture in lhe American secondary 5chool
¡s, in com padson with other wcieties, one oC (he hallmal'U oC lhe American
wlIcaúonal syslem; Ü is much les! prominent in most Europcan systcms. It
¡Ilay be said. to eonSlitute a kind of structural fusion belween lhe school
da5S alld lhe peer-group structure of (he e1crncntary periodo lt seems dear
¡hat what I have called the ··human reJatioos" oriented contingelll oC the
$CCOndary !chool pupils are more active and promi ne n t in eXtracurricular
act ivilies, and thar lhis is o ne of the main foci af lheir diffe ren tiation from
¡lIe more impersonally- and technically-oriented contingento The personal
qualities figuring most promincntly in lhe hUlnan re!aliol1s comingcnt can
pcrh aps be summed up as lhe qualities thal make for "popu la rity." 1 sug·
gest that, {rom the poinl o( view of the secondary schoo!'! seleclive fun ction,
!he youlh cu lture helps LO differcntiale between l )'j>CS o( personalities wh kh
wi!l, by and Jarge, play different kinds o[ roles as adults.
"fhe stra tilication of yomh groups has, as nOled, a sdeclive fUIlClion; it
is a brid&re between the achievement order alld lhe adlllt 5lrutiflcation system
oC the community. But it also has another function. Jt is a focus o[ prestige
which exists along side of, and is to a degree independcm of, the achieve·
ment order focussing 011 schooi work as such. The attainrnent of prestige
in the informal youth group is itseH a forrn of valued achievement. Benee,
among those individua!s destined for higher status in society, one can dis-
cern lWO broad types: those whose school work ¡s more or ¡ess outstanding
anu whose informa l pn:stige is re1atively satisfacLOry; and vice versa, those
whose informal prestige is outstanding, and schooJ performance s3tisfactory.
"Sc:e, for imlance. C. w. Gordon . The So<;ol SysUm 01 lile lI(~h Scllool: A Sludy ;n
¡he Sociolog-y 01 A doleJCenc~ (G!enroe. III.: Thc Free Pr_. 1957).
I
316 Harvard Educulional R:ellie¡¡¡
Falling Lelow ceftain mínima in eilhee respect would jeopardize the child'
claim to bciong in ¡he upper group.l~ 1t 15 an imponant point here tha:
those cJeady headed fOf coJlege belong lO peer groups w!tith, while of
Jepreciative oí intensive concern wüh studics, also take for granted and
rcinforee a level of scholastic attainment which i5 necessary fOf aumission
""
to a good college. Pressure wil! be pUL on lhe individual wha (euds to tan
below sucll a standard.
In discussÍng lhe elementary sc!too! Ievcl it wil! be remembered that we
emphasized ¡hat Lhe peee group served as an objcct of emotional dcpendency
displaced hom lhe famdy. In relatíon to (he prcssure for sehaol achieve.
mem, thcrdare, it served al lca5t partialIy as aa expression of the lower_
order motivational system out of which the child was in proccss of being
sociaiízed. On its own leve!, similar things can be said of the adolescent
youth culture; it is in pan an expression of regressive motivations. This
is tIue of the emphasis on athletics despite its lack of rekvance to adul¡
J roles, of the "homosexual'· undertom:s of much intensive same,sex friend_
-'
ship, and of a certain '·irresponsibility·· in attitudes tuward the oppOSite
1 sex~e.g., the exploitative e1crnent in the attitudes of boy> tO'lvard girls.
) This, however, is by no means lhe whole story. The )"outh culture is also
a field [or practicing the assumption of higher.order responsibilities, for
conducting delicate human relations withou¡ immediate supervision and
)
learning to accept the consequences. In (his connection it is c1eariy of
:I particular importance tu the contingent we havc spoken of as specializing
·1 in "human rclations."
vVe can, perhaps, distinguish threc diffcrent levels of crystallization of
these youth-culture patterns. The middle one is that which may be con.
sidercd age·appropriate without clcar status·differentiation. The two key-
notes Itere seem tu be "being a good [ellow" In the sense of general friendli.
,1
ness anu being rcady to take responsibiliry in informal social situations
where somethillg neeus to be done. Above this, we may speak of the higher
leve! of "outstanding·' popularity and qualities of "lcadership'· of the person
who is turned to where unusual responsibilities are required. And below
the middle leve! are the youth patterns bordering on delinquency, with.
drawal, and generally unacceptable behavior. O(1ly this last level i8 clearly
"regressive'· reIativc to expectations of appropriate behavior for the age·
grade. In judging these three Ieve!s, however, allowance should be made for
a good many nuances. Most adolescetlt~ do a eertaln amount of experi-
menting with the borderline of the unacceptable panerns; lhat they should
do so is lO be expccted in view of the pressure toward indepenuenee {rom
adults, and of tite "collusion" which can be expected in the re ciproca!
,. J. Riley. />.1. Riley. and M _ Moore. "Auolescent Value.! anrl the Rie$man T~"pologyH
in S. M. Lipset and L. Lowenthal (e,h.). The Sodology of Culture and Ihe Anal~s;s 01
Social Characlcr (elenco<:. 111.: The Free Pre~ . w be published in 1960).
rhe School Class as a Social Syslem 317
¡tilJlulation of age·peer s. The qucstion is whether this regresslve behavior
comes to be confirmed into a major pattern fur the personality as a whole.
Seen in this perspective, it seellls legitima te to maintain that the middle
and the higher pattcros indicated are the major ones, and that only a
lJlinurity of adolescents comes tu be confirmed in a truly unacceptabk
pattcrn of living. This minority ma)' well be a relative!y constant proportion
of the age cohon, but apart [rom situations of special social Llisorganization,
the availab!e evidence does not suggest that ir has been a progressivcl)' grow-
ing one in recent years.
The patterning of cross-sex rdations in the youth culture cleady fore-
shadows future marriagc and family formalion. That it figures so promi-
nently in school is related tu the fact that in our societ)' the e1ement oL
ascription, induding direct parental influencc, in the choice of a marriage
partner i~ strongly rninimized, For the glrl, it has the ver)' important signifi.
canee of reminding her that her adult status is going lo be very much con-
cerned wirh marriage and a family. This basic expectation for the girl
stands iu a certain tcnsion to the ,chool's curricular eoeducation with its
relative lack of differentiation b)' sexo Eut the extent to which the feminine
role in American society continues tu be anchored in marriage and tite
family should not be aIlowed to obscure the importance of coeducation. 1n
the first place, the contribution oE women in various extra·familial oecupa·
¡iom and in eomrnunity afiairs has been rapidly increasing, and eert:l.Ínly
higher levels of educatíon have served as a prerequisite lO this contri bu-
don. At the same time, it is highly important that the woman·s familial
role ,hould not be rcgarded as drasticaliy segregated from the cultural
coneerns of lhe soeiety as a whole. The educated woman has important
functions as wife and mo/heT> particulady as an influence on her children in
backing lhe sehools and impressing on them the importance of education. lt
¡s, 1 think, broadly true that ¡he immediate responsibility of women for
family management has becn inereasing, though 1 am very skeptical of the
alleged "abdication" of the American male. But precisdy in the context of
women's increased family responsibilit)', the influence of the mother both
as agent of socialization and as roJe model is a crucial one. This infiuence
should be evaluated in the light of the general upgrading process. 1t is very
doubtful whether, apart from any other comiderations, the motivational
prerequisites of the general process eould be sustained without sufficiently
high edueation of the women who, as mothers, influence the ir children.
CONCL ü StON
Wi th the general cultural upgrading process in American society wh ieh
bas becn going on for more than a century, the educ:ltional system has come
to play an increasingly vital role. That this should be the case is, in roy
 318 Harvard Educational Revielv

;:1
apioian, a consequence of the general trend to structuraI difIerentia.tio i
n Stress and Strain in Professional Education
lhe society. Relatively speaking, [he selloo! is a specialize u agency Th n
i .
should increasi ngly have become lhe principal channel of seleclian as well
al lt

as agency of socialization is in line with whal one would expect in a n In_ .

creasingly difIerentiatcd and prugressively more upgraded society. The
legend of lhe "5eH·made man" has ao element of nostaigic romanticism and
is destined to become illcreasingly mythical, i( by it js meant llot just mobilit
from humble origins lO high status, which doc, indecd continuc ro OCCur b y
that lhe high status was attaincd through the "sehool o[ hard knocks" with. . "'
out the aid of formal eduGttion.
Tho:: slructure of the public sehool system and the analysis o{ the ways in

¡
,
which it eontributes both to the sodalization o( individua!s and lo their
a1l0catíon LO roles in society is, 1 Ieel, oí vital coneern to all studentl of

1 . American sodety. Notwithstanding lhe variegated eJements in the situation

1 think it has been possible to sketch out a few majar stwetural pattems o~ EVERETT CHERRINGTON HUGHES

9-, the publie schoo! system ana at ¡east to suggest sorne ways in which lhey
serve these important [unctions. \Vhat could be presemed in this paper is the
Unive rsity of Chicago

O merest outline of such an analysis. 1t is, however, hoped that it has been
b carríed far enough to suggest a field of vital mutual interO::st for social
scientists on the one hand and those concerned with the actual operation of IN ANY I'ltOUD TRADl':, profession or branch of learning, with a seme oí its
the schools on the other. historical, moral, and ÍnteHectual or technical cOffimunity, the ideal teach.
ing situatÍon might be tbought oI as that in which teacher and pupil see
each other as but phases o{ one self. In lhe pupil the teacher sees himsdf
as a yomh learning (rom his own beloved and exigent m:tster. If his is a
profession which eonseiously strives to conquer new problems, as does
modern medicine, the master may see in his pupil a younger colleague who
will better his instruction, a successor who wil!, in the very measure in whieh
he fulfills the demands and hopes of the master, make him technically obso·
lete. In this ideal situation, the pupil reciproca tes his teacher's vicw oI
things; he may imagine himseH in the fmure playing the role the teacher
now plays. The two complementary roles are deeply satisfying, and very
.demanding, The teacher, proud that he has chosen a worthy pupil and has
in turn heen chosen as a worthy master, tempts fate and coures glory by
goading the student into omdoing both their selves.
1 present this as a model, not as (he ordinary state of thing,. It is not the
only model of deeply satisfying teaching and Iearning, A teacher of gifted
and eager undergraduates may identify himself dosely with them without
thinking of them in ¡he least as fu(ure professional scholar>. There is a
certain colleagueship of amateurs that can be as dose as that oí profession·
als. No doubt teachers vary a great deal in theír need to think of their
studcnts as future colleagues. We do not know much about the reJative

[Volume Twenty·nine • Number 4 • Fall 1959]

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