The School Class as a Social System: Some of Its Functions in American Society *

This chapter attempts to outline, if only sketchily, an analysis of the elementary and secondary school class as a social system, and the relation of its structure to its primary functions in the society as an agency of socialization and allocation. It is concerned with the line between college and non-college contingents; there is, however, another line between those who achieve solid non-college educational status and those for whom adaptation to educational expectations at any level is difficult. As the acceptable minimum of educational qualification rises, persons near and below the margin will tend to be pushed into an attitude of repudiation of these expectations. The chapter explains that an important part of the anti-intellectualism in American youth culture stems from the importance of the selective process through the educational system rather than the opposite. It maintains that what is internalized through the process of identification is a reciprocal pattern of role-relationships.