Preparing For Power - Hardcover

Caroline Hodges Persell; Peter W. Cookson Jr.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465062687 ISBN 13: 9780465062683

Publisher: Basic Books, 1985

Synopsis

A behind-the-scenes look at prep school life offers an incisive analysis of the complex ways in which these elite schools prepare students for success and power

About this title

About the Author

Peter W. Cookson, Jr., is senior research associate in the Department of Sociology at New York University. Caroline Hodges Persell is professor and chairperson in the Department of Sociology at New York University.

Reviews

Visits to 57 American boarding schools, attended by fewer than one percent of the nation's high school students, supplied the groundwork for this comprehensive, indepth examination of so-called elitist education. Since these institutions provide a disproportionate number of our leaders in the professions, business and government, such an examination is important. The prep school ambience as a rite of passage that enables participants to share a collective identity is considered in an overview of the varieties of boarding schools and an inside look at lifestyles of both students and teachers. The prep school as entry to the social power structure is documented with statistics and extensive references. The authors are sociologists at New York University. November 12
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

For this book, the authors visited more than 60 elite prep schools in the United States and England, interviewing ad ministrators, faculty, students, and alumni. Attended by less than one per cent of the high school population, these schools turn out a disporportion ate number of business, professional, and government leaders. The authors argue that the philosophies, programs, and lifestyles of boarding schools help transmit the power and privilege of elite families. They show how students are selected and examine the curricula, teaching styles, student underlife, and the link between prep school atten dance and admission to the ``right'' uni versities and the corporate boardroom. An interesting sociological study as well as an educational document. Shirley L. Hopkinson, Library & Infor mation Science Div., California State Univ., San Jose
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465062687
• ISBN 13: 9780465062683
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270