Preparing for Power

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