ABSTRACT
In The Sociology of Teaching Willard Waller observed that schools were usually organized on the principle of autocracy:
The generalization that schools have a despotic political structure seems to hold true for nearly all types of schools …. self government is rarely real. Usually it is but a mask for the rule of the teacher oligarchy. It is not enough to point out that the school is a despotism. It is a despotism in a state of perilous equilibrium. It is a despotism threatened from within and exposed to regulation and interference from without. It is a despotism capable of being overturned in a moment, exposed to the instant loss of its stability and prestige. It is a despotism resting upon children, at once the most tractable and the most unstable members of the community. 1
