ABSTRACT
It is probably cultural inertia which still makes us see education in terms of the ideology of the school as a liberating force (‘l’école libératrice’) and as a means of increasing social mobility, even when the indications tend to be that it is in fact one of the most effective means of perpetuating the existing social pattern, as it both provides an apparent justification for social inequalities and gives recognition to the cultural heritage, that is, to a social gift treated as a natural one.
