ABSTRACT
We live in strange, difficult times. For the affluent and ultrarich, postmodern capitalism provides a cornucopia of goods, services, and resources. Not only do the rich get richer, but their hold over public life and public consciousness becomes firmer, almost vice-like (Domhoff, 1983; Useem, 1984; Wright, 1985). Overtly, the dominant culture espouses hard work, saving, and a moral code that is—if not puritanical—then at least middle class. Covertly, the same culture promotes violence, rampant consumerism, and a laissez-faire approach to conduct that is casual at best. This pattern of distancing reality from rhetoric is especially noticable in the education realm. In theory we support the institution of public .education so that class, race, and gender privileges do not become hereditary. Equal educational opportunity is liberalism's chief social metaphor and mechanism for ensuring that an individual's social origin does not automatically determine his or her class destination (Parsons, 1959; Turner, 1966). By providing a level educational playing field, society ensures a fluid, democratic social structure, even within the constraints of market inequalities.
