ABSTRACT
The American frontier was sparsely populated by a polyglot collection of determined men, crudely armed, clamorous for territory and addicted to harsh religious doctrine. Contemporary research in the sociology of education starts from a number of generalizations. The first is that the social organization of an advanced industrial and scientific culture such as ours is perpetually self-transforming and depends for its maintenance on an elaborate educational system. In traditional society, the business of education was to prepare men for living their way of life in more or less unalterable social stations. The method of ascription works best in a society with a relatively simple and static culture—this is where the labour force is undifferentiated and the demand for skill is fixed. The educationally successful working-class child tends to come from a family which in its atmosphere and its psychology, if not in its material circumstances, is atypical of its class and aspirant in its social status.
