From G. William Domhoff's `Who Rules America?"--Part 4

In his classic book of U.S. power structure research, Who Rules America?, G.William Domhoff wrote the following in reference to institutional classism and the U.S. private school system:

"A person is considered to be a member of the upper class if he has attended any one of the private preparatory schools listed below:

Asheville (Asheville, N.C.)
Buckley (New York, N.Y.)
Choate (Wallingford, Conn.)
Cranbrook (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.)
Deerfield (Deerfield, Mass.)
Episcopal High (Alexandria, Va.)
Groton (Groton, Mass.)
Hill (Pottstown, Pa.)
Hotchkiss (Lakeville, Conn.)
Kent (Kent, Conn.)
Lake Forest (Lake Forest, Ill.)
Lawrenceville (Lawrenceville, N.J.)
Loomis (Windsor, Conn.)
Middlesex (Concord, Mass.)
Milton (Milton, Mass.)
Pomfret (Pomfret, Conn.)
Portsmouth Priory (Portsmouth, R.I.)
St. Andrew's (Middletown, Del.)
St. George's (Newport, R.I.)
St. Mark's (Southborough, Mass.)
St. Paul's (Concord, N.H.)
Shattuck (Faribault, Minn.)
Webb (Bell Buckle, Tenn.)
Woodberry Forest (Woodberry Forest, Va.)

"According to Baltzell, exclusive private schools are an even better index to upper-class status than the Social Register...

"...Exeter and Andover have been excluded from the list because of their large minority of scholarship students..."

From G.William Domhoff's `Who Rules America?"--Part 3

In his classic book of U.S. power structure research, Who Rules America?, G.William Domhoff wrote the following in reference to the political role that the U.S. private school system plays in U.S. society:

"The attainment of upper-class status is perhaps slightly less...self-conscious for the children of the newly-arrived rich. Most important, the child is sent to a private school. To be able to afford this is `proof,' so to speak, to the hereditary members of the upper class that the upstart has arrived financially, for private schooling is a very expensive proposition. Tuition is often only the beginning; travel expense, room and board, and, occasionally, sheltering a horse can raise the cost...Then, too, being admitted to a private school often `proves' that one is `well connected,' for it sometimes takes recommendations from alumni and friends of the school to be admitted. Attendance at one of the exclusive private schools automatically guarantees that the child will mingle with upper-class children. For one thing, his name is on the school's enrollment list, which will be circumspectly revealed to the nearby private schools for the opposite sex, as well as to social secretaries and dancing classes. This results in invitations to the schools' social functions, to dancing classes, and to...parties. At the school itself the child learns upper-class values, upper-class manners, and most of all upper-class speech, one of the most telltale signs of class and regional origin. From private school attendance it is but a short hop to the...social gatherings of school acquaintances; the result is usually intermarriage into the hereditary upper class...."

From G. William Domhoff's `Who Rules America?'--Part 2

In his classic book of U.S. power structure research, Who Rules America?, G.William Domhoff wrote the following in reference to the political role that the U.S. private school system plays in U.S. society:

"The most prestigious of the private schools...are probably Groton, St. Paul's, and St. Mark's, but Choate, Hotchkiss, and St. Andrew's are not far behind. Descendants of 65 of the 87 great American fortunes studied by Myers attended either Groton, St. Paul's, or St. Mark's between 1890 and 1949. The best known of the schools, however, are Phillips Exeter and Phillips Andover, which have a greater number of scholarship students and a sizable minority of rich Jewish students. Other leading schools...include St. George's, Kent, Taft, Middlesex, and Deerfield in New England; Lawrenceville in New Jersey; Hill in Pennsylvania; Shattuck in Minnesota; and Episcopal High and Woodberry Forest in Virginia.

"...A study by Kavaler based upon interviews with upper-class women from all over the country led to a list of 130 private schools for young men and young ladies of the upper class. While this list is not perfect, leaving off such important schools as Berkshire, Salisbury, and Scarborough, it is valuable...

"...A spokesman for an association of private schools claims that 99 per cent of the female graduates of such school now continue their education...The 1965 graduates of Lawrenceville went on to the following schools in large numbers: Harvard, 14; Princeton, 10; Yale, 8;...Brown, 5; Cornell, 5;...Columbia, 4;...Penn, 4; Stanford,4..."

From G. William Domhoff's `Who Rules America?'--Part 1

In his classic book of U.S. power structure research, Who Rules America?, G.William Domhoff wrote the following in reference to the political role that the U.S. private school system plays in U.S. society:

"Underlying the American upper class are a set of social institutions which are its backbone,--private schools, elite univesities...The private school is an excellent starting point, for its rise to importance was coincident with the late-ninetenth-century development of the national upper class. Baltzell emphasizes that at that time the proper school replaced the family as the chief socializing agent of the upper class: `The New England boarding school and the fashionable Eastern university became upper-class surrogate families on almost a national scale'. Educating the big-city rich from all over the country is only one of the functions of the private schools. They serve several other purposes as well. First, they are a proving ground where new-rich-old-rich antagonisms are smoothed over and the children of the new rich are gracefully assimilated. Then too, they are the main avenue by which upper-class children from smaller towns become acquainted with their counterparts from all over the country. Perhaps equally important is the fact that the schools assimilate...members of other classes, for such assimilation is important to social stability. Sweenzy calls the private schools `recruiters for the ruling class, sucking upwards...elements of the lower classes and performing the double function of infusing new brains into the ruling class and weakening the political leadership of the working class.' Indeed, many private schools employ persons to search out...members of the lower classes..."