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...."