From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 6

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system:

"...It was not until 1856 that the idea of founding a great boarding school in New England was rekindled with the establishment of St. Paul's in New Hampshire.

"From the founding of St. Paul's until the end of the century, 61 elite boarding schools were established in the United States...By the beginning of the 20th century...10 percent of the high-school age populatiion was enrolled in private schools, of which less than one percent were in the elite boarding schools...

"The prep schools operated as exclusive clubs--Catholics, blacks, and Jews need not apply. From the 1880s onward the schools develooped their reputation for snobbishness, and that they were is undeniable...

"...Boys schools discovered the virtues of co-education in the late 1960s...The schools became more attractive to boys...and acquired a much larger pool from which to draw students...

"...54 percent of our sample of 2,475 students have at least one relative who attended a boarding school (the figure for Episcopal schools is as high as 73 percent). Among the 54 percent, 53 percent have one or more relatives who attended the same school...

"...The admissions director is the school's most important gatekeeper..."