Suchergebnisse

A number of other articles in this issue are alert to what they hope will be a productive synergy, one that must evolve between home, school, and other institutions if the concept of "mainstreaming" is to succeed in practice. Delivered in another context, Friedenberg's remarks on a synergy that already operates between home and school to compel conformity in the young, as an element of essential political and economic function within our total culture, have a peculiarly daunting signiflcance. Such a cultural mechanism seems irreversible, and "there are no nice cultures;" nearly all children are handicapped by being born into families that, far from offering resistance on their behalf, collaborate in their oppression. Can conscious efforts like mainstreaming really break this cycle, help children to understand themselves and where and who they are in the world, and increase the number of those exceptional families which provide society with a "small but crucial source of heroes in times of crisis"?

Although the example of protest among college students has doubtless brought the possibility of protest to the attention of high school pupils who would otherwise have continued to accept their restricted status passively, neither the issues, the form, nor the prospects of rebellion in the high school are truly homologous to apparently corresponding factors in college protests. High school students are truly captive; they cannot lawfully withdraw, and they have virtu ally no avenue of lawful protest available. The courts have failed to sustain the rights of high school students even to determine their own dress. Yet the courts remain the only channel open to persons as vulnerable to arrest and restraint as juveniles. In spontaneous, active revolt within the high school, lower- class resentment is more often a significant factor than in col lege, where students of lower-class origins are more likely than their middle-class peers to be made conservative by the sense of ambition fulfilled. The high school administrator has little room and usually little inclination for maneuver, while the issues with which students confront him are closer to their daily lives and more rankling than those that usually arouse college students, and the forces of repression at his command are far heavier. Student protest in high schools is therefore likely to increase greatly in scope, frequency, and violence in the near future.

Although the example of protest among Coll students has doubtless brought the possibility of protest to the attention of HSch pupils who would otherwise have continued to accept their restricted status passively, neither the issues, the form nor the prospects of rebellion in the HSch are truly homologous to apparently corresponding factors in Coll protests. HSch students are truly captive; they cannot lawfully withdraw, & they have virtually no avenue of lawful protest available. The courts have failed to sustain the rights of HSch students even to determine their own dress. Yet the courts remain the only channel open to persons as vulnerable to arrest & restraint as juveniles. In spontaneous, active revolt within the HSch, Lc resentment is more often a signif factor than In Coll, where students of Lc origins are more likely than their Mc peers to be made conservative by the sense of ambition fulfilled. The HSch admin'or has little room & usually little inclination for maneuver, while the issues with which students confront him are closer to their daily lives & more rankling than those that usually arouse Coll students, & the forces of repression at his command are far heavier. Student protest in HSch's is therefore likely to increase greatly in scope, f & violence in the near future. HA.

The "generation gap" between youth and adults in contemporary American society reflects a real and serious conflict of interest rather than mutual misunderstanding. In an open, bureaucratic society, sanctions against nepotism and the attrition of property through inheritance taxes lessen the utility of each generation to the other: the young cannot suc ceed. Youth, moreover, is a discriminated-against minority in America—more seriously so than any ethnic minority. It is excluded from economic opportunity, and is seriously exploited by being forced to supply, as members of the Armed Forces, its services at a fraction of their market value. School atten dance is less obviously exploitive, but is as much a forced sub sidy of the social and economic system by the young as "an opportunity to invest in the future." Compulsory school at tendance, the juvenile court system, and the Selective Service System all operate as serious, age-graded constraints from which adults are exempt—these constraints, indeed, define youth as a social role. Informal and often abusive constraint by schools and law-enforcement officials exacerbate the conflict. The humiliation of, particularly, youth from the upper-middle and upper classes, especially those prone to dissent, is functional in preventing the disruption of a democratic society by the hostili ties of the "lumpenbourgeoisie."