The present structure of rewards in high schools produces a response on the part of an adolescent social system which effectively impedes the process of education.

As an example, one of the schools I have been studying is too small to compete effectively in most sports, but participates with vigor each year in the state music contests.

The educational resources provided by a child's fellow students are more important for his achievement than are the resources provided by the school board.

Children from a given family background, when put in schools of different social compositions, will achieve at quite different levels.

A child's learning is a function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher.

It is one thing to take as a given that approximately 70 percent of an entering high school freshman class will not attend college, but to assign a particular child to a curriculum designed for that 70 percent closes off for that child the opportunity to attend college.

In every school, more boys wanted to be remembered as a star athlete than as a brilliant student.