V READING. Task 3. Read the text about the important consequences of American education

The primary aim of education remains the transmission of culture. Most parents want the schools to teach their children the skills and knowledge they need to get ahead. But cultural transmission involves more than lessons in geography and long division; it also involves in­struction in values and attitudes. Students learn these lessons from all aspects of the school situ­ation, not just from their textbooks. In schools, as in other social organizations, people learn special ways of coping with the situation in which they find themselves. This hidden cur­riculum, unofficially taught and unconsciously absorbed, is one very important consequence of American education that its founders never intended.

As we have already seen, socialization is best accomplished in primary groups. In schools the most influential primary group for students is their fellow students, or peer group. Young people teach each other how the school system works and how to deal with the demands of the formal curriculum. They also pass on much in­formation to each other directly: information about sex, about drugs, and about the latest fads in clothes and music. More important, students learn the attitudes and values of their peer group.

In any group some kinds of behaviour are considered admirable and will be rewarded with praise and social esteem. To find out what kinds of behaviour adolescents admire most, James Coleman investigated the status systems of ten high schools in the Mid­west. All the boys were asked, "How would you most like to be remembered in school: as a brilliant student, as a leader in extra-curricular activities, or as most popular?" Although Cole­man had expected to find that high schools in different neighborhoods would have different status systems, he discovered that the similari­ties were much more striking than the minor differences. Nearly every boy replied that he would rather be a star athlete than be consid­ered popular or brilliant. In every school the "leading crowd," or highest status group, had twice as many athletes and many more popular boys than it had brilliant students.

Similarly, the girls, who were generally bet­ter students than the boys in every school, did not want to be considered "brilliant students." They had good reason not to want a reputation for brains: the girls named "best students" in each school had fewer friends and were even less likely than the best male students to be members of the leading crowd. In all the schools students admired academic achieve­ment less than other attributes, especially being a star athlete for boys and being "good looking" for girls. To Coleman these results suggested that the values of the adolescent subculture were a deterrent to academic success. The les­son: Don't be too smart!

Another interesting finding was that stu­dents who are seen by their schoolmates as "in­tellectuals" – and who come to think of them­selves in that way – were not necessarily the most intelligent. More important than their intellectual ability was their willingness to work hard at a relatively unrewarded activity. Cole­man found a basic sociological reason for the students' low opinion of high grades. Unlike the outstanding athlete, whose victories bring glory to the school in interscholastic competi­tions, the outstanding students' successes are purely personal triumphs usually won at the ex­pense of their classmates. From the sociological perspective it is not surprising that academic accomplishments are undervalued and that star students are often ridiculed as "grinds."