Table of Contents

* Prologue: Seeking the Prep School Perspective The World Of Boarding Schools * Privilege and the Importance of Elite Education * Rousseaus Children: Total Educational Environments * The Chosen Ones The Prep Rite Of Passage * Cultural Capital: Curricula and Teachers * Academic Climates, Teaching Styles, and Student Stress * The Iron Hand in the Velvet Glove: Trustees, Heads, and Charisma * The Prep Crucible * The Student Underlife and the Loss of Innocence The World Beyond * The Vital Link: Prep Schools and Higher Education * Preps at Play and in the Power Structure

About the Author

Peter W. Cookson, Jr., is senior research associate in the Department of Sociology at New York University. Caroline Hodges Persell is professor and chairperson in the Department of Sociology at New York University.