"Class and Merit in the American High School: An Assessment of the Revisionist and Meritocratic Arguments" by Rehberg and Rosenthal. This article discusses two theories regarding the relationship between school and society. The following summarizes and contrasts these two theories.
The authors point out that there are two arguments that examine the roles of social class with their merit within the school. The first theory is proposed by social scientists, primarily sociologists. This theory states that the school experience is shaped by class and merit. Thus the individual may be from a specific racial, ethnic, or class background, but school provides an opportunity to continue education and participate in social mobility. Class does not dominate merit in this theory and both influence the student's education or how far they will go. Equal educational opportunity provides for this growth.
The second theory is proposed by sociologists, psychologists, historians, educators, and political economists. This group of revisionists oppose the belief that both class and merit shape the school experience. This theory acknowledges that children may simply learn a way of life that would help them adjust to the rank to which they were born. In fact this group believes that American education may block economic mobility since it sanctions class distinctions. Schools are viewed by this group as class-biased institutions where social class dominates the school experience. The rich have higher social status and increased access to education. The school system is viewed as being structured to weed out the poor and reward the wealthy. The revisionist believes that there needs to be a revision of educational history to understand the true functions of schools. Schools reproduce social divisions of labor which are passed on from generation to generation; the upper class rules to preserve existing social order and they h
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