Tobias Escher at the OII

More than 45 years ago James S. Coleman conducted a study of “The Social Life of the Teenager and its Impact on Education”, published in a much cited book called “The Adolescent Society”. In this study he was examining social status among kids in ten different schools, including a structural analysis of young people’s social relations. While it is well worth a read for many reasons, his conclusion struck me as particularly special:

“To put the matter briefly, if secondary education is to be successful, it must successfully compete with cars and sports and social activities for the adolescents’ attention, in an open market. The adolescent is no longer a child, but will spend his energy in the ways he sees fit. It is up to the adult society to so structure secondary education that it captures this energy.”

Written long before the advent of the Internet with its many exciting distractions, this conclusions seems ever so relevant today. If we knew all that 45 years ago, what did we do in the meantime?